What if I don't know the db password?

Started by MensaMod, November 24, 2014, 04:29:49 PM

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MensaMod

Hello. 

I'm one of the users of an SMF system that's badly back-level (SMF 1.1.19 or so, sitting on PHP 5.2.x and MySQL 5.1).  The host will be updating the infrastructure to PHP 5.3.x and MySQL 5.5x in a couple of weeks so I suddenly inherited Admin duties to get us ready for that.  I'm pretty good on a couple of operating systems but I'm still learning how to type in lower case so I'll be humbly grateful for any help I can get.

I'm not dumb enough to try upgrading the live system without testing the process first, so my first job is to build a sandbox to play in.  I used cPanel's Backup to make .gz copies of everything I can to my own system, then used cPanel's File Manager to create a \public_html\sandbox directory.  My plan was to use cPanel Backup to restore all those backups to the sandbox, but as I've discovered, that Upload button doesn't have a "Where to?" option.

Question 1 is, "Is there a way to direct cPanel to restore to an alternate directory?"

Assuming I get everything over there, I've read enough of the SMF manual to know to use repair_settings.php to refresh the settings on my sandbox database before I refresh the other settings.  Problem is, no-one on our  current user list knows the db password.  I used the SMF Admin tool to look at our current db.  It tells me the password is a row of little black disks and I don't have one of those characters on my keyboard. 

Question 2 is, "Is there a way to recover that password that won't do any harm to the live system?"

Thanks.

Kindred

question 1 is more a question for your host...    or you can do a backup by taking a download of all files to your local computer  -- and then re-uploading them to the second directory.

question 2 -- look in settings.php
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

MensaMod

Excellent -- two for two within minutes, and you show me the keys to the kingdom <g>. 
Thanks for the help.

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