Migration to vBulletin 3

[criscokid]

I'm in the process of upgrading my site to use vBulletin 3.05, vbPortal 3, etc. The way I've done this is make a copy of my site on a new domain name (renamed the database to a new name (eg: Forumsv3) and then ran the upgrade scripts to bring it up to the latest version.

All the while my website is still live and running on the old domain name. In the meantime I have new users and posts on that site.

Once my new site is ready to go live the old site will re-direct to the new site. I'm looking for some pointers on how to proceed to get the new users and posts into my new forums.

Does the following look like the best way to proceed?
* Close my existing vBulletin forums
* Backup my database
* Run the upgrade script
* Backup my new database
* Use mySQL to copy whichever tables I need to into my 'Forumsv3' database for my new forums site
* Turn the forums on

Assuming this is an ok way to proceed what tables I'll need to copy over? I want to be selective in what I copy over because I want to populate the Calendar on my new site - if I copy every table over then I'll lose those new entries.

I've got vbPortal 3 installed on my new site - I assume that doesn't change any of vBulletins tables in the database (I know they add tables to the database but need to make sure they don't change vBulletin's tables).

Comments & suggestions most welcome :-)

[MGM]

I don't understand why you'd need to copy any tables over? The upgrade script simply upgrades the tables, it doesnt touch the data, so you won't lose anything through an upgrade.

The way I did it was:

1. Backup everything (database and files, as well as style and templates and languages/phrases)
2. Close the forum
3. Run upgrade script
4. Check to see if everything works properly real quick
5. Open forum again

There's no need for the second forum nonsense, although I would suggest running the upgrade script at least once on a copy of your database/site just to make sure no problems come up on the real upgrade.

MGM out

[criscokid]

There's no need for the second forum nonsense, although I would suggest running the upgrade script at least once on a copy of your database/site just to make sure no problems come up on the real upgrade.

I'm applying a new skin and implimenting vbPortal 3.0 so want to make sure it's a perfect & smooth transition for my users. They wake up one morning, visit my site and see the new look and features. I'm wanting to move my site to the new domain anyway.

This way all my development work and changes, etc happen without impacting on my live site.

[criscokid]

Any comments or suggestions?

[Steve Machol]

Not sure what you are asking but since you are installing vBPortal, you may want to ask at their site.

[criscokid]

It's very much a vBulletin question.

I made a copy of my site on a new domain name (renamed the database to a new name (eg: Forumsv3) and then ran the upgrade scripts to bring it up to version 3.

All the while my website runnning vBulletin 2 is still live and running on the old domain name. In the meantime new users have been signing up and making posts posts on that site.

Once my new site is ready to go live the old site will re-direct to the new site. Now that I've got the layouts, skins, settings sorted on my new vBulletin 3 site I want to bring the users and forum posting tables over from my vBulletin 2 site to my new vBulletin 3 site.

[Steve Machol]

There are two possible ways to do this:

1. Use the Impex system to import the data from the vB2 database to the new one

or

2. Download copies of ytour new styles, upgrade the vB2 forum to vB3, then upload those styles to the upgraded forum.