How do you update?

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sakm
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How do you update?

Post by sakm »

No I'm not asking how to do it!

I'm just curious of how other people update phpBB with the minimum downtime etc

I have seen boards get updated in a matter of minutes before yet it always seems to take me a fair while :?

It would be interesting to know people process :)
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Mick
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Re: How do you update?

Post by Mick »

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Re: How do you update?

Post by Brf »

Mick wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:50 pm Knowledge Base - Updating 3.2.x
sakm is looking for testimonials, not instructions.
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Re: How do you update?

Post by Mick »

I know, thats how I do it.
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AlfredoRamos
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Re: How do you update?

Post by AlfredoRamos »

I replicate my client's website on a local server, upgrade the board and, when everything is working as it should, upload database changes back to the server.

I usually work on a database copy so when I need to use the new one I only have to change the config.php file, to have a downtime for just a few seconds.
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sakm
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Re: How do you update?

Post by sakm »

AbaddonOrmuz wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:18 pm I replicate my client's website on a local server, upgrade the board and, when everything is working as it should, upload database changes back to the server.

I usually work on a database copy so when I need to use the new one I only have to change the config.php file, to have a downtime for just a few seconds.
but while you are working on the update on a copy of the database what if there are changes to posts etc? there must be a point where you disable the board to prevent further posting?
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Re: How do you update?

Post by AlfredoRamos »

sakm wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:31 pm but while you are working on the update on a copy of the database what if there are changes to posts etc? there must be a point where you disable the board to prevent further posting?
Not always (client instructions) but yes, I have had put the board in maintenance mode (not though the ACP). Usually upgrades are done in a time with low traffic (close to zero) and the maintenance is announced at least one week before the upgrade.

When I had to put the maintenance it does not last more than a couple of hours.
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sakm
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Re: How do you update?

Post by sakm »

AbaddonOrmuz wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:52 pm
sakm wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:31 pm but while you are working on the update on a copy of the database what if there are changes to posts etc? there must be a point where you disable the board to prevent further posting?
Not always (client instructions) but yes, I have had put the board in maintenance mode (not though the ACP). Usually upgrades are done in a time with low traffic (close to zero) and the maintenance is announced at least one week before the upgrade.

When I had to put the maintenance it does not last more than a couple of hours.
I wish I had a quiet time :lol:
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: How do you update?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

just get prepared and tell your members when it will be. I think you will find there will be no problems with it being off for a couple of hours etc.


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Re: How do you update?

Post by david63 »

I always, since 3.1, use the changed files option - upload those files plus vendor and install folders (after having deleted the vendor folder first) and then run database update - all done in five minutes.
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Re: How do you update?

Post by sakm »

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:13 am just get prepared and tell your members when it will be. I think you will find there will be no problems with it being off for a couple of hours etc.


robert
Even if I do this with a weeks notice I still get emails from the members!
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Re: How do you update?

Post by thecoalman »

I have a lot of custom edits. I keep a list of files that have those custom edits and each edit is commented so I know exactly what it's there for. I download the changed files package and see what files are in it that have custom edits. Then I use Winmerge to compare and merge my edits with the new files that have been updated.

Changed files package with my custom edits is then merged into a local copy overwriting the old files. Quick check to make sure everything is working as expected to insure we don't have some lame php error because of missing comma..... Maintence mode on live version,dump the database one last time. ,upload the files to the server and run the update. It's literally minutes to complete the online version.
sakm wrote: Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:34 pm
Even if I do this with a weeks notice I still get emails from the members!
This should only take a few minutes. I once moved entire forum with 650K posts to another domain, upgrade from 3.0.X to 3.2.X, nixed a URL rewrite on old domain with redirect to the standard phpBB URL's on new domain and few other tasks. Think it took 15 minutes but that was after many days of setting it up and some dry runs. For about 3 or 4 days Google was sucking up about 50K pages per day, nothing succeeds like success. :D
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Re: How do you update?

Post by 3Di »

I do my stuffs in local first (it takes the time it needs) then I put the board in maintenance mode (not through the ACP) but giving a
HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable header using a file I coded on purpose.

Here it is: https://gist.github.com/3D-I/8fb88dc810 ... 675a4b926f

Due to the fact we don't want that search engines index that page while doing this job. :geek:

Moreover you can modify it to fit your needs, the users will read the announce you wrote in there and patiently (or not) will wait for it. :)
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Re: How do you update?

Post by KYPREO »

I am not very savvy with these things so updates take me longer to do. I have a self managed VPS running windows 10. I made a maintenance page with a 503 header purposes which i have saved in a separate folder. While doing maintenance that will last more than a few minutes, i point IIS to the maintenance folder so users and Google etc see the maintenance page while i work on the forum software and datababse in the background.

I also the Board Announcements extension which is very useful for notifying users of these things as i find users rarely read site announcement topics. From memory these announcements continue to display while a board is disabled from within the ACP, so you notify users what's happening, when it will be back up etc
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Re: How do you update?

Post by </Solidjeuh> »

I just delete all files & folders except images, ext, files, store, .htaccess & config.php from my server.
Download the new phpBB, and delete the config.php & .htaccess from that folder.
Then just upload the folder & install ..

But first of all, I update my custom style to the new phpBB version.

Took me less then 5 min from phpBB 3.2.3 RC2 to 3.2.3

And let's not forget to make a database or even better, a full backup before you start!
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