I am aware of that but the way I have been doing things lately I might forget... but now that you mention it, I should go and change that soon whilst I am thinking about it. I actually have multiple domains there.

Gizmo,

I'm about to try the same thing. I've backed up the database already. When this gets moved to the new server, where is the command or control to import this backup?

Rich

Giz, Has a how to posted Here

You have been off line for a few hours now. Are you having problems?
Are you just moving or upgrading at the same time?

All I know is that moving my single personal domain from NSI to godaddy was really quite painless. Maybe it was the fact that I got 9 years of registration for $64 (a LOT less than I paid for my first year at NSI) that made it seem so painless.

I recall that there were two phone calls involved, but beyond that, it was pretty easy. (Funny how actually "talking" to people from the comfort of my desk chair is what I consider difficult...)

I've been trying the remote database suggestion (from my test box to the new host). Nothing like a crash course in mysql I guess. (Why couldn't this be something "easy" like Sybase ASE or Caché? ) That actually really seems like a great way to go.

I can connect via the command line mysql app, so I know I'm OK from a network/firewall perspective. I'm just having issues with UBB connecting. I'm only aware of a single config value I need to change in config.inc.php ('DATABASE_SERVER' => '[ip address]',) assuming everything else is the same including the username/password combo. I just get the rather cryptic message:




Odd considering I AM a forum administrator.

What am I missing?

Like I said I never tried remote access with ubb.
But your error message is a generic one from the language files If you have error logging turned on in the ubb you can view the actual error in cp>>logs

No worries. I don't expect you to know everything. (Isn't that Rick's job? )

It's actually a circular problem. UBB has to have mysql access for ubb to log the event - not to mention for me to log into the bb or cp - before it will log the error about why it can't get to the database...

OK, not that anyone would ASSUME that there was a problem with UBB software from my post above...

However, I feel obligated to post my results *cough*or mistake*cough*.

I forgot I'd already upgraded my test environment to 7.5.x. So, our /ubbthreads directory was different. Once I downloaded a fresh copy, it just worked. I even shut off mysql on my system to verify.

So, things are looking good.

Thanks for the advice Ruben. I'm liking this approach more and more.

Okay so all you did was edit config,inc.php for the database server (IP)

No, that's not all I did, but that's basically all that was necessary.

Knowing what I know now, here's what I would have had to do:

• Have server A set up on the same version of UBB as server B.
• Change the security settings on server B to allow incoming mysql traffic from server A's IP. (First time I have found cPanel to be more value than detriment.)
• Change DATABASE_SERVER value in config.inc.php on server A.

That's effectively all I did and it works now. Pretty cool really. It should make the switch very easy now.

That assumes that you're using the default (3306) mysql port. I really have no idea where the db port is set or would be changed in UBB. Maybe that's just something that never happens in mysql, but I do it all the time with other db's.

So, in summary, here's the checklist/plan for the final migration and switch over:


• Verify security settings on new server will allow mysql access from old server.
• Drop and recreate an empty ubb database on the "new" server (easier than dropping all the tables.)
• Close the board on the old server.
• Double check I have all IP's from both old and new servers.
• Change DNS entries in authoritative BIND server to reflect new server.
• Tar up the uploads/avatar directory (everything else static hasn't changed since my initial setup).
• Start FTP'ing the tar file. (Compression doesn't help much here.)
• Follow Gizmo's checklist to migrate the database (including compression of the tar file. bzip2 works wonders compressing the .sql file.)
• FTP the file to the new server. (The first FTP should be complete by the time the bz2 compression completes.)
• Untar the files directory on the new server and check (aka update) permissions.
• Uncompress/tar and import the database on the new server.
• Update the includes/config.inc.php file to reflect new file system structure and location of directories and new username/password for ubb mysql user.
• Open the board on the new server.
• Change includes/config.inc.php on old server to point to new server (DATABASE_SERVER value & new username/password for ubb mysql user)
• Test. (Aka watch email waiting for complaints to come in.)

my eta: 1 Hour. Hopefully less.


Man, it looks so easy when I write it down like that.