ImpEx failure to connect, can't figure out

[v8volvo]

I have been trying unsuccessfully to complete an import using ImpEx and hope I can get some more knowledgeable advice here.

My situation is that the forum I have been helping manage got hacked earlier this month and various php files (and possibly the database itself as well) were corrupted to a degree that would have been difficult (i.e. expensive) to repair. We were dissatisfied with our hosting provider and after receiving expert advice, decided our easiest path forward was to restore the forum to a fresh installation on a new server and import the old database into it rather than attempting to restore our previous setup. We also preferred the format of vBulletin 3 over vB4, so decided to use the latest version of vBulletin 3.8 for our new iteration (previous version was 4.1.11).

So far we have successfully gotten a fresh install of vB 3.8.7 Patch Level 3 installed on our new server, but we have hit a wall trying to import the old database with ImpEx. When the "Import" button is hit, we get the following error message:

ImpEx Database error

mysql error: Link-ID == false, connect failed

mysql error:

Date: Monday 29th 2012f October 2012 05:10:21 PM
Database: dtcom_*****
MySQL error:

Here is what we have tried so far to resolve this:

• Uploaded the old database .sql file to the home directory of our new host and edited ImpExConfig.php to find the source on localhost -- got the same connection error message
• Tried accessing the source DB a different way, by providing the hostname info of the "old" server which still has the old database on it, allowing Remote MySQL access on that server (allowing both our local IP address and the IP of the new host where ImpEx is installed), and trying to get ImpEx to grab the data that way; same thing
• Tried the above, but changing the password for the DB user on the old host, in case no improvement
• Disabled "hooks" (plugins) for vBulletin
• Checked and triple-checked all information in config.php and ImpExConfig.php; all is correct.

At this point I am out of ideas and hope to get some input on where to go from here. Could this be an issue with the database itself? Using phpMyAdmin on the old server, the "old" database still appears fully intact i.e. members, posts, PM's etc are all there as they should be so our hope is that even if the table structure is damaged somehow the main data should still be able to be imported. Is there an issue trying to import a vB4 DB into a vB3 installation?

Appreciate any advice.... TIA

[Trevor Hannant]

Are both databases on the same server? Are you sure the connection information for the source database is correct?

[v8volvo]

Thanks for the reply.

Both are on the same server, but I can't "see" where my target DB is stored in any particular directory. I uploaded the source DB to the /www directory on the new server so they're both in the same general place, but dunno whether there is something else I need to do there.

I have checked the connection info in impexconfig.php over and over and over again, and also tried a few different approaches, including providing connection information for impex to remotely connect to the source db on the original server via remote MySQL, no dice.

Note, you moved this to the ImpEx section, but I want to be clear, I am not working with a vB4 version if ImpEx here, my build is 3.8.7, is impex the same either way? And is there any structural difference in the databases that will prevent impex from importing from the vb4 db to vb3 successfully?

Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

Solved, solution was needed to get webhost to import source DB into a new DB located adjacent to target DB on mysql server, then edit impexconfig.php to reflect access information for "new" source db containing old source's data, impex was then able to talk to the new source db and all data was imported successfully.

Thanks.

[Trevor Hannant]

Yes, the database needs to be imported into a database to be read by Impex, it can't read it from a file.