Considering upgrading my vb3.8 forum to Xenfro

[cmmguy]

I have the license to upgrade to vb5 but after searching the internet and realizing how long they have been on vb5 I am reconsidering the upgrade to another board.

The plan would be to do a test migration first to see what I break.

Are the necessary tools built-in to xenfro or included that make a migration easy for a modestly technical person? (I have managed the 3.8 successfully for 14 years.)

I have already setup a new server for this updated forum and wondering if in the case of Xenfro to first migrate on the existing server or migrate from server to server? The concern in doing it on the existing server first is that it is not a suitable environment to host a temporary Xenfro install to perform the migration.

Lastly... does anyone want to buy a 5.x vB license?? /joking

Thanks

 

[Paul B]

We have an importer for VB5 which has been used successfully by many customers.
It's a fairly straightforward process.

Both XF and VB need to be on the same server for the import.
If the existing server environment doesn't support XF, you can install XF on the new server, copy the VB5 database and attachments to that, and do the import there.

The existing site won't be affected so you can do as many test imports as you like until you are confident of the process.

 

[beerForo]

Yes, I came from 3.8 and used the tools.

 

[cmmguy]

Thank you. That is a good suggestion to move the DB files to the new server.

Currently I am still at 3.8. Does the suggestion still apply?

My attachments are embedded in the DB on my current 3.8 install, will Xenfro do the same or does it move them to a folder? (I think I would prefer having them in a folder)

Thanks

 

[Paul B]

XF stores attachments in the file system.

The files will be created as part of the import.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Is it any easier to migrate the vB 3.8 attachments stored in the database to the filesystem first, then doing the import? Ours were in the filesystem when we migrated from vB 3.7 to XF 1.whatever back around 2011 or so. (I had modified 3.7 with so many "hacks" to improve performance that I never moved to 3.8.) I'm thinking it might be less of a load on the database if the attachments are moved out of it first. That is the reason I moved them from the database to the filesystem, but that was for day-to-day operations, not specifically for the migration.

 

[cmmguy]

My embedded attachments arent a huge burden and the forum actually still is very fast. I would say though that I have discouraged attachments that are saved to only be for the primary forum purpose and to link any off topic attachments. That would change with a new server as linking is becoming harder and they also disappear.