XF 1.5 Upgrading from XenForo 1.5.12 to 2.3.7 using PHP 5.5 and 8+

ForestForTrees

Well-known member
Hi everyone,

My current server is malfunctioning, so I have to rapidly upgrade my XenForo 1.5.12 to a new fully managed Alma Linux 9 server. We're in hot water and need to move quickly.

What is the best way to make this upgrade?

The old server runs PHP 5.5, and I don't think we can upgrade it. The new server can't run PHP versions earlier than 8. This makes everything much more challenging.

I'm thinking that we'll upgrade on the old server to 1.5.24 and then copy everything to the new server, where we then upgrade to 2.3.7.

Our goal is just to get a functioning forum up and running on the new server. Later on, we can find extensions and theme updates to reproduce the functionality we have with the old server.
 
Hi everyone,

My current server is malfunctioning, so I have to rapidly upgrade my XenForo 1.5.12 to a new fully managed Alma Linux 9 server. We're in hot water and need to move quickly.

What is the best way to make this upgrade?

The old server runs PHP 5.5, and I don't think we can upgrade it. The new server can't run PHP versions earlier than 8. This makes everything much more challenging.

I'm thinking that we'll upgrade on the old server to 1.5.24 and then copy everything to the new server, where we then upgrade to 2.3.7.

Our goal is just to get a functioning forum up and running on the new server. Later on, we can find extensions and theme updates to reproduce the functionality we have with the old server.

That's exactly what I would do. Disable all plugins on current site and server. Upgrade there to the latest version of stock Xenforo possible. Move site to new server, upgrade to latest version of Xenforo and upgrade whatever plugins are still around for 2.3.7 and then speak to custom coders to implement any functionality that you need that hasn't been ported over already.

Also, use the command line cmd.php upgrader when possible. It's much faster and more reliable, IMHO.
 
I concur with this plan - this is how I've done it on my test servers and it worked fine. Not quite ready to do it in production though - soon hopefully!

Just remember that you don't need to uninstall your plugins - some of them may be able to be upgraded once you've upgraded XenForo, so you'll want to keep the plugin data online.

I'm not entirely sure it's necessary to disable them either - I though the XF 2.x upgrade process did that automatically?
 
Thanks, everyone, for your quick replies! We're moving ahead with this.

I've been hitting the books hard, trying to learn everything I can over the weekend.

The key development is that I discovered a service that will allow me to run hardened versions of PHP 5.6 and 7.2 on the new server. I've installed that service. I also have MediaWiki as my CMS on that server, so having access to those versions will allow me change PHP versions so I can do chained upgrades to catch up the MediaWiki script.

Things are much easier with XenForo. I've gone ahead and completed the 1.5.12 → 1.5.24 upgrade. On the source server, I upgraded PHP from 5.5 to 5.6, and it worked fine. The server is stable again.

The big challenge now is importing data from XOn/Syndol's old Bookmark's addon. We're a medical site and we're all bonded because we've had the same disease, so I'd hate to not have a way to import the 3000 bookmarks my members have made. Luckily ThemeHouse is talking to me about an old importer they have and may be able to help (go, ThemeHouse!)

If anyone knows an XF consultant who might be willing to work hourly for me, please let me know. Thanks again for your attention.
 
The key development is that I discovered a service that will allow me to run hardened versions of PHP 5.6 and 7.2 on the new server.
Whether you can, and whether you should are two different things. I would look at this as a time to upgrade PHP if at all possible. Hardened versions of older software have a time and place, but remember these hardened versions have only gotten security updates for many years.

PHP 8.0+ has been recommended for XenForo since 2.2.5 and many newer add-ons also require PHP 8.0+. A stable version of PHP 8.5 will be out before the end of 2025. You are currently missing out on over 5 years of PHP development which is a long time - this includes new features along with improvements in both performance and security. It is really something you should think hard about.
 
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