Transferring servers

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  • MoMan
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2005
    • 345
    • 3.8.x

    Transferring servers

    My site has been growing exponentially over the last few months, and we've come to the point where the current dedicated server can no longer sustain the load nor the bandwidth that my forum is generating. So, I've decided to switch to a new server.

    In the past, I have only dealt with minor transfers involving small databases, but now, with a 400MB database and several gigabytes of files, things aren't as easy. I suppose that it's better to transfer hosts now, before the site grows even bigger.

    Basically I have two general questions:

    1. Should I backup and transfer the database using phpmyadmin through plesk, or should I do so through SSH? If so, what SSH command should I use? Would I risk corrupting the database when downloading to my PC from the old server and re-uploading it into phpmyadmin on the new server?

    2. How should I go about downloading the attachment files in my FTP directory? To I have to use binary transfer, or can I leave everything on 'auto' and just download my entire /forum/ folder?

    Also, is there anything else I should keep in mind when transferring? Would you recommend that I close the board while backing up the DB? Thanks for your help!
    Adam

    Admin of PentaxForums.com, premiere photography forum for Pentax users (Big-Board).
  • 051119
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2008
    • 125
    • 3.8.x

    #2
    Hi.

    My backup was almost 290mb, so not quite as large as yours, but I found the best way to do it was to close the forum, create a backup of about 6 files and then upload them to a secret folder on the server.

    After installing vB I ran http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php for each of my .sql files and then changed the table start name in config.php to what that ran as. I then uploaded all custom images, including avatars, logos and smilies and reopened the forum.

    I didn't reupload any custom avatars or attachments, they simply came over with the backup I got out of AdminCP.

    Hope this helps.
    http://www.railforums.co.uk

    Comment

    • kvnband
      Member
      • Dec 2004
      • 80
      • 3.0.3

      #3
      I have done many, many large transfers (We're talking 2+ gig databases here). My tried and true method:

      1. Close the board
      2. mysqldump -u db_username -p db_name > dumpfile.sql (You will enter your DB password after this prompt)
      3. tar/zip/other compression the entire forum directory (tar -czvf forum.tgz forum) for example...Make sure the database dump is in this directory
      4. Transfer this to the new server, via whatever method you wish (My preferred is to just wget -c http://oldsite.com/forum.tgz)
      5. tar -xzvf forum.tgz
      6. mysql -u db_username -p db_name < dumpfile.sql
      7. Of course, move the forum files to the correct place
      8. Point domain
      9. Open board
      10. Have a drink

      Comment

      • MoMan
        Senior Member
        • Oct 2005
        • 345
        • 3.8.x

        #4
        Originally posted by kvnband
        I have done many, many large transfers (We're talking 2+ gig databases here). My tried and true method:

        1. Close the board
        2. mysqldump -u db_username -p db_name > dumpfile.sql (You will enter your DB password after this prompt)
        3. tar/zip/other compression the entire forum directory (tar -czvf forum.tgz forum) for example...Make sure the database dump is in this directory
        4. Transfer this to the new server, via whatever method you wish (My preferred is to just wget -c http://oldsite.com/forum.tgz)
        5. tar -xzvf forum.tgz
        6. mysql -u db_username -p db_name < dumpfile.sql
        7. Of course, move the forum files to the correct place
        8. Point domain
        9. Open board
        10. Have a drink
        Thanks a lot for your help! The wget command sped things up a great deal, and the total transfer took less than an hour!
        Adam

        Admin of PentaxForums.com, premiere photography forum for Pentax users (Big-Board).

        Comment

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