Forum Best practices for upgrading vBulletin forum?
 

Hi guys,

I'm wondering what is the best way to upgrade from 4.1.12 to 4.2.0. I was holding off on the upgrade waiting for 4.2.1 but since that has been delayed I would rather just go to 4.2.0 now.

I read the instructions about setting up a test site and all that makes sense but I have these questions:

1. Is it best to download vanilla 4.2.0 and install that on the test site and then export all styles from my main site and import them to the test site?
2. Or alternatively, should I just clone my main site to the test site, and then run the upgrade on the test site? Then do I export that database and files back to the main site?
3. If I do #2, how do I merge in all the users/posts that were created on the main site while I was working on the test site?

Or alternatively, do I just try out everything on the test site but then do all the upgrades directly on the main site once I've tried out the test site? And during that time do I just shut down the site? I have a lot of manual template edits to do which will take quite a bit of time so I'm wondering what is the best way to proceed that would minimize downtime for users and also allow me to fully test the new version for compatibility with my theme and plugins.

Thank you.