Will vBulletin 4.2.2 PL1 run with vBulletin 5 recommended PHP and MySQL versions

[jdj]

Now that the CMS replacement is here and Joe seems to have found a way to put a calendar up on vB5 I am looking at upgrading; I'm testing out first.

Wayne Luke's post here gives minimum and recommended system requirements.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-5-connect/vbulletin-5-installations/416604-minimum-and-recommended-system-requirements

Our installation of vBulletin 4.2.2 PL 1 is running on

MySQL 5.1.41-subuntu12.10

PHP 5.3.2-1ubuntu4.9

Wayne Luke's recommended settings state PHP 5.4+ MySQL 5.5+

We run a fully-managed Linux server. If I ask my ISP to upgrade to PHP 5.4+ MySQL 5.5+ will vBulletin 4.2.2 PL 1 actually run on this? Or will it kill it off prior to the upgrade?

[Mark.B]

4.2.2 will be fine on that configuration. Earlier versions of vB4 would not though.

[jdj]

I also put in a support ticket (thank you vBulletin support for the reply) asking pretty much the same question as I have started a separate discussion with our ISP about which versions of MySQL and PHP to upgrade to.

I got the following response: "~~vBulletin 4.2.2 is compatible with PHP 5.4.x but not tested against PHP 5.5.x so you should upgrade to PHP 5.4.x prior to the VB5 upgrade.
If you have not already done so you should add the following line near the top of your /includes/config.php file-
define('SKIP_ALL_ERRORS', true);
vBulletin 4.2.2 should also have no problems with MySQL 5.5.x so that can be upgraded at the same time.
Both versions of PHP and MySQL will work for both VB 4.2.2 and 5.x allowing you to upgrade without changing the PHP or MySQL versions at the same time."

That's a helpful response but given that it includes a recommendation to include something in the config.php file I think I should share it for the greater good here.

What's the reason for including define("SKIP_ALL_ERRORS', true);

in the config.php file? I don't see this in the manual.

[Mark.B]

That exists to add back the automated suppression of php warnings that was removed in 4.2.2 - this is because some servers are incorrectly configured to display them.

[Wayne Luke]

vBulletin 4.X doesn't take advantage of mysql's advanced features like transactions, views or prepared statements. As such, there is nothing to test under MySQL 5.5. Numerous customer and staging installations have been running MySQL 5.5 for over a year now without issue though.

[jdj]

vBulletin 4.X doesn't take advantage of mysql's advanced features like transactions, views or prepared statements. As such, there is nothing to test under MySQL 5.5. Numerous customer and staging installations have been running MySQL 5.5 for over a year now without issue though.

So does vBulletin 4.2.2 PL1 work with MySQL 5.5, yes or no?

[Wayne Luke]

Yes. Thought I made that clear in my previous post.

I wouldn't run any version of vBulletin on anything less than MySQL 5.5 today.

[jdj]

I've been back to my hosting provider to ask about upgrading from MySQL 5.1.41-subuntu12.10 and PHP 5.3.2-1ubuntu4.9 in order that I can prepare to upgrade to vBulletin 5.

They've told me that they can upgrade to PHP 5.4.29 and MySQL 5.5.38.

They've also told me, quote: "The upgrade will take around 30 minutes, during that time the databases will be unavailable which I suspect will render most of your sites down. If you want to put a static page up which advises any visitors that the site is being upgraded that would be up to yourself and I'd suggest you put that in place before the work takes place."

So I'm guessing for a while that neither MySQL or PHP will be working during the upgrade. Is there a static page I can put up now that won't interfere with vBulletin 4 whilst it is running but will automatically kick into action when it goes down to let visitors know that an upgrade is going on? If so, what should I produce it in? E.g. if I stick up an index.html file on the site will that interfere with the vBulletin index.php file?

Is there a better way of doing this whilst the upgrade is going on?

[Mark.B]

To be honest if it's only 30 minutes it's not really worth the bother.

You can temporarily rename the vBulletin index.php file to something else, and stick a default index.html file up there. You could use htaccess to divert all traffic to that page (as otherwise people clicking thread links in Google etc will still get an error).

But for 30 mins, unless you've a really high traffic site I wouldn't bother.