Updating Forum without domain name...

[moddis]

I would like to update my from from 3.6.8 to 3.8.1 but I want to also move it to a different server at the same time. Just so the site is not down until im sure the upgrade went well and the new style works, I want the domain name to keep pointing to the old server where the pre-upgraded forum is currently located. How will I be able to test/update the forum on a new server without pointing the forum domain name to it? Im sure I will be able to view the new forum via some IP name like www.23.23.234.42.4.com but I know in the forum there were places that I had to enter the site domain name and it will not match. Also the database is also connected to the domain name right? How do I make all this work?

Thanks

[bigwater]

Copy your install of the existing board to the new domain space and point the config.php to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/~username/forum/index.php (adjust path accordingly) on the new server. Copy the database to the new server and point config.php on the new server to it. Perform the upgrade on the new server. Once everything is working the way it should be, shut down the board at the old server, pull a final sql dump from the old server and restore it to the new server, and syncronize any new attachments that may have come in to the old server in the interim.

Change the nameservers on the registrar to point to the new server, open the board on the new server and wait for the name servers to propogate. Once the DNS has propogated, change your config.php back to point to the domain name rather than the absolute address for security purposes.

[moddis]

Great, thanks! So the config file is pretty much the only file where the domain name is needed to be changed for everything to work.

Also, you mentioned the attachments that might have been added... arent they saved in the database or is there some folder?

Thank You!

[bigwater]

It depends on how you are saving attachments. The default for vBulletin is to store attachments in the database, but this can quickly bloat a database if you have a site where attachments are common, so I always recommend storing them in the file system. If you haven't changed the default storage system, then a final dump/restore of the database should be all you need. If you have changed your site to store the attachments in the file system then you will need to rsync -avz --size-only on the file space so that the newer files are transfered to the new server space.