Q re upgrade to 2.0.14 and upgrade from PHP5 to PHP7 - and "mod" compatability

[landyvlad]

Please bear with me.... I have a few questions regarding
1. Update to SMF 2.0.14
2. Upgrade from PHP5.6 to 7x

I am currently operating on SMF 2.0.13
My server current PHP version is: 5.6

The current mods I have installed are:

1.   Copyright and Footer Links   3.2
2.   Show JDALLAUI in Post and PM  1.3
3.   Country Flags   3.0     
4.   SMF Gallery Pro SSI   3.0 
5.   TinyPortal   1.2R3     
6.   Responsive Curve   1.0.0 
7.   httpBL   2.5.1     
8.   PM Attachments   2.0 Beta 2
9.   Topics Created And Participated In   2.3
10.   @mention members   1.1.2     
11.   Automatic Attachment Rotation   3.3
12.   Image Processing Memory Limit   0.1.2
13.   Stop Spammer   2.3.9     
14.   SMF Links   3.0.5     
15.   SMF Post Prefix   2.0.3
16.   SMF Gallery Pro   7.2.2
17.   Google Member Map   3.0
18.   Downloads System   3.0
19.   Like Posts   2.0.5     
20.   Sortable Packages (and Installed Time)   1.3.5
21.   Social Login   3.5     
22.   Yet Another YouTube BBCode Tag   4.1
23.   Resize Attached Images   2.4.1

My host states that they automatically backup my entire site (entire contents, not just SMF database, everything) daily using JetBackUp. 

I suppose that it would be prudent, nevertheless, to manually backup the database before commencing any upgrade, following:
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Backup
If so, is the first (cpanel) or 2nd (phpmyadmin) method the best?

I gather that 2.0.14 requires PHP5.4 as a minimum, so I'm fine on that front.

If I do upgrade from PHP5.6 to PHP7, then I suppose 7.1 rather than 7.0 would be the one to use?

I'd appreciate any tips / tricks / and especially warnings about the upgrade processes involved.

I'd also particularly appreciate if people can tell me if they are aware that any of the mods I have installed are incompatible either with SMF2.0.14 or PHP7

Thank you.

[Illori]

cant hurt to do more then one backup, in case there is an issue with the backup.

[d3vcho]

Good luck with your upgrades. I'm sure they'll go fine. Now, regarding mods, the only one I know that doesn't work on PHP7 is Like posts, but here you have the fix to make that Mod work with PHP7.

I'm sorry I don't know about the others.

[lurkalot]

I see you're running Tinyportal 1.2R so you will need to go to Tinyportal 1.3R for php7 https://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?topic=35891.0

[landyvlad]

Thanks people.

Keep the good advice coming if anyone else cares to contribute

[Sir Osis of Liver]

It's been my experience working on many hosts that cpanel backup is generally most reliable because it's entirely serverside, and not subject to timeouts.  phpmyadmin will often timeout without error, even if the database is not large.  Whichever method you use, do it 2-3 times, make sure file sizes are the same.  And empty your error log before you dump the db, I've worked on several forums that had gigabyte databases, all but a few mb of which was error log.

[landyvlad]

Thank you.

I suppose that also leads into the question as to pros/cons in upgrading from PHP 5 to 7 ?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

2.0.14 will run in 7.0/7.1, but you may have problems with some mods, and other scripts you may be running on the server.  php 5.6 is still supported, that's what I'm using.

[landyvlad]

Thanks

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Is there something you still require assistance with, or is this topic ready to be marked solved?