Groupee’s ubb.classic™ software
Backup and/or Transfer from one Server to Another
ã Groupee, Inc.
2401 Fourth Ave, Ste 500 • Seattle WA 98121
Phone 206.283.5999 • Fax 206.283.6616
Table of Contents
Backup and/or Transfer from one Server to Another
Part 1: Prepare for the Operation
Part 2: Download/Back-up your UBB.classic™ Community
SECTION 1: Downloading your UBB.classic from the Server using FTP
SECTION 2: Using TAR and GZIP to Archive your UBB.classic on a UNIX Server
SECTION 3: Using a ZIP client to Archive your UBB.classic from the Windows Terminal
Contact your web hosting provider(s) and find out information on the server(s) being used in this operation.
Make sure that you have the full zip file for the version of UBB.classic™ that you are running. If you need to move your community but do not have the full zip file for that version, you should upgrade the board to the latest public UBB.classic™ release before starting this process. You will not be able to restore or move your board without the full zip file. For instance, if your UBB.classic is 6.04a, and you need to move it, you cannot perform the move using the latest files from the Members Area. Do not upgrade and move at the same time.
If you are on NT or Windows 2000, please skip to Downloading your UBB.classic from the Server Using FTP.
If you are on Unix or a Unix-like server:
· Do you have access to, and are you comfortable with, the Unix command line?
· If so, do you have access to the following GNU commands: tar and gzip?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, please skip to the section Using TAR and GZIP to Archive your UBB.classic on a UNIX Server.
If you answered “no” to either of the questions, please skip to the section Downloading your UBB.classic from the Server using FTP.
1. Open the FTP client that you normally use to transfer files to and from your web server. On the Win32 platform, we advise using LeapFTP (full registered version).
2. Please ensure that you have set all extensions for ASCII transfer mode where applicable. We have an excellent resource (http://www.groupee.com/webhosting/FTP_FAQ.html), which lists all major FTP clients and the specific extensions we recommend you set as ASCII for this procedure. Please refer to the FTP client documentation for details on how to set the extensions if you have other questions not covered in our extensive FAQ.
3. Set your FTP client to preserve file case. Please refer to the FTP client documentation for details on how to do this.
4. Create a directory on your local system. You may name it whatever you wish; however, it would be wise to give it a name such as "UBB.classic Backup - January 30 2003" to be sure you know what it contains. We will refer to this directory as the "Backup" directory.
5. In the Backup directory, create four new directories, named "noncgi", "cgi", "variables", and "members".
6. Connect to the server using the FTP client.
7. Set your FTP client to use AUTOMATIC mode. If your FTP client has no automatic mode, set it to Binary mode.
8. Navigate the FTP client to your UBB.classic's non-cgi directory.
9. Download the image (.gif, .jpg, .png) files from the non-cgi directory into your local Backup/noncgi directory. Be sure to only download the image files.
If you have a non-cgi/graemlins directory on the server, download that directory to your LOCAL Backup/noncgi directory (so that there is a new directory, Backup/noncgi/graemlins).
If you have a non-cgi/icons directory on the server, download that directory to your LOCAL Backup/icons directory (so that there is a new directory, Backup/noncgi/icons).
10. Set your FTP client to use ASCII (or text) mode.
11. Select the following directories with your FTP client. (Please see your FTP client documentation on how to select multiple files and directories at once.)
§ Forum* (where * stands for any number)
§ BanLists
§ Archives
§ styles
§ Templates
§ Polls
§ Avatars
Select the following file with your FTP client: categories.file.
12. Download the selected files and directories into the Backups/noncgi using your FTP client. This may take some time. Be sure to set your FTP client to preserve the directory structure, if it asks what to do with the directories.
13. Navigate the FTP client to your UBB.classic's Variables directory. Normally, this is the same directory as the UBB.classic's CGI directory
14. Set your FTP client to use ASCII (or text) mode. You will use ASCII mode for all following transfers.
15. Select all files from your Variables directory that have names starting with "vars_".
16. Download all the selected files into your LOCAL Backup/variables directory.
17. Navigate the FTP client to your UBB.classic's CGI directory.
18. Select all the files from your CGI directory that do NOT start with "vars_".
Select all directories under the CGI directory, EXCEPT the Members directory, if you have placed it there.
19. Download all the selected files into your LOCAL Backup/cgi directory. Be sure to set your FTP client to preserve the directory structure, if it asks what to do with the directories.
20. Select all the files from your Members directory
21. Select all directories under the Members directory
22. Download all the selected files into your LOCAL Backup/members directory. Be sure to set your FTP client to preserve the directory structure, if it asks what to do with the directories.
Your backup is now complete. If you are moving your UBB.classic™ community, please skip to Part 3.
CAUTION: This section is for experienced users only. If you are unsure of your abilities to use the Unix command line, you should use a standard FTP backup. See the section Downloading your UBB.classic from the Server using FTP.
Before you begin this section:
ü Confirm that you are using the GNU utilities. The syntax and options we will use may be key. You may be unable to perform the exact commands using non-GNU edition of the tools.
ü Ensure that you have sufficient disk space. These procedures may create extremely large files for a short period of time. These files may double the amount of disk space that your UBB.classic uses. Please be careful that you do not encounter a disk space quota.
1. Log into your server.
2. Change directories to your UBB.classic’s CGI directory.
3. Issue the following command:
tar cvfz UBBCGI.tar.gz cp*.cgi u*.cgi Modules
If your tar warns that it does not know the switch 'z', issue the following two commands instead:
tar cvf UBBCGI.tar cp*.cgi u*.cgi Modules
gzip UBBCGI.tar
4. Change directories to your UBB.classic's Variables directory. Normally, this is the same directory as your CGI directory.
5. Issue the following command:
tar cvfz VARIABLES.tar.gz vars*.cgi
If your tar does not know 'z', issue the following two commands instead:
tar cvf VARIABLES.tar vars*.cgi
gzip VARIABLES.tar
6. Change directories to your UBB.classic's noncgi directory.
7. Issue the following command:
tar cvfz NONCGI.tar.gz *.jpg *.gif *.png ca*.file BanLists graemlins styles Templates Polls Avatars
If your tar does not know 'z', issue the following commands instead:
tar cvf NONCGI.tar *.jpg *.gif *.png ca*.file BanLists graemlins styles Templates Polls Avatars
gzip NONCGI.tar
tar cvfz FORUMS.tar.gz Forum*
If this doesn’t work, issue the following two commands instead:
tar cvf FORUMS.tar Forum*
gzip FORUMS.tar
Your server may respond with an error message similar to "Argument list too long" with the above tar commands. This occurs when there are too many files to be included in the archive at once. In this case, you will need to create a "Forum#.tar" file for each of your forums.
For instance, to compress Forum 1, use:
tar cfvz Forum1.tar.gz Forum1
or
tar cfv Forum1.tar Forum1
gzip Forum1.tar
Or to compress Forum87, use:
tar cfvz Forum87.tar.gz Forum87
or
tar cfv Forum87.tar Forum87
gzip Forum87.tar
8. Change directories to your UBB.classic's Members directory.
9. Issue the following command:
tar cvfz MEMBERS.tar.gz *
If you have a braindead tar, issue the following two commands instead:
tar cvf MEMBERS.tar *
gzip MEMBERS.tar
10. Download the .tar.gz files you have created:
§ noncgi/NONCGI.tar.gz
§ cgi/UBBCGI.tar.gz
§ variables/VARIABLES.tar.gz
§ noncgi/FORUMS.tar.gz
or
§ noncgi/Forum*.tar.gz
§ members/MEMBERS.tar.gz
11. Create a directory on your local system. You may name it whatever you wish; however, it would be wise to give it a name such as "UBB.classic Backup - January 30 2003" to be sure you know what it contains. We will refer to this directory as the "Backup" directory.
12. In the Backup directory, create four new directories, named "noncgi", "cgi", "variables", and "members"
13. Unzip the MEMBERS.tar.gz file into the Backup/members directory.
14. Unzip the FORUMS.tar.gz (or Forum*.tar.gz) and NONCGI.tar.gz files into your Backup/noncgi directory.
15. Unzip the VARIABLES.tar.gz file into your Backup/variables directory.
16. Unzip the UBBCGI.tar.gz file into your Backup/cgi directory.
17. Once the contents of the Backup directory look proper (i.e. all the files are in place, in the proper directories), DELETE the .tar.gz files from your local system and from the server.
This section assumes that you have access to Windows Terminal Services, VNC, PCAnywhere, or some similar product that allows you to see the Windows desktop on your server.
1. Use Windows Explorer to locate your UBB.classic directory structure.
2. Create a Temporary directory in a convenient place, such as the Desktop.
3. Open a second Explorer window, and navigate to the Temporary directory
4. Make copies of your UBB.classic's CGI, Variables, Non-CGI, and Members directories, inside the Temporary directory
5. Delete the noncgi/cache-(something) directory inside the Temporary directory.
6. Use the zip client to create a single archive from the Temporary directory. Use the "preserve directories" option.
7. Delete the Temporary directory.
8. Use a file transfer client (your terminal client may have an option to do so) to obtain the zip file.
9. Unzip the zip file on your LOCAL system.
10. Create a directory on your local system. You may name it whatever you wish, however it would be wise to give it a name such as "UBB.classic Backup - August 15 2001" to be sure you know what it contains. We will refer to this directory as the "Backup" directory.
11. In the Backup directory, create four new directories, named "noncgi", "cgi", "variables", and "members"
12. From the zip file directory, MOVE the contents of the Members directory into the Backup/members directory
13. From the zip file directory, MOVE the contents of the noncgi directory into the Backups/noncgi directory
14. From the zip file directory, MOVE the contents of the cgi directory into the Backups/cgi directory
15. From the zip file directory, MOVE the contents of the variables directory into the Backups/variables directory.
NOTE: You may not have a variables directory separately. Normally you can find the variables files in the CGI directory. They are given names that start with "vars_". Move these into the Variables directory instead.
This section assumes that you have a directory on your local machine containing the backed up UBB.classic files. We will refer to this directory as the Backup directory.
1. Set up the UBB.classic on the server. Use the UBB.classic zip file that you used to first install the software. Do not use the script files that you downloaded in the backup operation.
2. Verify that the newly installed UBB.classic is functioning properly. Register members, post topics and replies, send private messages, etc. Verify as many functions as possible. Do not attempt to restore files to a message board that is not functioning properly.
NOTE: Messages and member profiles created during testing will be deleted during the restoration.
3. Please ensure that the following file extensions are set to ASCII (or TEXT) MODE in your FTP client. Please refer to the FTP client documentation for details on how to set the extensions.
§ .cgi
§ .pl
§ .file
§ .threads
§ .pm
§ .html
§ .htm
4. Set your FTP client to preserve file case. Please refer to the FTP client documentation for details on how to do this.
5. Point your FTP client to the UBB.classic's Variables directory on the server.
6. From the Backup/Variables directory on your local machine, upload ALL files *EXCEPT FOR vars_config.cgi*. DO NOT OVERWRITE vars_config.cgi UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
7. If you are on a Unix server, you will need to set permissions on the vars_ files. Normally, '777' or '-rwxrwxrwx' is required. Please consult your hosting provider if they require different permissions for files that need to be written to by CGI scripts. Please consult your FTP client documentation for instructions on setting file permissions.
8. Point your FTP client to the UBB.classic's NonCGI directory on the server.
9. From the Backup/NonCGI directory on your local machine, upload all of the files and directories.
Be sure to set your FTP client to preserve the directory structure, if it asks what to do with the directories.
10. If you are on a Unix server, you will need to set permissions on the NonCGI files. Normally, '777' or '-rwxrwxrwx' is required. Please consult your hosting provider if they require different permissions for files that need to be written to by CGI scripts. Please consult your FTP client documentation for instructions on setting file permissions.
You will need to set permissions on each file individually (unless you are on a Win2K or XP server—click for special tip). Setting permissions on a directory does not set permissions on each file within it. If you have access to a command prompt, you may use a single command to perform this task. Change directories to your UBB.classic's NonCGI directory and issue this command: chmod -R 777 *
11. Point your FTP client to the UBB.classic Members directory on the server.
12. From the Backup/Members directory on your local machine, upload all of the files and directories.
13. Be sure to set your FTP client to preserve the directory structure, if it asks what to do with the directories.
14. If you are on a Unix server, you will need to set permissions on the Member files. Normally, '777' or '-rwxrwxrwx' is required. Please consult your hosting provider if they require different permissions for files that need to be written to by CGI scripts. Please consult your FTP client documentation for instructions on setting file permissions.
You will need to set permissions on each file individually (unless you are on a Win2K or XP server—click for special tip). Setting permissions on a directory does not set permissions on each file within it. If you have access to a command prompt, you may use a single command to perform this task. Change directories to your UBB.classic's NonCGI directory and issue this command: chmod -R 777 *
15. Close your FTP client and open your UBB.classic control panel in a browser window. You should be able to log in using your old user name and password.
16. Select Maintenance -> Upgrade Your UBB. Click the Upgrade button.
If you are using a UBB.classic version prior to 6.1.0, you will not have an "Upgrade Your UBB.classic" function. You should instead ignore this step and continue with the next steps.
17. Select Maintenance -> Rebuild Forum Stat Files. Select "All Forums" and click the submit button. This process may take some time - do not interrupt it.
18. Select Maintenance -> Rebuild Search Index. Click the submit button on the page that appears. This process may take some time - do not interrupt it.
19. Select Maintenance -> Rebuild Member Files. Click the submit button on the page that appears. This process may take some time - do not interrupt it.
20. Select Maintenance -> Update Member Post History. Click the submit button on the page that appears. This process may take some time - do not interrupt it.
Your UBB.classic should now be functioning properly.
On Win2K or XP servers, there is a way at the folder level to reset all permissions for ALL files and ALL subfolders. On the Security tab, select the new permissions, then click on the Advanced button.
In the Access Control Settings window for the folder, click on the checkbox for “Reset permissions on all child objects and enable propagation of inheritable permissions”. This will force all child nodes of your folder to match the folder properties. Much simpler than doing a file-by-file reset!
(Thanks to Don S for passing along this tip.)