Upgrading from 3.5 to 3.6

[Thomas P]

Hello,

we have a pretty large forum with ~800 000 posts and are about to upgrade from vb3.5 to vb3.6.

Problem is that in one step the upgrade table alteration runs into a timeout.
Setting the timeout higher doesn't really help.

Is there any way to do the large table alteration via command line?
I have an SSH account, so this would be perfect.

We really want to make sure that we do not lose anything and the database stays in a consistent way.
We invest quite a amount of time in maintenance of our servers the last 7 years and thus want to go for the secure and stable way.

Thanks,
Tom

[Steve Machol]

I don't know of anyway to do that. What did you set exactly and how high?

[Thomas P]

Memory Limit and Max Execution Timeout (1000)

I found this on the net: http://www.andreas-kraus.net/blog/updating-to-vbulletin-36-update-timeouts/
Can you confirm that?

I like the way using the MySQL Searchindex is generated - it just tells you the queries.

Which queries do I need for the large table alterations during upgrade?

[Steve Machol]

I still do not have the queries to do that.

To temporarily up your limits edit your includes/config.php file and add the
se lines right under the <?php line:

ini_set('memory_limit', -1);
ini_set("max_execution_time", "2440");

Then try again.

[Thomas P]

Ok, I'll try that together with: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813827/en-us

[Thomas P]

That doesn't work.

It times out, I reload and it times out again.

Please understand that we have a quite big board with ~800 000 posts.

Could you please check with the devs what happens at Step 1 of the upgrade process?

http:// domain.tld /install/upgrade_360b1.php?step=1


vBulletin 3.6 Upgrade System
(Please be patient as some parts may take some time)

Step 1) Large table alterations (1/2) (Step 1 of 11)

Step 1) Large table alterations (1/2)

Altering post Table (1 of 1)

It states there are two steps.

Many thanks,
Tom

[Steve Machol]

What is the exact error you are getting when you say it 'times out'?

I've asked the other staff to look at this as well.

[Jake Bunce]

In situations like yours you can usually watch the upgradelog table in phpmyadmin. Even though the web page times out, the process is still running on your web server. You will know that the current step is done when you see an appropriate record in the upgradelog table. So you can just run the step and wait. Don't refresh the page. Once the log shows that the step has completed you can increment the step number in the URL of the upgrade script.

[Thomas P]

Ok, that sounds like a reasonable workaround to me. Thanks Jake.

Still I would like to propose for big board owners, and vB is one of the forum software which is build to support large forums, to have the large alterations as queries.
Mostly those alterations are 1 to 2 lines, so there should be no big deal imo - as you did it in the vB ACP when building the MySQL Search Index.