Upgraded the Rad Community forums .. to » YaBB v2.4 (released a few weeks ago). The boys at YaBB have adopted a new, fast-n-furious (3-month) release cycle, which keeps me hopping.
The 'upgrade' process begins with a new/fresh/clean install of the new version .. to a new/unique directory.
I then configure the new version to make it look like the version currently in-use.
After everything looks hunky dory, and appears to be working correctly, I place both (old & new) forums in Maintenance mode and copy all the member-accounts and posts (» folders labeled /Members and /Messages) .. from old to new directories.
That's always the trickiest part, cuz there are so many files to copy (more than 15,000). Our old Shared hosting server choked on this file-transfer. The forums contain ~5K threads with 40K posts (which I'd hate to lose).
Our new VPS however, seems to be handling the load much better. And I can now work from the (powerful) Linux shell (command line).
••• today's entry continues here below •••
So I no longer sweat the transfer the way I used to .. tho I still usually wait for a period when site-traffic is slow, such as evenings on the weekend.
The conversion/upgrade is finalized by renaming the forum's home directory to something like /yabb2_old, and renaming the folder that contains the new version to /yabb2, so it becomes the currently-active in-use version. Take the newly-upgraded forum out of Maintenance mode and » voila! Upgrade complete.
Seems like there's always a few minor issues to work out, but if I can access the new forum and see all the old threads/posts, I'm a happy camper.
I installed YaBB years ago as a learning exercise .. to learn how to install a sophisticated (Perl) script. Next thing I knew, folks started showing up, posting questions, which I kinda felt obligated to respond to. Before long, people way smarter than me (and more experienced) started showing up to share their (considerable) expertise.
The Rad forums specialize in backing up your hard drive with a cloning program, such as (and especially) Norton Ghost .. tho our members have experience with many other cloning programs. Cloning programs can be dangerous, cuz (used inadvertently) a wayward click can trash your system and vaporize all your precious files.
It's very cool btw, to see folks from all over the planet (literally) meeting in one (virtual) place to share their experiences and expertise. Maybe there's hope for mankind after all. At any given time, there's always somebody awake, so (like the Big Apple) the forums never sleep. Post a question before bed and wake to find insightful answers in the morning.
I try to keep the forum software up-to-date cuz those guys deserve the latest version, with all the newest features (& bug-fixes). After 10 years in development, YaBB now touts a "world-class" forum .. that rivals any professional message board. Plus, they have great support. Oh, and did I mention it's free?
Version 3.0 is currently in development (alpha phase), and represents a complete re-write of the YaBB script that will include support for databases. Y3 has been in development well over a year. Jokingly, the developers respond to persistednt questions about its projected release date by claiming it will be done "sometime after the apocalypse." =) Made me chuckle.
For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query > yabb forum bulletin board upgrade
