XF 1.5 avatar / attachement error on import from phpbb 3.1.10 to XF 1.5.11

[Chris Goldsmith]

I fill in the DB details on the Importer config and get

• The attachments directory could not be found.
• The avatars directory could not be found.

my phpbb document root is defaulted for most things except a couple of minor tweaks but the storage locations are default - what is it looking for that it can't find the importer config values are

Custom Avatar Path: images/avatars/download
Attachment Path:
I've tried it with and without files in the Attachment Path: value

 

[Paul B]

Navigate to /admin.php?tools/phpinfo and search for DOCUMENT_ROOT to get the absolute path of your XenForo installation.

From there you can determine the absolute path for your other installation.

If XenForo is installed in the root and the software to be imported is in /archive for example, the relative path would be archive/, the absolute path would be /home/sitename/public_html/archive/

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

so is it looking for the phpbb path or the xenforo path?

in my case the phpbb is in
<DocRoot>/phpbb
and xenforo is in
<DocRoo>/xenforo

 

[Paul B]

The importer needs the paths of the installation you are importing from - in this case phpBB.

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

I give it the phpbb path <DocRoot>/phpBB3 and it no longers complains about avatar but still says

The attachments directory could not be found

I do not have an attachments directory anywhere under <DocRoot>/phpBB3 - what is it looking for?

 

[Paul B]

It's looking for the default phpBB attachments directory.

You will need to identify what that is and set the path accordingly, otherwise no attachments will be imported.

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

Now I got down to Import threads / post and got this

Server Error

Mysqli statement execute error : Duplicate entry '1' for key 'PRIMARY'

Zend_Db_Statement_Mysqli->_execute() in Zend/Db/Statement.php at line 297
Zend_Db_Statement->execute() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 479
Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 574
Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->insert() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1638
XenForo_DataWriter->_insert() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1627
XenForo_DataWriter->_save() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1419
XenForo_DataWriter->save() in XenForo/Model/Import.php at line 617
XenForo_Model_Import->_importData() in XenForo/Model/Import.php at line 1627
XenForo_Model_Import->importThread() in XenForo/Importer/PhpBb3.php at line 1799
XenForo_Importer_PhpBb3->stepThreads() in XenForo/Importer/Abstract.php at line 124
XenForo_Importer_Abstract->runStep() in XenForo/ControllerAdmin/Import.php at line 189
XenForo_ControllerAdmin_Import->_runStep() in XenForo/ControllerAdmin/Import.php at line 241
XenForo_ControllerAdmin_Import->_startStep() in XenForo/ControllerAdmin/Import.php at line 184
XenForo_ControllerAdmin_Import->actionStartStep() in XenForo/FrontController.php at line 351
XenForo_FrontController->dispatch() in XenForo/FrontController.php at line 134
XenForo_FrontController->run() in /var/www/texashorology/xenforo/admin.php at line 13

 

[Paul B]

You can't retain IDs if there is already content in the destination (XF) forum, or if you have already performed previous 'test' imports.

There's a guide here which covers the steps: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/importing-guidelines.25325/

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

First of all the support here has been great - thank you

2nd I followed your directions to import fresh blank copy from prior backups before starting the import - i got to importing attachments and it reached 59.85% complete and now gives a HTTP 5XX Service unavailable but I can go back to the admin page and choose to resume the current import and the import itself starts then goes back to 5XX - only the import is giving the HTTP 5XX

 

[Paul B]

That likely points to the server resources being exhausted or some other failure condition.

Is it a shared server or VPS?

Does it always fail at the same point when importing the attachments?

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

No the 3 servers in the config ( 2 web behind load balancer and separate database ) are all dedicated and I have full root access ( centos6.x) and yes always at same point even i chose to run fresh import

 

[Mike]

That could indicate a PHP crash, though it could also imply a timeout happening somewhere. (The attachment step can involve a lot of work to resize attachments.)

Can you bypass the load balancer entirely and access the server running PHP directly? If so, try that to see if it gives any more details.

What web server are you using and how is PHP accessed? (PHP-FPM?)

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

That could indicate a PHP crash, though it could also imply a timeout happening somewhere. (The attachment step can involve a lot of work to resize attachments.)

Can you bypass the load balancer entirely and access the server running PHP directly? If so, try that to see if it gives any more details.

What web server are you using and how is PHP accessed? (PHP-FPM?)

Standard Apache / php 5.4 stack

 

[Mike]

Is that PHP loaded as an Apache module then?

Please try taking the load balancer out of the equation. That may be timing out waiting for a response or at least covering up the response.

I suspect it could ultimately be PHP crashing though. If that's the case, it's difficult for us to properly sort -- the offending data really just needs to be skipped/removed. However, PHP 5.4 is quite old at this point, so it may certainly be a bug that has been fixed. I understand PHP 7 can be a big upgrade, but if PHP 5.6 is viable, that may help if it is a crash from a PHP bug.

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

I can do the php update - is 5.6 the preferred release ?

 

[Mike]

Well 7.0/7.1 will give more performance, though I was presuming you were running 5.4 for a reason so PHP 7 might not be a viable upgrade with it. XenForo is certainly compatible with PHP 7 though.

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

I'm running centos 6.8 & just haven't had need of more current php till now

I'll look into php updates & load balancer time outs & update thread

 

[Chris Goldsmith]

Php memory limit was set too low - increased to standard 128MB that it should have already been and attachment import went thru