Upgrading 3.8.11 to 5.7.x

[Kestryll]

I am looking at finally updating from 3.8 to 5.7 and thinking of using the paid upgrade service.
For a forum with these stats: Threads: 1,563,630, Posts: 23,733,632, Members: 356,165, Active Members: 25,198 is it possible to make an estimate of how long this would take before the forum was back online?

I know upgrading will likely remove most of the plug ins and such but will it also revert the color scheme back to stock or will that transfer as well?

Thanks!

[Wayne Luke]

How long it takes will depend on your over system and the condition of your database. You should count on at least a day of downtime depending on what changes you want to make to the style and individual page layouts.

I recommend running the upgrade using the Command Line Interface to improve speeds. You should also test this upgrade on a copy of your production database first. You mentioned addons and how they modified your data could complicate the upgrade process.

The system will use the default style and home page after upgrade. It will not convert your vBulletin 3 style to the new style variables. The templates are not backwards compatible.

You may be able to get an approximation of your vBulletin 3.X colors by editing the Global Palette under Styles → Style Manager using the Style Variable Editor under "Choose Actions". This is a series of 15 style variables that all other style variables inherit. You can even change the icon colors using the icon style variables in the system.

In addition to that, vBulletin 5.7.1, comes with 17 different themes that you can use. Selecting one is as easy as clicking a link in Site Builder's Quick Setup tool. You can also choose between three different homepages, including a Classic homepage that is similar in layout to a default vBulletin 3 installation.

[Kestryll]

So follow up question. If I purchase the paid upgrade service how does that work?
Obviously I'll have to give them the server log in info but is it by appointment or something like that and do have to contact someone or do they contact me?

[Trevor Hannant]

Once you purchase the upgrade service you will need to enter the Member's Area at https://members.vbulletin.com to fill out the Worksheet located under the License Details & Options section. The worksheet asks for these details.

- FTP server, username and password
- MySQL server, username, password and database name
- URL of homepage and forums
- Forum Admin login info

Once that form is filled out and submitted correctly, the installation/upgrade enters our queue. Pro Installs/Upgrade are assigned in the order they are received and depending on the size of the queue, it can take up to 7 business days before a support team members claims your Install/Upgrade (depending on the number of other requests in the queue and their complexity). Once someone contacts you, they will arrange a suitable day/time to perform the upgrade.

Please ensure that the information you provide is accurate and gives full access to AdminCP, server file structure and database as the common holdup is incorrect details or partial access. If you use cPanel/Plesk, providing these via the Customer Notes section in addition to the above can sometimes actually speed things up.