Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

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doughs
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Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by doughs »

I have been trying for weeks to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another. I tried running wget under SSH many times to get all the files transferred but it always abended due to high volume. Last night, with help from tech support at the receiving hosting company, I think the files all transferred.

But the forum is not usable. All that comes up is the index page. All of the links (to subforums, "register," "login," "chat," etc.) are "not found."

I am thinking I need to reinstall the PHPBB software. But then how do I keep all of the forums and posts and usernames from being overwritten?

I have no idea what I need to do. Please help.
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by doughs »

I am having a horrendous time at this. I have been working on this for a month and a half. I transferred the old PHPBB forum to the new hosting company using WGET. I just completed downloading these files to my local machine. I now have 45,000 files in a directory on my local machine. Now I am supposed to create a GZIP file and upload it to the hosting server? Or do I just create the GZIP file on the hosting server?

I am completely lost about how to do this. Apparently there are people who think that migrating this huge PHPBB is fun or something, but for me this is an ordeal. It is like being hazed. I don't know how to do anything at any of the steps in this process, and I have a Ph.D.

I should just start from scratch. What do I do next?
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by doughs »

So I have about 45000 files, most of which have names like:

viewtopic.php_p=70618
viewtopic.php_p=71190
viewtopic.php_p=71342
viewtopic.php_p=72716
viewtopic.php_p=70473
etc.

So what do I do with all of these 45000 files? Combine them into a single gzip? I have no idea how to transform these 45000 files into a MYSQL database that PHP can use. Please help.
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

phpbb is no where near that many files.
also there are no files in phpbb by those names. not sure what you are doing to get those files.

all of your posts , forums, topics , users etc. are in the database.


usually the easiest way to do this is to simply install a brand new version of phpbb on the new server by uploading all the new files.
then, you go to the new host , create a new blank database and run the phpbb install process like normal.

once you get a working new board, you go to your hosting control panel, to phpmyadmin or whatever your host provides for database management, and import your old database backup into your new database.

then, you run reupload the folder named install from your new set of phpbb files. then you access yourdomain.com/yourphpbb/install

then click update tab. then click update button,
then click update datab ase only and wait.


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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by meetdilip »

There a lot of hosts which will do the migration for free. If your host wants some fee, see if you can afford it.

cPanel allows you to take a full backup and restore from it. If you run into problems, try seeking help from your host support.
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by EA117 »

I agree with the idea that you might be at the point where having the host do the migration for you, or hiring someone to do it from the Wanted! forum, might be the most productive salvage of the time you have already spent. Not that you can't still do it yourself, but the frustration may be as challenging an obstacle as the technical requirements at this point.
doughs wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:04 am So I have about 45000 files, most of which have names like:

viewtopic.php_p=70618
viewtopic.php_p=71190
viewtopic.php_p=71342
viewtopic.php_p=72716
viewtopic.php_p=70473
etc.
Those particular filenames suggest that WGET was invoked to traverse the HTTP structure of your site, instead of using FTP access. With FTP access, you would have downloaded primarily .PHP files and data files, which are the "source code" and uploaded files used by phpBB to present the content of the site. Traversing the site via HTTP, on the other hand, is saving all the HTML data that is generated by these .PHP files to visually present the site to web browsers, rather than downloading the .PHP file itself. Downloading the HTML data is more like "taking screen shots of every discussion thread on your site" rather than making a backup of the site.

You or the support team helping you may have also downloaded your entire site via FTP, such that you already also have a good backup; we don't know for sure. I'm just confirming to you that these "viewtopic.php_p=7xxxx"-type files you mentioned don't represent the actual "source" files that would have been downloaded as part of an FTP-based backup, and those "viewtopic.php_p=7xxxx"-type files themselves don't represent any kind of "backup" you want to bother restoring to the new site.

But maybe the "real backup" is also there, hiding among the same large set of files you have. Because maybe you or the support staff assisting you did also perform an FTP-based download in addition to the HTTP-based download.

So that is probably the first thing to check: Within your backup do you have a set of directories that look more like the directory structure you see inside the .ZIP file if you download the full phpBB 3.2.5 installation set. Specifically at least the /files/, /images/, /store/ and /ext/ directories of the "old" site, if not simply "all" of the directories. If you don't have an FTP-based backup of those directories already, you probably want to get such a backup before you lose access to the old site (if that hasn't already happened).

In addition to the file system backup via FTP, you also need a backup of the SQL database. This database backup could have been created from within phpBB in the ACP's "Maintenance" tab for making database backups, or could have been created from an SQL management tool provided by your server host to export the current database contents. In either case, you end up with a single text file that represents the database backup, and inside that single text file are the scores of SQL commands needed to re-create your database tables and their contents.

I'm going to just stop there for now; while you assess whether you even have an FTP-based file system backup of your previous site, versus maybe only having the HTTP-based traversal of your site. Since that will pretty much dictate what needs to happen next. If you're still unsure of what files you really have, then perhaps this task too is one you want to try and get your new hosting copy to do for you, or to be part of the task you would hire out to the Wanted! forum.

Best of luck. Definitely not something that is necessarily obvious or intuitive, particularly when web-based PHP applications are otherwise not something you've had the necessity to manage.
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by doughs »

Thanks for your help.

I found a file I downloaded before the 45000 files called localhost.sql. The problem is it is 209 MB and this is too large for phpmyadmin. When I try to import, I get the message "413 Request Entity Too Large."
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by stevemaury »

What is your php version? Not phpBB, rather php. If < 7, use this - https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... ase-dumps/

If the php version is >7, posy back for another solution. Also, do you have SSH access to the server?
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by doughs »

4.8.3

But I don't have a bigdump.zip file. Are you saying I should convert the localhost.sql to bigdump.zip? How do I do that?

I have SSH access to the server I am moving to but the one I am moving from is discontinued.
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by stevemaury »

You download the bigdump.zip file. It contains the BigDump program. It will import your localhost.sql file. Are you sure about that php version? That looks like a phpMyAdmin version. What is the php version? If shows in the ACP/
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by warmweer »

doughs wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:43 pm 4.8.3

But I don't have a bigdump.zip file. Are you saying I should convert the localhost.sql to bigdump.zip? How do I do that?

I have SSH access to the server I am moving to but the one I am moving from is discontinued.
Who said anything about converting something to bigdump.zip?

BIgdump.zip is probably a file you downloaded and is a compressed file containing bigdump.php + some info file.
Bigdump.php is a script which allows a staggered import of an sql backup. In other words, SQLs that are too large for phpMyAdmin will be processed in stages.

Have you looked at the locahost.sql? Is it a complete backup?

The most simple way is to make a backup using the phpBB Backup system. That backup can be used in another phpBB installation for restoring to make a copy of the database backuped.
Make a new (empty) board
Put the phpBB-made backup in the /store
Log in and go to the ACP, Maintenance.Restore.
After restoring, use phpMyAdmin to edit the config_table (domain, cookiename, scriptpath, ..)
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by doughs »

5.6.36

Where do I download the bigdump.zip file, and how do I get my localhost.sql file into it?

I no longer have access to the orginating PHPBB install on the server that used to host my site.

All I have is the localhost.sql file that I downloaded from that site.

How do I get that localhost.sql file into my new site?
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by warmweer »

doughs wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:09 pm 5.6.36

Where do I download the bigdump.zip file, and how do I get my localhost.sql file into it?
Did you read stevemaury's post ?

edit: Check your localhost.sql!
Because if that doesn't contain the full backup, then it's going to be (very) difficult if not impossible to restore the board.
Last edited by warmweer on Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Trying to copy a PHPBB from one hosting company to another

Post by stevemaury »

Yes, read the KB article I linked to. It's all there.
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