Wish me luck

[Mark.B]

I have decided to go with my upgrade from 3.5.4 to 3.6.0 tonight.

I always hate doing this.

Any tips on what to do when the script times out doing the alterations to the post table, as mine always does and leaves me in a panic!

[WurkAnimal]

Good luck !

[simsim]

Any tips on what to do when the script times out doing the alterations to the post table, as mine always does and leaves me in a panic!

Do you close your forum before upgrading?

[Mark.B]

Do you close your forum before upgrading?

Yes totally...I even put an htaccess password on it to keep people out.
It's because the post table is fairly big.

Last time (3.0 to 3.5) I only just got away with it. The step crashed and I had to carry on from beyond there, it worked but the database crashed the next day and I had to ask the host to repair it as it's too big to do in phpmyadmin.

I do have shell access but I have no idea how to repair databases from there.

[MRGTB]

I like vB 3.6 and I think you'll be glad you upgraded

[Mark.B]

Same thing's just happened again....step 1 (large table alterations) has timed out with a 404 error.

I have advanced it onto step 2 manually and shall hope for the best.

[MRGTB]

Doesn't sound good

better cross your toes too

[Mark.B]

Doesn't sound good

better cross your toes too

It does this every time.

I think in the past I've been lucky.

It's now on step 2 which is exactly the same and will crash out any time.

I sometimes wonder why I do this.

Step 2 did indeed time out and 404.

Now trying step 3.

That seems to be taking ages as well. Are there any SHORT steps in this upgrade? I don't remember as many huge ones going from 3.0 to 3.5.

Step 2 did indeed time out and 404.

Now trying step 3.

That seems to be taking ages as well. Are there any SHORT steps in this upgrade? I don't remember as many huge ones going from 3.0 to 3.5.

My upgrade has now been abandoned.

I couldn't get any step to run...step 4 gave a load of database errors, and now it seems to have totally taken the server out completely as my whole domain is not resolving.

I have backups and can restore back to 3.5.4, but not until I get the site back.

Looks like 3.5.4 is as far as I will get with vB.

[MRGTB]

Oh well, you can't say you didn't try!

[Creepshow]

I wasn't aware this could happen? Surely you can always upgrade if you need to? Can vB staff explain why something like this might happen? Thanks.

Anyway, good luck in getting this sorted out Mark.

[Mark.B]

I wasn't aware this could happen? Surely you can always upgrade if you need to? Can vB staff explain why something like this might happen? Thanks.

Anyway, good luck in getting this sorted out Mark.

The problem is that, at 350mb, my database is far too big to have massive table changes made via a simple php script.

I barely got away with it last time...this time I have pushed it too far and brought the whole damned server down it would appear, which is disturbing.

Large boards without dedicated servers are screwed basically, and that's the position I am now in.

[Creepshow]

I see. Kinda scary really when you think this can happen.

[tgillespie]

The problem is that, at 350mb, my database is far too big to have massive table changes made via a simple php script.

I barely got away with it last time...this time I have pushed it too far and brought the whole damned server down it would appear, which is disturbing.

Large boards without dedicated servers are screwed basically, and that's the position I am now in.

You really need to get on a dedicated machine or talk to your host to allow more temporary resources to be used. I've upgraded databases 3 times the size of yours all using vBulletin's upgrade script. Just need the right tools

[Steve Machol]

FWIW I have seen databases far larger than that upgrade successfully.

This may be a server time and/or memory limit. To temporarily up your limits edit your includes/config.php file and add these lines right under the <?php line:

ini_set('memory_limit', 32 * 1024 * 1024);
ini_set("max_execution_time", "480");

[Mark.B]

I see. Kinda scary really when you think this can happen.

As long as you make sure you take full backups before you start, no long term harm can come of it.

As soon as my host props the server back up I can restore the 3.5 files and database and away we go.

FWIW I have seen databases far larger than that upgrade successfully.

This may be a server time and/or memory limit. To temporarily up your limits edit your includes/config.php file and add these lines right under the <?php line:

ini_set('memory_limit', 32 * 1024 * 1024);
ini_set("max_execution_time", "480");

Thanks Steve...never knew you could do that!

Well first off my host got the server back up...and didn't even complain about the fact that I broke it!!! It's a shared server so that's quite irresponsible of me!

Thanks to a combination of Steve's advice above and also THIS page that I found by searching this forum, I have managed to cobble the upgrade together by making the large table alterations via ssh and modifying the upgrade360b1.php file.

All is now fine!