About to migrate a forum to new webspace - some validation of process appreciated
 

Hi*

All being well* later this week I'll be migrating my site owners forum to new space. Due to issues with the existing webspace provider* I'm not able to use an SSH connection* so bear that in mind for what follows.

I've gone down the route of creating a fresh install of vBulletin 3.8.4 and vBadvanced 3.2.1 on the new space* which has all gone very successfully and no issues. This is currently reflecting the temporary URL for the new space* as the intended domain name has yet to be re-pointed across to it.

I've also copied across a number of folders and their contents which sit outside the forum install* but will be required on completion. The whole folder structure is as near identical as I can see to the current operational site.

The plan currently for the end of the week is as follows:

1. Close the existing forum (running 3.8.2 & 3.1.0)
2. Re-point the URL to the new space
3. Complete a backup using MySQLDumper - I've already tested this and it works fine
4. FTP the back up into the new space
5. Restore the backup on the new space using MySQLDumper (again* this has already been tested)
6. Test forum to identify any obvious problems & fix
7. Re-open forum

As I've mentioned* I've tried a dummy run* but with the temporary URL in place and the test backup referring to its real domain name* a number of problems came up. However I'm making an assumption that once the real domain name is pointed to the new space* these conflicts will go away.

The only thing concerning me currently is the CSS* as the existing forum has the 'Store CSS Stylesheets as Files?' option selected. I know where the rather oddly named CSS files are and need to copy these across still - would I be correct in assuming these file names are recorded in the database?

Also* I know I'll need to amend things like the email SMTP details to match the new host* but that can be done after everything else is completed.

Does the above sound a reasonable approach? Have I missed anything obvious* or failed to spell it out?

If necessary* I can revert to using a copy of the files from the old site and restore the database into that should the version differences mentioned above be significant.

Thanks for any views on this

Chris (tta)