Upgrading vs New Install

[gratefulphan77]

The company I work for runs a very large forum using version 4.1.10. I've been given the task of upgrading to the new 5.0.5 version of the software. The guy that used to do all the vbulletin installs and upgrades no longer works here and I have very little experience with the software. I assumed that upgrading is the best route to take but I'm a little confused as I read the upgrade instruction manual. It says that if I'm upgrading from 4.x that I should delete all the files in the forum directory instead of using the overwrite method. If I'm deleting all the files in the forum directory, what benefit am I getting from performing an upgrade vs a new install? I logged into the admin cp and verified that the avatars and attachments are being stored in the database. Does this mean that I can just perform a new install and then point the config.php files to the database location? What is different about upgrading vs new installations? I feel like I must be missing something. Thanks for any help.

[Zachery]

Before you go all in on any major upgrade. I'd highly recommend making lots of backups, of everything, and testing the actual upgrade before going though with it on the live site.


If you do a new install, all of the old data won't come over.
If you do an upgrade, all of the old data comes over.

I'd recommend upgrading to 4.2.2 first, and making sure everything is working fine. then look into your vB5 upgrade.

[gratefulphan77]

Thanks for your reply, Zachery. I assumed that all the forum data is stored in the database. If I do a new install and direct the config files to the appropriate database, wouldn't all the previous data be available on the new install? What old data are you referring to that wouldn't come over to the forum if I do a fresh install?

It's going to be difficult for me to test if 4.2.2 works properly because I just updated my server's PHP to 5.4.22 which is not compatible with vbulletin 4.x from what I've read. Ever since I upgraded the PHP, the vbulletin 4.1.1 that I'm running has been experiencing some problems. So at this point, I think I'm forced to upgrade to vbulletin 5.0.5.

[Zachery]

1. If you install, and then point the system at the old database, its not using the new database, and thus you just wasted your time doing an install. If you install and then restore the old database over thye install, you just wasted your time creating a horrible hybrid database that can no longer be upgraded due to major conflicts in the database/table structure.

2. 4.2.2 is compatible with 5.4.x