Restoring Forum Backup... and later filling in the gap.

[jitspoe]

SMF Version: SMF 1.1 RC2
Ok, here's the situation:
- Server hosting the forum went down.
- Latest SMF backup is about a month old. 

If I were to set up a new forum and restore from the month-old data, then a while later manage to recover the (what was then) "current" data from the server that went down, is there a way I could merge/restore that data without messing up posts that were made in the meantime?  In other words if I have:

[old data, backed up] _______ [new data posted after restore]

And later get:
[all old data (gap + backed up)]

Can I fill in the gap cleanly?  Or am I better off just waiting to get all of the old data back before setting up the forums again?

[Oldiesmann]

Unless you can get just the data that goes in the "gap", you're better off waiting until you get everything.

[jitspoe]

I had a feeling that was the case.  I could possibly do a diff or something on the sql dumps, but with the way SMF indexes the posts and whatnot... it probably just wouldn't work out.

[jitspoe]

I just had an idea -- you know how SMF has an option to delete posts older than a certain date?  Could I set up a temporary forum with the all the old data (if I ever manage to get it), delete everything up until the point of the last backup, and use that to fill in the gap?  Or would the interlinking of the tables and whatnot screw me over?  I'd end up having topics with the same ID and stuff, wouldn't I?

Any way I could leave some room in the topic and post tables so the id's wouldn't overlap?

[jitspoe]

Just for my own reference later: ALTER TABLE table_name AUTO_INCREMENT = 1000

I think that's what I'd need to do.  table_name and 1000 would obviously need to be changed.

Tables I'd need to do that for:
smf_attachments
smf_members
smf_messages
smf_personal_messages
smf_pm_recipients
smf_poll_choices
smf_polls
smf_topics

smf_ban_groups and smf_ban_items (maybe - doubt many bans have been added in that month lost)
smf_log_activity, smf_log_banned, smf_log_boards, smf_log_mark_read, smf_log_notify, smf_log_polls, smf_log_search_results, smf_log_search_subjects, smf_log_topics, (maybe - wouldn't hurt me if logs got overwritten or lost)

Is smf_log_polls necessary to make sure people don't re-vote?  At this point I don't think I care, but might as well increase it if that's the case.

[Fiery]

Hello,

I am cleaning up old topics.

Were you able to get the data you needed?

I would suggest that you try what you posted.

Please let us know.

[jitspoe]

I never got the data back.  ServerPronto wanted something crazy like $200 to get the server back up since supposedly we violated some TOS (there was a glitch in sendmail and they interpreted it as spam, I believe -- that's our best guess anyway).  It wasn't worth it just to get a month of data back.

I would advise anybody to steer clear of ServerPronto as their customer service is terrible.