Cannot install or upgrade:- VServers

[bdjncox]

Originally posted by chris frolic


unfortunately, no. It's the fresh install that I tried (just as a test) that won't work.

I don't know what to do. I've been using Vservers for quite a while and the thought of moving to run the new board isn't really an option. So I'm continuing to run the old software until a solution comes up (soon I hope).

I'll be in the same boat. I really like vServers and don't want to switch servers.

Damn.

[Joe Masters]

They already fixed it in the install script -- just change one variable!

Hey -- I just did it with VServers, and here's a list of instructions.

1) Go into admin/install.php, and comment out any SQL line with "ALTER" in it (there are two: $query[]= "ALTER TABLE access... and $query[]="ALTER TABLE searchindex... ) by putting // in front of the line. and put a // in front of the $explain[] line below both of those, too. (otherwise the script will be confused.

2) After step 4 completes (the long list of creating tables), *DON'T* go onto the next step until you log into mysql (type mysql [dbname] at the shell) and run the two alter lines:

ALTER TABLE access ADD UNIQUE (userid,forumid);
ALTER TABLE searchindex ADD UNIQUE (wordid,postid);

Both commands will give you errors after you run them --Don't worry about this -- it's the reason why vbulletin can't do it automatically. But it will actually work.

3) Now continue with the rest of the installation script.

4) When using the VBulletinLite Import script, comment out (with //) the following lines:

// $DB_site->query("ALTER TABLE $idbname.thread ADD vb2userid INT(10) UNSIGNED not null");
// $DB_site->query("ALTER TABLE $idbname.post ADD vb2userid INT(10) UNSIGNED not null");
// $DB_site->query("UPDATE $idbname.thread SET vb2userid=0");
// $DB_site->query("UPDATE $idbname.post SET vb2userid=0");

And, right above them, put:

echo "HERE!!!<P>\n";

5) Then, during the import processing, when a screen comes up with HERE!!! on it, before you go to the next step, run those above SQL lines in MySQL.
Remember to replace $idbname with the import db name.

[forefront]

Hey -- I just did it with VServers, and here's a list of instructions.

Helpful but only for a fresh install; much of the discussion here is about upgrading in which case the following ALTER commands apply (I counted 18 in upgrade1.php):

ALTER TABLE events RENAME calendar_events";
ALTER TABLE calendar_events
ALTER TABLE poll
ALTER TABLE pollvote (multiple ALTERs)
ALTER TABLE word
ALTER TABLE searchindex
ALTER TABLE access
ALTER TABLE template
ALTER TABLE replacement
ALTER TABLE forum (multiple ALTERs)
ALTER TABLE announcement
ALTER TABLE thread (multiple ALTERs)
ALTER TABLE session
ALTER TABLE usergroup (multiple ALTERs)
ALTER TABLE forumpermission (multiple ALTERs)
ALTER TABLE user (multiple ALTERs)
ALTER TABLE subscribethread
ALTER TABLE post

I haven't done this yet, no time to mess until next week.

Thanks for the initial post on this as it gives the right direction.

[Mike Sullivan]

I believe we actually have a workaround now.

But I'd still petition Vservers to get them to go back to normal...

[chris frolic]

Originally posted by Ed Sullivan
I believe we actually have a workaround now.

when might we hear more of this?

[Mike Sullivan]

Monday most likely

[bdjncox]

Originally posted by Ed Sullivan
I believe we actually have a workaround now.

But I'd still petition Vservers to get them to go back to normal...

I inquired about it and Vservers suggested moving to their Freedom Server (Hostpro) which has more storage space for the same price but does limit Bandwidth to 20gig a month whereas the Vserver accounts are unlimited.

The workaround might be a good short-term fix, but longterm Vserver clients may have to switch to another type of server.

[forefront]

I inquired about it and Vservers suggested moving to their Freedom Server (Hostpro) which has more storage space for the same price but does limit Bandwidth to 20gig a month whereas the Vserver accounts are unlimited.

The Freedom range differ from VServers more than your post would suggest.

I was a beta-tester of Freedom; this is a server environment where good sysadmin skills via SSH/Telnet are required and features such as autoresponders are at this time unavailable on Freedom.

Anyone considering switching to a Freedom account should appraise themselves fully of the difference or you could end up with more fun and games than VBulletin not working!

It is a pain moving hosts just to get this software functioning.

[bdjncox]

Originally posted by bdjncox


I inquired about it and Vservers suggested moving to their Freedom Server (Hostpro) which has more storage space for the same price but does limit Bandwidth to 20gig a month whereas the Vserver accounts are unlimited.

The workaround might be a good short-term fix, but longterm Vserver clients may have to switch to another type of server.

Your point is well taken. I haven't fully looked into the Freedom servers yet so there could be other issues like you mentioned.

[tubedogg]

Originally posted by forefront
It is a pain moving hosts just to get this software functioning.

It is a pain moving hosts, I'll grant you that. But your host is running a non-standard version of MySQL that really shouldn't even exist, much less have the dev team spend time writing workarounds for one host out of thousands.

If I were you I would take the pain and get onto a host where they don't have non-standard versions of critical software.

[forefront]

It is a pain moving hosts, I'll grant you that. But your host is running a non-standard version of MySQL that really shouldn't even exist, much less have the dev team spend time writing workarounds for one host out of thousands.

If I were you I would take the pain and get onto a host where they don't have non-standard versions of critical software.

Is that your opinion as moderator of this forum or are we to consider that an official VBulletin stance on this?

If you are to take the viewpoint officially please consider this:

I farted around for hours last week trying to install the upgrade, then tried a fresh install. As this is now a known issue a simple VSERVERS.READ.ME file within the software AND a clear note for anyone about to buy VBulletin would save users and you trouble and yes, free up resources without having to answer or post these posts.

The system requirements do NOT state that VServers clients MUST use their Freedom range of servers to get VBulletin working and as Jelsoft is a UK company your trading activity falls under the Trades Descriptions Act and Sale of Goods Act which state that a product or service must be of "merchantable quality" and "fit for the purpose for which it was intended" - on both counts you fall into a very grey area - you are aware of the VServers limitations and do not state this.

Yes, VBulletin is a good product (I referred three new clients to you within the last few weeks alone) and yes, VServers MySQL setup is gash, but also, you must take steps to limit your users' exposure to known issues.

[tubedogg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by forefront

Is that your opinion as moderator of this forum or are we to consider that an official VBulletin stance on this?

Neither. It is my personal position.

I farted around for hours last week trying to install the upgrade, then tried a fresh install. As this is now a known issue a simple VSERVERS.READ.ME file within the software AND a clear note for anyone about to buy VBulletin would save users and you trouble and yes, free up resources without having to answer or post these posts.

Granted, yes that would be a good idea however I think they did take a stab at fixing it a while back ($vservers=1 in one of the files).

The system requirements do NOT state that VServers clients MUST use their Freedom range of servers to get VBulletin working...

I take exception to this one. It states you must use MySQL v 3.something or higher - it says nothing about edited versions of MySQL. Again this is my personal view, but I don't think time should be spent supporting it. No matter how you slice it vBulletin works on a standard version of MySQL. VServers is screwing their clients by running a non-standard version. VServers is one host out of thousands and while I recognize there may be users on there that want/use vBulletin, I don't buy into the argument that we're bad because it wasn't posted - on the contrary, there was a fix attempted and it apparently didn't (or no longer) works.

[bdjncox]

Originally posted by tubedogg


I take exception to this one. It states you must use MySQL v 3.something or higher - it says nothing about edited versions of MySQL. Again this is my personal view, but I don't think time should be spent supporting it. No matter how you slice it vBulletin works on a standard version of MySQL. VServers is screwing their clients by running a non-standard version. VServers is one host out of thousands and while I recognize there may be users on there that want/use vBulletin, I don't buy into the argument that we're bad because it wasn't posted - on the contrary, there was a fix attempted and it apparently didn't (or no longer) works.

As much as I like Vservers, I gotta agree with Kevin. No where in my documentation of Vservers was it ever mentioned that MySQL was modified. I put the blame on their shoulders. Fortunately, I've never had the need for MySQL until I found vBulletin. So, even though it requires a little more expertise to run, I will be switching to a Freedom 300 server before I purchase vBulletin2.0.

Yes, it probably would have been a good idea to note the vservers problem but that's why I searched this forum for any issues before I bought the license.

I appreciate the vBulletin's teams efforts but they can't be expected to account for every variable that exists.

[smacwill]

Originally posted by tubedogg

I take exception to this one. It states you must use MySQL v 3.something or higher - it says nothing about edited versions of MySQL. Again this is my personal view, but I don't think time should be spent supporting it. No matter how you slice it vBulletin works on a standard version of MySQL. VServers is screwing their clients by running a non-standard version. VServers is one host out of thousands and while I recognize there may be users on there that want/use vBulletin, I don't buy into the argument that we're bad because it wasn't posted - on the contrary, there was a fix attempted and it apparently didn't (or no longer) works.

This is right from the features page....

Minimum Requirements: vBulletin is designed to run on every server that has PHP 3.0.9 or greater and MySQL 3.22 or greater installed.

Recommended Requirements: For optimum performance, we recommend that vBulletin is run on a server that has MySQL 3.23.33 and PHP 4 installed.

The software has been successfully installed on several different flavours of UNIX, as well as Windows NT/98/2000. We recommend that you download the freeware feature-limited version of vBulletin to make sure the software is compatible with your server.

Note: We recommend you contact your server hosting company to verify that they have the correct versions of PHP and MySQL installed. If you administrate your own server, PHP and MySQL are available for free download from php.net and mysql.com.

======================

I'd have to agree, It states nothing about "special" versions and also states to contact your host and see about versions.

Also, the developers have stated they have a fix and should be releasing it Monday. In my book, that's being pretty responsive to the problem.

[tubedogg]

[ Edit - Between the time I hit "reply" and I finished writing this, smacwill edited his post and changed the meaning entirely. Therefore, this is not directed at him, but I'm leaving it because it's such a beautiful post. ]

[ Disclaimer - I am writing this as my personal view of the situation, not as a representitive of Jelsoft or the dev team. ]

I'm not sure what your point is by posting the sysreq list. [ edit - when I posted this the contents of smacwill's post was just the sysreq list, not his comments. ] It still doesn't say anything about edited versions of MySQL, and in fact even recommends contacting your host about their version of MySQL. If VServers fails to mention that they are running a non-standard version of MySQL (as someone said they did) I fail to see how that is our fault.

I understand you are frustrated, as I certainly would be. But it's not like the dev team has not tried to work around this. They did try a fix a while back, and have been brainstorming other ways around this. But to expect a fix like yesterday to a problem that occurs on one host out of thousands (and a host that's running non-standard MySQL at that rate) is unreasonable.

It's just like Jelsoft cannot and will not support people who have hacked their vBs. There are so many things that could change or be affected (or be manually screwed up while editing code) that it would be near impossible to pinpoint the source of an error with non-stock vB files. I'm not saying that VServers' MySQL is messed up beyond dropping the connection on an ALTER command, but the chance is there. What if Jelsoft find a successful workaround to this problem and that breaks something else (either with vB or with VServers' MySQL)? Do they continue to code workarounds, potentially breaking other things?

Please don't take this as an attack. It is just the way I feel about the situation.