Forum to be moved to a new server
 

Hi all,

Am planning to upgrade my website's resources to a higher bandwidth/webspace/mysql.

my webhost is providing an upgrade plan to me but the server would be changed due to which I'll have to manually transfer all my files/db and everything to a new location...

I wanted to know:-

1. Can I backup my database through phpmyadmin to a .SQL file and restore it onto the new server ?? with this way, I won't be losing any data like users, posts and everything.. right ??

2. As I have made a lot of modifications and have lots of hacks installed, so can I copy the whole "FORUMS" folder and paste it to the new location as it is. What possible changes will I have to make in the vBulletin settings ??
I think only the config.php file requires editing .. or anything else tooo ??

3. My Domain Control Panel will also be changed from Plesk to DotNetPanel, will it have any major affect ??

Thank You

I moved servers last weekend and managed the whole transfer through whm and used "Copy an account from another server"

but as my host told, I'll have to MANUALLY transfer everything... there is no option like "Copy an account from another server"

by the way, what is WHM ??

Sounds like you do not have cPanel on the server. The manual backup would be the only way, and you wouldn't lose data doing it this way. It may take a while and slow your connection down due to the fact of how large the database may be.
1) Yes you can - you will lose nothing
2) Again yes, this will work fine
3) I have never heard of this panel, so the only significant change may or may not be just the functionality of using said control panel

i took a demo of this so called DotNetPanel, i find it good and easy to use just like cPanel if compared to Plesk which is really slow and buggy...

by the way, how does a domain cp can affect so much?? coz all we require in relation to vBulletin is advanced file permissions, creating mail a/c's, a file manager, creating setting databases... all such features are there in the said panel !!

--------------- Added [DATE]1206031529[/DATE] at [TIME]1206031529[/TIME] ---------------

i had always been on windows server, maybe that is the reason why I do not have cPanel..

by the way, does vBulletin performs better on a Linux server...??? coz if that is the case, then I'll switch to it..

I have not used vBulletin on a windows server to be honest. If you do not run other applications that requires a windows server, then I would say switch to a linux server. You could switch to linux, get cPanel, and be paying a few bucks less than if you had the windows server.

this is the only problem sir, actually I require ASP for my other personal website to run.. that linux does not support..

please tell me, how can the performance of vB be affected from a windows or linux based server... coz all we require is PHP, and both supports that..

is it something like linux executes PHP scripts pretty faster if compared to windows ??

Afraid I haven't used windows enough to be able to say for sure. I would stick with your windows server as you have other applications that require windows

also please refer to this page, its my webhosts site and its plans..
http://www.netwayweb.net/web_hosting_india.php#

both the prices of windows and linux hosting is same i.e. 2400 INR

and which plan do you recommend ??

I would look at http://crissic.com/dedispecials.php to see if any of those suit your needs. I have a server with them and they are fantastic =)(keep in mind their prices are in USD)

the prices are tooo high for me... minimum plan is 40$ per month i.e. 1600 INR

and I am currently paying 1200 INR per year... even after upgrade it would be just 2400 per year..

oh I see you are on shared hosting. I do not think Crissic offers Windows shared hosting, but http://crissic.com/shared.php -- they have some decent pricing there.

ya.. I see, the prices are almost the same now..

by the way, when does a person go for shared hosting and when for dedicated ???
what is there that dedicated has and shared does not ???

thankss

a dedicated you have more access to do what you want to on it, and have more space and bandwidth. With a dedicated its your own server, so you can do as you please, install server applications, edit security etc.

By the likes of the site you are on currently (tech555.com) you really shouldn't need a dedicated box until you experiance high server loads (a few hundred people on at a time, thousands of posts, etc)

thank you soo much for this useful info sir..

well...my site is a week old.. and one day would definately become the botm.. so i'm planning from right now, lol !!

thankss

I understand! If its 1 week old with 170 registered users, I would assume you would be aiming for a dedicated within a year. Best of luck to you with your website, and if you have any further questions let me know!

thank you sooooo muchhh once again sir... your 3 lines has made me more crazierrr for my website.. am sure my website would do well pretty soon ..

will definately let you know if have any further queriess !!

What if the source server do not have access, can we still transfer through WHM?

Like in my case, my host shut down my forum saying that i am utilizing more of his CPU resources, so now i upgrade to a VPS and doing the transfer manually.

lets asume they both have cPanel

1) Go into your shared account, make a FULL backup, wait for the email saying it is complete.
2) Go into legacy file manager, or your FTP program you use, and move it to the "public_html" or "www" directory. Change the permissions to 777
3) login to "root" SSH via puTTy.exe (google it)
type this:
4) Go into ROOT WHM on your VPS server, and click "Restore full cpmove/cpbackup"
5) finally, type in the username you use to login to cPanel with
6) wait for it to say "done" (after all the other "restoring" stuff it will say)
There ya go, you transfered all your files, databases, settings, and email accounts (etc) to your VPS server

vBulletin runs on IIS seamlessly. You can also run your ASP applications as well, as PHP is separate and doesn't interfere.

phpMyAdmin is a nice tool to do lazy basic admin, but it's lousy if you're trying to dump a large database that takes more time than the php max execution time setting.

best option is to do it by hand.

1. get SSH access to your server.
2. login via SSH
3. backup your entire public_html folder (assuming you're on cPanel already)
# tar -cvf backup.tar /home/username/public_html

4. dump your database and tar it up
# mysqldump -Uusername -Ppassword database_name > somefile.sql
# tar -cvf database.tar /path/to/somefile.sql

5. move these two tar files to your public_html folder
6. login to your windows server via RDP
7. open a browser window and browse to the two files and download them to your desktop.
8. unzip the two files to your webroot
9. reimport the .sql file to your database
# mysql -Uusername -Ppassword database_name < somefile.sql

enjoy