[twistsol]

Not to be harsh, but if you're asking this question, you aren't ready to upgrade a production site. Upgrading vBulletin is not like installing a new version of Office. It requires planning, testing, and feedback from your community. I've been managing software projects for over 30 years and the best way to fail is to do this by the seat of your pants without a plan.

What is in the upgrade document gives the basic steps to upgrade, not a detailed step by step plan. There is an assumption that you have access to your web server, have at the very least basic skills moving files around on the server, and have access to your database. Assuming all that, note that upgrading from 3.8.11 to 5.4.4 you WILL LOSE all your styles, and any extenstions or customizations you have.

A detailed step by step guide would be difficult if not impossible to produce since there are so many differences from one server setup to another.

My best advice would be as follows:

Determine why you want to upgrade. If it is to be on the latest version, then stop and don't go any further. If you have other valid reasons then:

1. Identify all your customizations and extenstions and find replacements for them if they are not already built into VB5.
2. Know that there won't be replacments for all of them and you may need to live without some functionality you have today.
3. Determine if you, and your users, can live without that functionality and decide if the upgrade still makes sense.

Once you've decided to proceed with the upgrade, create a backup of your database and site files and use those to build a test environment to practice your upgrade. The very first time I did this I went from 387 to 422 and practiced it over a dozen times until I could get it upgraded in about 4 hours. That upgrade plan had over 100 individual steps.

Document in excrutiating detail the steps necessary to upgrade and differences, if any, between the steps in your test and production environments.

Decide if you will build, buy, or use one of the built in styles for your site.

Once your test upgrade is done and the way YOU like it on your test site, open it up for a few select users of your site to look around and poke at it. There will be stuff you may have missed, things you like that they hate etc. Take their feedback seriously and adjust your test site as necessary.

Now you're almost ready to upgrade your live site.

Add to your upgrade plan the necessary steps to restore your site to pre upgrade condition if everything goes to hell.

Upgrade your production site and good luck to you. If you have specific questions and need help as you go along, ask here and you'll get plenty of help