Restoring a Database - help needed

[Sir Osis of Liver]

If you can pm cpanel access (url, username, password), will have a look when I'm on tonight.

[Nixxi]

Many thanks. I have done this 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Just got on, will have a look.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Wow. 

- Ok, first thing is, you don't have FTP access, and that can only be accomplished by having access to the owner's email account, which you don't have.  Should be able to work around that using file manager.

- Your host is running php 5.6.16, which will cause problems with SMF 1.x.  You can revert to php 5.5, but I don't believe that will help.  You'll need to upgrade to SMF 2.0.11.

- Your database is 6.7gb, 6.6gb of which is smf_log_errors (contains 16,777,215 errors).  I've emptied the table, now the db is 94.6mb, which is a manageable size.  I don't see a db backup in your forum root.  I've exported the db as sql and gz, looks like one or both may be useable. 

Will see if I can get your database running on a test install.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I have it running here.  Replaced smf_ban_groups with a clean table, upgrade from 1.1.21 to 2.0.11 was successful.  Everything works, but several years of posts are missing.  If you click on last post link in any active topic on board index, you'll get an error.  Look in the topic and you'll see no recent posts.  Where is the db backup your host provided?

n/m found it.  Will see if I can do anything with it.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

<sigh>

Downloaded what appears to be your host's backup - totherplace_co_.sql.gz dated 1-3-16.  It's 107.16mb, unzips to 5.56gb.  Don't have anything that will open the file, so can't edit it manually, and it's well over limit to import.  Will ask my host to import it to a scratch database, and try upgrading it.  They should get to it by the time I get on tomorrow.  If you have a different db backup, let me know where it is.

[Horatio Alger]

OMG, thank you so much for your help,  Sir Osis. Things are looking much better after your input. Nixxi and I couldn't have done that in a month of Sundays. Thanks again, really appreciate your support.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Host has not imported db as yet, they may not get to it until Mon.  Can't do anything further until they do.  Will not be on again until late Sun.  Meanwhile, would be helpful if you could kick around the test install and see if there are any other problems or missing content.


Update:  My host has refused to import the db backup because it is so huge (they will import 1gb max).  Have asked them if they can empty or drop smf_log_errors, then import it, but would be surprised if they do.  You must ask your host if there is any way to restore the backup from your account.

[Nixxi]

Will do.

Once again, thank you for your help. This appears to have been a good deal of work, and we greatly appreciate it.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Re your pm, I see the forum is up but cannot register, get database error.  What did you do to get it running? 

No, you do not want to upgrade to 2.1, it's only at beta 2, and not recommended for production forums.  You'll need to upgrade to 2.0.11, your host is running php 5.6, as per this.

Can you give me admin access to the forum?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Nixxi, if you get back to this, was able to get my host to import the 6.6gb database backup your host provided.  Cleaned it up, connected it to clean 1.1.21 install, upgraded to 2.0.11.  Everything works, not throwing any errors, last post is 4 Jan.  Your 1.1.19 install is a mess, generating a lot of errors, registration doesn't work, needs to be upgraded to 2.0.11.  Not a good idea to upgrade the damaged database.  If you want to do anything with this, let me know.

[Nixxi]

Many apologies for not getting back to you last night. I have been away for a short holiday and have been managing to post here while away. Anyway, I was travelling home, hence the drop out.

To take recent questions in order:

1. I didn't do anything other than described in this topic! I assumed that it was something you had done

2. Although there is a database error, it's possible to log in, and members have been posting since Saturday when the forum reappeared. The only problems are with Chrome OS and iOS where the page has to be refreshed after logging in to reach the forum. Otherwise, everything seems fine, and nothing is missing.

3. Yes, please. We need to move forward. Many thanks.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Will try to upgrade to 2.0.11.  I've hacked Amanda's account to get admin access, will reset it when I'm done.  Unable to d/l backup of forum files, server is too slow, so I've copied everything into /1.1.19 backup.  Database will not upgrade as is, but should be able to fix it.  You're in maintenance mode, this may take a while.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

No go.  Am unable to upload folders with your cpanel file manager, just files, and it's very slow.  Need ftp access, and doesn't appear to be any way to do that without access to owner's email account.  Fixed the database, restored Amanda's password, and left admin account for Sir Osis.  You're back to 1.1.19.  Going off now, will have another try tomorrow.  What you really need to do is create a new host account so you have complete access, do a clean install, and import the database.  Meanwhile you should disable error logging (Admin -> Features and Options -> Enable error logging), or your database will bloat up again.

[Nixxi]

A new domain and hosting account was always our intention once we had regained access to the forum, so we are going to start dealing with this straight away. We weren't sure if we would be able to use the old database, but your previous post indicates that we can, so that's great news.

In the meantime, there doesn't seem much point in flogging a dead horse (trying to upgrade again) when we can do a clean install from new hosting, so please don't waste your time Sir. O. We sincerely thank you for what you have achieved already.

We hope you won't mind, but we will probably (almost certainly) need further help setting up/moving, although we will obviously try support topics and the manual first.  On that note, I won't mark this topic "solved" just yet, and I can revisit later.

[Kindred]

please note... you can NOT do a clean install of 2.0
You would need to install 1.1.19 on the NEW server -- import the existign 1.1.19 database and then run reapir_settings.php

THEN you can do the upgrade on the NEW host...

[Nixxi]

Kindred, you are a mind-reader! I just came back here to ask that very question (which version to install).

Thanks

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I added the missing table (smf_ban_groups) from the upgraded 2.0.11 database to your 1.1.19 db, shouldn't cause any problems.  upgrade.php will not run if the table is not there.