Whats the best way to minimise disruption during upgrade...? +++++
 

ok guys and girls.

Ive been working on my 'testvb' forum (not public etc as per Vb licensing rules) for the past few weeks with my main 'live' forum still running as normal.

My real live forum is quite busy and is running VB 3.6.1

The new forum I have been building was based on a clone of the live forum but is a snapshot from a month or so back in time.

As I have built the new forum I have done a LOT of customisations and added lots of mods....but stupidly have only documented my work for the past few days..when i realised the problem.
What is the best way to transfer the old database into the new forum 'shell' if you like...

I have not changed the forum structure at all so theoretically I was thinking to (close my current testvb and store the files offline so I dont break the rules)

1/ shut the forum in the early hours of the morning (12.01am)

2/Copy the entire live forum into a new directory 'testvb'.

3/Run the upgrade process on the new 'testvb' forum.

4/Copy the files I saved offline back to overwrite all files (that are the same) in the new 'testvb' install.

5/Backup and delete the main forum from the Root directory

6/Copy the new 'testvb' to the root directory and rename config settings etc to the name of the 'real live db'

Will this work? am I missing anything?

Thanks.....All help and advice appreciated

you've listed it... now it's time to do it!

Thanks!!!

Ive been putting it off for ages so I ought to get stuck in to it :)

but I wanted to check I hadn't missed something or made a silly mistake in my upgrade plan!!!

If there are database changes for any of the mods or customization you've added then it wont work. What you've layed out will only upgrade the forum and make file changes.

Take copious notes while doing test upgrades in your testvb. Then, based off those notes, after doing a final backup, upgrade your live vB forum.
Here's a link to my notes that I created while waiting for vB3.7 to go Gold:
http://www.ozmad.net/forums/showthread.php?t=871
May this be of help to you.
~OZ

I realise that but thanks anyway..

theOZer - Thanks a lot! I will take a read of this right now..