[Any Version] Quick Upgrade Checklist to Minimize Downtime when Upgrading vBulletin

[David Grove]

This is my checklist and "how to" for upgrading vBulletin as smoothly and as quickly as possible.

The goal is to have under 60 seconds downtime from the time you close your forums until you re-open them. If you're used to closing your forums and waiting 30 minutes while all the vBulletin files upload via FTP, this guide might be what you need.


Assumptions

• You are running vBulletin on a Unix/Linux server.
• You have shell access to your server, and you know how to use it.
• You have the vb_backup.sh shell script set up to do backups.
• Sample domain: example.com, forums are at example.com/forums, forum files are at /htdocs/forums

Preparation

• Download the newest version of vBulletin as a *.tar.gz file (vbulletin_VERSION_LICENSENUMBER.tar.gz)
• Rename the file to vb.tar.gz
• Create a directory on your server at /htdocs/newvb
• Upload vb.tar.gz to /htdocs/newvb
• CD to /htdocs/newvb and uncompress the vBulletin files with something like:
  • gunzip vb.tar.gz
  • tar -xf vb.tar
  
  
• Delete the following files from /htdocs/newvb/upload
  • install/install.php (we're doing an upgrade and won't need this)
  • --- the following are image files that you should delete if you have replaced them with custom images for your boards ---
  • favicon.ico
  • includes/database_error_image.jpg
  • includes/ieprompt.jpg
  • images/misc/rss.jpg
  
  
• Open the following three items so you are ready to execute them:
  • (browser) ACP on/off setting to disable/enable the boards.
    • http://example.com/forums/admincp/options.php?do=options&dogroup=onoff
    
    
  • (browser) Type in the URL to the upgrade script, ready to hit enter to run it.
    • http://example.com/forums/install/upgrade.php
    
    
  • (SSH) A shell session to back up your database, current vBulletin files and then copy over the new files.
  
  
• Have your customer number on hand, ready to copy-and-paste, to run the upgrade script.

Do the Upgrade (the items in red are time-critical, since they happen while your forums are closed and inaccessible to your users)

• Make a backup copy of the current vBulletin files you are running, so you can revert to them if necessary.
  • mkdir vbbak
  • cp -r forums/* vbbak/
  
  
• Close your forums
  • http://example.com/forums/admincp/options.php?do=options&dogroup=onoff
  
  
• Make a backup of the database
  • vb_backup.sh backup
  
  
• Copy the new files over the old ones
  • cp -r newvb/upload/* forums/
  
  
• Run the upgrade script
  • http://example.com/forums/install/upgrade.php
  • Your customer number __________________
    
  
  
• Re-enable your forums
  • http://example.com/forums/admincp/options.php?do=options&dogroup=onoff
  
  
• Delete the newvb directory
  • rm -r newvb
  
  
• Delete the install/upgrade*.php files
• Compress and download vbbak/, or move it out of the public HTML directory.
• Check the ACP for phrases and templates that need to be updated.

If it all went as planned, you're done, and your site will have had very little downtime.