Moving Host & Converting to SMF

[Krisper]

Hi All,

I am in the process of transferring a site from one host to another, and would like to migrate the current PHPbb 3.0 forum to SMF. I have a fresh install of SMF 2.0.6, and a full db/data/structure backup of the PHPbb forum.

I have dled the phpbb3_to_smf.sql file, as well as the login fix file, but I'm at a loss as to exactly where to put each of these files, and where to put the backup of the PHPbb forum so it can migrate.

Currently, I do have access to both hosts, but I'm not sure how long I'll have access to the one with the PHPbb forum.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[margarett]

On the safe side, you should migrate all your phpBB installation to your new host, so that you don't depend from the old one. It is quite easy to do this in SMF, I assume a similar procedure exists for phpBB (but don't know it...)

So, imagine you have phpBB already running in your new host, under www.something.com/forum1
Then you install SMF in www.something.com/forum2

You follow the regular procedure to convert:
Converting to SMF
We can help you in further detail.

Finally, after conversion, you delete phpBB files, rename "forum2" to whatever you wish (or move the files to the root) and finally run repair_settings to adjust SMF's paths
What is repair_settings.php?

You should really move phpBB first so that you don't get "stuck". The conversion might or might not be a straightforward process, so I advise you to do it without hurries, perform a test conversion first, play with it and, when you are satisfied, repeat it for good.

[Krisper]

Ok, will do that first then.

[Krisper]

Alright, so I've went ahead and installed the phpbb under the new host, as well as SMF. I've started the converter and so far I've gotten this:

Converting...
Converting ranks... Successful.
Converting groups... Successful.
Converting members... Successful.
Converting additional member groups... Successful.
Preparing for categories conversion... Successful.
Converting categories... Successful.
Converting boards... Successful.
Fixing categories... Successful.
Converting topics... Successful.
Converting posts...

It's been stuck on "Converting posts..." for about five minutes now. Is that normal? There's about 8000+ posts for it to convert, so I just wanted to make sure things were going smoothly since there's no progress bar or anything.

Thanks!

[Krisper]

Any help from anyone would be appreciated...

It's been hung up on "Converting posts..." now for a half hour, with no update on the script (no error, no continue, no nothing). When I look at the forum itself, it appears that only a few threads have been converted.

[margarett]

8000 posts is reasonably a small amount if posts. That kind of behavior usually means that your MySQL is taking a lot of time to perform queries...

Who is your host?

[Krisper]

dot5hosting

I already spoke to them, and they stated that they were unable to assist with these kinds of requests. I just told them it was lagging and I was curious as to if it was a timeout issue. I have access to my php.ini file, and the limit is set to 120, so I'm not sure what else to do.

I've converted 3 other forums successfully on this host, but that was a few years ago. No clue as to why this one is causing so much trouble.

[margarett]

Not a good reply

I usually do convert and upgrade operations (which are heavy, regarding database interaction) in my localhost and then upload the converted forum.

Edit: just looked at their site, I see too much "Unlimited" stuff and this explains both this issue and their (lack of) reply...

[Krisper]

Is there a way I could do the conversion on my own system and upload it like you said?

[Krisper]

Or, is there a sql script I could run on the host itself? I have access to phpMyAdmin.

[Illori]

i dont think you will see any difference running anything in phpmyadmin. your best bet is to really find a non-oversold host that does not offer unlimited anything and try it on that host.

[margarett]

Is there a way I could do the conversion on my own system and upload it like you said?

Xampp, wamp, etc.

[Krisper]

Alright, I'm installing Xampp, but I've never done a conversion this way before. Would you be able to give me some steps if possible?

[margarett]

It is exactly the same as you would do in your usual server. Just access localhost/smf_folder as you would access www.your_domain.com/smf_folder
Access phpmyadmin via localhost/phpmyadmin

[Krisper]

Sorry if this is a really dumb question, but in order to do this, I would have to have a directory copy of both forums then on my computer, correct? And the databases?

So I would have 2 forum directories: localhost/smf & localhost/phpbb under one directory

Where would I put the 2 databases on my computer? Same folder or different folder?

[Krisper]

Before I decided to try to figure out the localhost, I went to the old Host that I'm moving my friends site from, and decided to try to do the conversion there. Lo and behold, it at least works to the point of getting the "Continue" button!

However, after the first Continue, I got this error: Converting...
Converting posts...
Duplicate entry '7566' for key 'PRIMARY'

Sorry for soooo many questions on this. I really appreciate all your help!

[margarett]

You can either search your posts table for a duplicate id or we can go with the usual "ignore" trick

[Krisper]

Got it to work... Thaaaank you!

So, next question. I did a structure & data backup of the forum now that it's converted to SMF on the old host. Now, how to I import that into SMF on the new host? I was trying to do a straight sql import but it tells me there's no data in the backup to import. o.O

[margarett]

How do I move my SMF forum to a different host?

Go with this, for a start