First Time Upgrading, noob needs help..

[tthome]

Guys,

Please please please forgive my ignorance if this is something very simple. I have upgraded my current forum from phpbb to vbulletin about 5 months ago and I need some hand holding about how to upgrade my new vBulletin from 3.6.4 to 3.6.5 (latest). In the past with phpbb, this was like walking on broken glass hoping not to get cut...bottom line I was always "bleeding" afterwards.

Can someoen please tell me the simplest way to perform this upgrade? I don't have a tone of modification, but I do have it somewhat optimized for SEO and I have some plug-ins and stuff working...these should be compatible with 3.6.5 since they're working on 3.6.4 I would assume.

Again, please bear with me, I've been burned by the phpbb upgrade and with this being my first vbulletin upgrade I sure hope it's easier than phpbb, which I learned to hate. I love using vBulletin and will never go back, but I need to get up to speed on how to upgrade and maintain my little forum.

Thanks,

Tim

[Floris]

We can not give support on the modifications. But I recommend the following.

Step A.
make a backup of all your files, and the mysql database.
Make sure these are 100% and once you're done, go to step B.

Step B.
Turn off the hook system, close the forum, and rename .htaccess to htaccess.txt

Step C.
Upload the 3.6.5 files, overwriting the existing files already on the server (don't skip or resume). You can skip the images/ directory so you keep your custom images.

Step D.
Run upgrade.php from the browser and complete the upgrade.
If it fails, restore the backup files and database and start over or stay with 3.6.4 for now.

Step E.
Rename htaccess.txt back to .htaccess, open your forum and turn on the hook system again. Check with the mods if they work on 3.6.5, upgrade them if needed.

Step F.
Test your site, if it works .. you're done.
If it does not work, fix the issue at hand (for mod help, go to the author of that modification, for vb help update this thread, or start a new ticket).

Keep the backup archived for a few days, just in case the upgrade turns out to have issues.

Depending on your modifications, the upgrade should be simple. Upload files, run upgrade, done.

Good luck!

[tthome]

Thanks for this information, what is the "hook" system? And i'm not too sure how to backup the mysql database...

[Steve Machol]

Here is the online documentation for the Plugin system:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/plugin_system

The only consistently reliable method of backing up and restoring a database is with shell access via telnet or ssh. This is because backing up with a PHP script like that in the Admin CP or phpMyAdmin can result in PHP timeout errors and an incomplete backup file.

Please see the instructions here:

Backup:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_backup

Restore:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_restore

If you don't have telnet or SSH access, some people have reported success with these scripts:

MySQLDumper:
http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php

MySQLHotxcopy:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134821&highlight=mysqlhotcopy