[Forum] Procedure or general steps for moving forum to a new server

[craigjg]

I've been tasked with moving an existing forum to a new server. The forum is version 4.1.8, with PHP version 5.4.33 and MySQL version 5.6 and is on Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. I'm under the impression that an OS upgrade is needed in order to upgrade PHP to version 5.6. The PHP upgrade is being requested to remediate some security concerns. I am also motivated by the end of life for Windows Server 2003 coming next summer. Once the new server is built and the IIS is configured. What is the proper method of getting the forum moved to the new platform? I'm assuming I'll need to perform an install of MySQL and then move the DB data over and then perform an install of PHP 5.6. Do I need to perform an install of vBulletin or is it just a matter of copying the existing forum files over to the new server into the directory specified by IIS as the web site directory? Any general direction or suggestions to accomplish this task would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Lynne]

First off, the only version of the 4.x series that is verified to work with PHP5.4 is 4.2.2 (and future versions). And, the only version verified to work with PHP5.5 is 4.2.3. We have no version verified to work with PHP5.6 and 4.1.8 is not verified to work with PHP5.4 let alone PHP5.6.

That being said, there are instructions in the manual on how to move servers here - http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...rsion=40202500

[craigjg]

Thanks for the information and the link. The forum I have has been in "test mode" for some time and it was decided to roll it out. As a result of this decision our internal security experts scanned it and told me that I needed to upgrade to the latest version of PHP, which is 5.6 along with several other remediation tasks that needed to be performed such as upgrading MySQL and applying several OS patches. They, nor I, realized the PHP 5.6 would break the forum so I backed 5.6 out and put in 5.4.33. Until your response to my question, I assumed I was having an OS compatibility issue. I'm not sure how I'll satisfy the concerns of our security team. Thanks again for your response.

[craigjg]

I just learned that the new server I am moving the forum over onto will be a Windows Server 2012 64bit virtual machine