moving large forum to another server

[petrozza]

Hi all,

I have a pretty large forum (almost 900,000 posts, DB size is about 900MB) and plan on changing servers (dedicated servers) in the near future. What's the best way to move the DB? Would it be even possible to backup and restore a 900MB DB?

Thanks in advance

P.S. Sorry if I posted in the wrong forum.

[Steve Machol]

Instructions for moving servers are in the online manual here:

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

Note: The only 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 timeouts 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

P.S. If you do not 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

Bigdump (restore only):
http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php

[encryption]

if you have whm/cpanel, you can try to have the software automatically migrate it for you. you can also login to your server via ssh and run

/scripts/pkgacct "youraccountname"

Then login to your new server via ssh, ftp into your old server and download the cpmove file that will be created as a result of running the above command, the the "/home" directory. Then login to whm/cpanel on your new server and "restore" the cpmove file (of course this is assuming you have installed WHM/CPanel on the new machine as well).

An error I've noticed in cpanel recently is that it completely ignored the databases when running the migration. In this case, you can always install mysqldumper on both servers. backup, download your_db.gzip file to your local machine, reupload to mysqldumper on your new server and reinstall the db.

[petrozza]

Is there any way to backup into several files as my server seems to lock up when trying to restore a 700MB+ backup file?

[SSSlippy]

A database of that size really needs to be backed up via SSH.

[yogesh]

If the server is manged, then your host/managment company might just migrate your forum for free.

[artherd]

I've successfully done migrations with DB sizes in the multiple GB range. You need *fast* hardware. It takes a while. PM me if you'd like.