[slappy]

You did not say if you created the backup with phpMyAdmin, the AdminCP or MySQL.

In posts on vBulletin.com I find:

This is a server time limit. To temporarily up your limits edit your includes/config.php file and add this line right under the <?php line:

ini_set("max_execution_time", "240");

This, and other post on vBulletin.com also said:

This is a server issue where the process is taking longer than the maximum allowed on the server.

The only consistently reliable method of backing up and restoring a database is with shell access via telnet or ssh. This is because backing up with a PHP script like that in the Admin CP or phpMyAdmin can result in PHP timeout errors and an incomplete backup file.

Please see the instructions here:

Backup:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...nce_ssh_backup

Restore:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...ce_ssh_restore

If you don't have telnet or SSH access, some people have reported success with these scripts:

MySQLDumper:
http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php

MySQLHotxcopy:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...t=mysqlhotcopy

Bigdump (restore only):
http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php

Hope that helps.

Regards,