Need help in moving large database to new server

A little background:
I run a forum for automobile enthusistast in Maryland.
www.mdstreetscene.com
www.mdstreetscene.com/forum
~2,000 users. 400 active. Maximum of 25 users online at any given time.
Shared Premium Hosting account w/ PHP/Perl w/ GoDaddy (yea yea, there's your problem, blah blah, I know)

Starting December 27, 2007, the forums, at various times, have been extremely slow. On that day the server load average hit 34.79 24.60 20.74 with 8 Users Online. I realize that those averages show the entire server, not just my site. Since that day, the load averages have hit 12.xx at various times. It will take 10-12 seconds (or sometimes longer) for the AdminCP to load or to do a "New Posts" search. About the same time to read a thread. Then again, sometimes the forum will be perfectly fine. However, even when the forums slow to a crawl, the averages may only be 2.x I have contacted GoDaddy and they say "everything" is as normal. I contacted them the other night, and they asked me to do a Trace Route to my site and send the results to them. I did it just to appease them. Well, the traceroute is going to mdstreetscene.com (the html site). The database is on http://mysql47.secureserver.net/ So I don't quite know how that is going to help them diagnose the problem. They probably just want to say that it's on my end with too many hops or something.

Anyway, I want to stop using GoDaddy for the database/forum part. They are alright for file hosting (I have 200GB of storage w/ 2TB of bandwidth. And my download speeds are ~750kb/s)

I have acquired a Virtual Server with Windows Administrator access. (I can install whatever program I want/need) I am running Apache w/ MySQL, PHP, etc. I want to upload/put my 400mb database on this server. I don't quite know how to do it. What file type should I be uploading and where? Using what program? I assume I would have to copy the actual vBulletin forum files to the new server too? That's fine, it'll take awhile, but it's doable.

Is there a way I can use a brand new vBulletin forum installation (which I currently have on this virtual server), and just add my database info such as users, posts, threads, and PM's? This way I kind of have a fresh start and I can build it up.

I know this may be a lot to ask, but thanks for any help you can give.

[encryption]

if your site is important to you, pls dont use "windows" as a platform for hosting. The number of times even windows 2003 has to be rebooted because of stupid security updates is ridiculous. Just go with *nux (Cent OS imo) - one of my servers has been up for over 300 days now (knock on wood).

[snakes1100]

Originally Posted by jayunsplanet

Is there a way I can use a brand new vBulletin forum installation (which I currently have on this virtual server), and just add my database info such as users, posts, threads, and PM's? This way I kind of have a fresh start and I can build it up.

I know this may be a lot to ask, but thanks for any help you can give.

Yes, you can use ImPex to import the data you want into a new installation of vb.

1. dump old db
2. ftp old db backup to new server
3. create new db
4. install new vb in new db
5. install & config impex
6. impex the data from your old vb that you want to the new vb install.
6. start up impex and import the data

[SEOvB]

Originally Posted by encryption

if your site is important to you, pls dont use "windows" as a platform for hosting. The number of times even windows 2003 has to be rebooted because of stupid security updates is ridiculous. Just go with *nux (Cent OS imo) - one of my servers has been up for over 300 days now (knock on wood).

Windows hosting is just as reliable and secure as *nix hosting. Its the admins that run the servers that are the issue most the time.

And to answer the OP, take your old config.php file from goDaddy, put it on your windows machine.

Create the database with same username and password from the config.php file, and restore the old database into it.

All done.

[jayunsplanet]

Originally Posted by snakes1100

Yes, you can use ImPex to import the data you want into a new installation of vb.

1. dump old db
2. ftp old db backup to new server
3. create new db
4. install new vb in new db
5. install & config impex
6. impex the data from your old vb that you want to the new vb install.
6. start up impex and import the data

Ok, I got Impex installed. I'm having trouble getting a connection to the old database. All I have is a 400mb SQL file (database "dump" dload from GoDaddy) on my local drive. That is what I want to be the source. Where should I put that, physically on the harddrive? Or does it not matter. How do I tell Impex to look at that file. It seems to want to connect to a server instead of browsing for a file. I'm so lost.

[snakes1100]

Where ever the source is, it has to be running on a live sql server, it cant just be a sql file on your local hard drive.

Create a 2nd db on the new server, named whatever your like, import the old db to that db, in the impex config file, set that to the source db.

[encryption]

Originally Posted by FRDS

Windows hosting is just as reliable and secure as *nix hosting. Its the admins that run the servers that are the issue most the time.

if you insist

[jayunsplanet]

How do you upload/import a database from an sql file? Everything I see just says < databasename.sql... Ok, thats great, but you have to tell mysql where the "databasename.sql" is located, right?

[snakes1100]

If the db isnt created yet, use phpmyadmin and create a new one, add the user to the db and set the passwd, then from a shell, type this and input the passwd when prompted, ill use root in this example, you can use either tho, the user & passwd you create in phpmyadmin for hte new db or simply use root & passwd as it does all.

mysql -uroot -p newdbname < /path/to/sql/file/here.sql [enter]

Oops, forgot your on a winblowz box, you will need to fire up mysql command line client and use it to import the db using cmd line.

[jayunsplanet]

I still lost @ the path part...
Maybe this will make it simpler.
My database that I want to upload is called "mdssvbulletin"
It is physically located @ C:/web/htdocs/mdssvbulletin.sql
That is the root of my webserver.

The new DB I created in PHPMyAdmin is "mdssvbulletin1"