Simple Machines Community Forum

One part of moving a forum to another host is of course to copy all the files from the public_html in oldhost to newhost and then take a backup of the database at oldhost and reinstall it at newhost.

I think I have cracked that bit. ;D I tested the move a couple of month back and again today and it seems to work all right. There's even a preview mode at my newhost so I was able to log in to the forum and fix a few things that didn't work right away like the address to Themes/default and such.

My question has to do with what I should do, and in what order, before and after the abovementioned actions now that I'm about to make the move for real.

1. I would like to stop people from logging in and/or doing anything while I make the move. Freeze everything sort of. How do I do that?

2. Anything else I should do?

3. Step 3 is the actual move of files and database.

4. Then I guess it's time to change the name server setting at (in my case) GoDaddy.

5. And then revert the things I've done in point 1 and 2, whatever they are?.

Could you help me out with point 1 and 2 (and as a consequence point 5).

you can put your forum into maintenance mode to stop people from being able to log in, you should also try running What is repair_settings.php? (http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=663.0) on your new install to make sure ALL paths are set to work correctly on your new server.

Thanks for the reply, Illori.

OK. So I will go to Admin ----> Configuration ----> Server Settings ----> Maintenance Mode? and check that box thus enabling Maintenance Mode. (And perhaps change the default message about "restoring an old backup" to something more appropriate.)

And once I have logged out I will probably not be able to log in again.

So after moving the forum I will run rapair_settings.php to fix all paths on the new server and also chose Maintenance Mode Off to make the forum accessible again for both me and the members.

And then I change the name server settings.

Have I understood things correctly?

Admins can still login and use the forum in maintenance mode

OK, sounds good.

I will report back once I have made the move.

I wish i had checked this post yesterday, I had mine moved last night and it stuffed up everything and now I have to completely reinstall the entire damn forum.

I wish you the greatest luck on this, in the hope that it all works great for you without problems. take care :)

If you saved your database all is not lost.

We have some fairly comprehensive documentation on moving from one host to another.  It can be found here:

How do I move my SMF forum to a different host? (http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=489.0)

Here is the deal:

Prep for move (Non cPanel Server). Create DB on new server.
#1 move webspace files
#2 place forums in maint mod
#3 grab DB from old host via phpmyadmin
#4 import DB via phpmyadmin into DB created on new host
#5 Switch name servers at domain registers control panel
#6 correct database settings via settings.php
#7 Open forums (take out of maint mod) in New server via settings.php
#8 after DNS resolves and if needed repair settings using repair_settings.php

Moving from cPanel server to cPanel server without root
#1 move webspace files
#2 place forums in maint mod
#3 grab backup of mysql via cpanel
#4 restore backup pf mysql via cpanel
#5 Switch name servers at domain registers control panel
#6 correct database settings via settings.php
#7 Open forums (take out of maint mod) in New server via settings.php
#8 after DNS resolves and if needed repair settings using repair_settings.php



EDIT: Removed the paid service details. Please only mention about it in the "Help Wanted Board".

Here's a report from my move to another host.

I did the move as described in my first post. When it came to using repair_settings.php I have made a screen dump indicating where I accepted the suggested or recommended values and where I did chose my own.

Green is for accepting the suggested, red for my own and blue for not accepting the suggestion without really knowing why I was so obstinate.



As for Paths & URLs I just accepted every suggestion that was thrown at me.

So what is this Cookie Name: thing? Should I accept the suggestion or stick to the one that was there considering it was a move to another host and not a backup at the same host? I decide to go with the default value and not the suggestion but I still don't know which would have been the right thing and if it is important.

As my new host has a preview function I was able to log in to the forum and see that things looked all right so far. They did so I went on to switch nameservers.

I waited for about 24 hours to let the nameserver thingy propagate. And then this strange thing happened. Sometime I was sent to my old host and sometimes to my new but after a while only to my old.

I was pretty confused but after while I noticed that other sites in my country (Sweden) was down so I did some searching and found out that my new host, a large Swedish company, was in the middle of a failed update of a new firewall so that was the explanation.

Now the forum has been running for some days and everything looks all right. Well, apart from this one thing. The acute accent in words like Café looks a bit funny now, don't know why?

So thanks to Illori, aishaweb, floridaflatlander, JimM and tumbleweed for the feed back and also Alison Black for her well wishes which I think was the decisive factor in the successful move.

---

P.S. I have a slightly related question regarding change of namesever but I don't know if I should start a new thread about it or if this is the wrong forum all together for this type a question.

When I changed nameservers at GoDaddy.com it was done in a matter of minutes. Just logged in changed them and logged out. No problems whatsoever.

But when I try to change nameservers for another domain, a .name ( dot name ) domain at totalregistrations.com nothing works and I just keep getting a generic error message that doesn't give any indication of what's wrong.

I wrote to their support 6 days ago and still havn't recived a reply. Kind of stuck. What to do now?

Unfortunately you will have to keep after the support where you have the registration.  They will be the only ones that will be able to help.  If they don't answer promptly, submit another request.  You paid for support as well.