UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Importer Support 6.5.x - 7.2.2 importer timing out.

I am upgrading from 6.5.2 to 7.2.2. The install works fine and the import script to. That is until its about halfway in the importing (stops at different place each time). Then it just stops and nothing happens (shouldnt take more than an hour for it to start again should it?).

Processing topics (2762 - 2781) of 6907 total topics.

Importing Topic (Are unicorns real?) and its 2 replies.
Importing Topic (Colorful) and its 6 replies.
Importing Topic (Whatever) and its 0 replies.
Importing Topic (Saturdays) and its 2 replies.
Importing Topic (I like corn!) and its 0 replies.

(should be a link here and a "please wait" message but nothing...


Any ideas as to why this might happen? I have had time out issues before where Id write a post and then click "post" and it just fails. Then clicking the back button takes you back to the now blank text box. Very annoying. Persistent connections seemed to fix this issue or some other similar feature I was able to activate in the admin section. Is this something similar?

Any help into this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Btw... Will rubbing my computer in with garlic and chanting help resolve the issue?


The "back" button or reloading the import php page does not help (with or without variables in the URL line). So any options to kick it back into action if it stops?

Are you on your own server or is this a shared server? If you have access to something like phpmyadmin you can look at the mysql processlist to see if mysql is actually doing anything at all during the time the page is hanging.

It could be a PHP timelimit being reached as well. Many servers have this set to something like 30 seconds, and if the PHP script doesn't finish in that amount of time, then it will stop. If it's your own server then you could edit the php.ini file to change the max_execution_time to something higher to see if that helps.

Processlist just shows "SHOW PROCESSLIST" after the scripts stops doing anything wich I assume is the act of me using phpmyadmin to show the list just then. Noting else is there like create table or stuff that usually can be seen while some script is running. (Im not to familiar with using phpmyadmin but did try refreshing while I knew it was doing something. And it showed som "create table" and other SQLish type stuff. Those came and went with each refresh while it was running.)


It is a hosted site with a ISP so editing my php.ini file seems difficult. Digging around in the folders below my sites main folder yielded no "php.ini" file. Tough there is some editable php related settings wich seemed to might be capable of doing something in restricting some php scripts.

Could these setting (pasted from the ISP user interface) have anything to do with it?
---------------------------------------------------
Advanced settings for the selected virtual host. We recommend not changing these settings unless you really need it.

Off PHP Safe Mode

Off PHP Safe Mode GID

Off PHP Register Globals

On PHP Acceleration *1

On PHP Acceleration - Check Script Modification Time *2

Off Shared SSL

Off Temporary URL

Note 1: PHP Acceleration can increase the speed of your website from 1-10 times.
Note 2: Modifications to a accelerated script will not take affect immediately, when the Check Script Modification Time is Off. It can safely be turned Off on a production website.
---------------------------------------------------
[/size][size:8pt]
These are the current settings of the site now.


Sorry to bug you guys with this. I hate to ask for help. But I did take care to make a informative heading in my topic so that others running into this problem can see the post and go "hmm this seems like what Im experiencing) at a glance. So I guess its not all bad asking if some workaround can be found. I promise to write a post right away explaining exactly what I did if I can get it to work either by myself or from some tip you devs came with. One more snag ironed out is always good.


So any tips is greatly appreciated. I will try them out as soon as they come in.

Doesn't appear that you can override the max_execution_time, if that's where the problem lies. What you can do is put in a ticket with your host and find out what this setting is. Tell them you are trying to run a software upgrade, and see if there is any way for you to temporarily override this setting if it is set to something low.

Maybe this error wich pops up in phpmyadmin has something to do with it?

MySQL said:

#1226 - User 'Someuser' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource (current value: 100000)

At this point the database is kinda dead.

Now just to figure out how to boost that value temporarily. It does end at this spot at the last attempt "Processing topics (2122 - 2141) of 6907 total topics.


My ISP is Servage wich do let you do pretty much whatever you want with databases. Or is this a limit set on a deeper level with the ISP? Id imagine others would run into this as well when attempting an update.

Thanks for any help. :-)

Hmm think I managed to get it to work again.

Just waiting until the limit goes back down (its time based) then press the back button in my browser until I get the last page with a link at the bottom. Then it starts up again.

Probably will time out (getting cut off is probably the more correct term here :p) again at some point. But rinse and repeat I guess.

Now the big question is... Will this damage the new database? Will it get filled with double entries wich may cause problems later? Or will it just overwrite anything its done from before the cut off?

It will actually cause double entries in your database. What you could probably do is slow the script down so the database connections close off before it proceeds to the next step. The refresh rate is controlled at line 1714 of threads_import.php with this:

setTimeout("window.location.href='$url';", 1000);

That 1000 is basically 1 second. You could bump that up, to slow it down a bit to see if that helps.

You could also ask your host if there is a way around that. Some hosts have a staging area, not production, and possibly they could copy your site/db to the staging area that doesn't have this limit in order to do the import.

It appears that max_connections is set to '100000' That's a pretty high value, so I'm guessing you're on a shared server and it's pretty busy. Because the import script definitely won't use that many connections by itself.

It worked beautifully. I added 34 seconds to the variable in the import script and let it run while at night while I slept. Next morning it was done. :-)

Thanks for the help! You guys know your stuff.