Moving a board on a new domain

[SnakeEaterITA]

Hi there,

I have a vB 3.8 board on my actual website, and i'm considering of moving everything (forum + database) to a new domain (and new server). I also want to upgrade to vB 4, so I'd like to know what are the steps i have to follow in order to complete this project.

Thanks for your help

[BirdOPrey5]

Assuming you already have your new domain and server up and running...

Step 1 - Close your current forum
Step 2 - Download a backup of your SQL database
Step 3 - Download a copy of all vBulletin files from your 'old' server
Step 4 - Upload these files to your new server.
Step 5 - Edit your config.php to match the new database settings, keep the same table prefixes
Step 6 - Import your SQL backup to new server
*make sure it's working*
Step 7 - Login to vbulletin customer area on vbulletin.com and update your forum url/details
Step 8 - Take your old forum offline
Step 9 - Run the vb4 upgrade per the instructions

[SnakeEaterITA]

Thanks man,

you couldn't have been more clear

[BirdOPrey5]

! more step i forgot, hopefully you remembered/did it- would be between step 6 and 7 - In your Admin CP on the new server make you you edit in vBulletin options the domain name and e-mail details for the new server.

[Fordies]

also remember to create a new database and user on the new server for your vbulletin sql backup

[SnakeEaterITA]

Sorry if I'm answering so late. So, to make it quick:

1 - I close my current forum
2 - I make a backup of the forum SQL database (old server)
3 - I create a new SQL database on the new server (same prefix)
4 - I make a backup of all the forum files (old server)
5 - I upload all these files on the new server
6 - I edit the config.php to match the new database settings
7 - I import my old SQL database in the new server
8 - I update my data on vBulletin.com and AdminCP
9 - I take my old forum offline
10 - I upgrade to vB4

am I right? Only a few other questions:

3-7 I'm a bit confused about moving the database from a domain to another: do I have to create a new database and import the old SQL into it, or can I just import the SQL database into the new domain without creating a new database?

9 How can I take mu old forum offline? Can I make a redirect to the new one? If yes, is it hard to do so?

Thanks a lot guys!

[Trevor Hannant]

You will need a database to import into.

To direct traffic to your new domain, you will need to create a redirect. Create a file called .htaccess and paste this into it (replacing newdomain.com with your new domain!):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !newdomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Then upload this to the root directory on the old domain.

[Nano2nd]

if its a new domain, you might need to reset your cookie prefix on the new server using tools.php in your admincp folder

[Trevor Hannant]

Prefix wouldn't matter - Cookie Domain might if not using the default...

[SnakeEaterITA]

Hi guys.

I'm at step 10! Now I just need to upgrade from 3.8.5 to 4.1.x

I think i'll upgrade to 4.1.3 as i'm reading a lot of problems with 4.1.4, but the question is: do I have to upgrade everything manually, or is there a sort of script that does everything automatically?

[Steve Machol]

You just run upgrade.php