vBulletin import and possible move to shared hosting, comments please

carsafety

Member
I currently have a vB 4.2.4 forum with over 2M posts. Vanilla forum only, no CMS/blog or other major addons. Only a handful of plugins remain, including Post Thank you Hack, Tapatalk and a few advertising and anti-spam ones. None are essential to keep and hopefully I can get rid of Tapatalk with the more robust Xenforo mobile design. Currently still on PHP and MySQL 5.6 but want to switch to a forum software updated for recent server software, ideally one with fast mobile design and less of a resource hog on traffic spikes. Database is over 4GB and total disk space almost 40GB with file system attachments and some backups. Traffic is usually 200GB/mo or less but can spike to well above in November/December. Averaging about 200 visitors in last 60 min, but can be up to 300 or more at peak times. Server load averages are always very low and memory use is under 3GB but that includes another account with a very low traffic website mainly used for email.

So, main issue is upgrading to Xenforo or other forum software, which is only a question of when. Second issue is if I can move to a less expensive semi-dedicated or premium shared server as current revenues may not support VPS for much longer. A few questions-

1) Can a premium shared litespeed plan like A2hosting Turbo or Veerotech Business handle a Xenforo forum of this size? Other recommendations for host and plan would be great. Must be considerably less than $50 to warrant a move and needs to be managed with great tech support, preferably with cPanel and a dedicated IP like I have now. Ideally ~$30 or less per month.

2) Anyone have recommendations for migration/import services? Cost is a factor. Already in contact with one that I will likely use but other suggestions appreciated just in case timing doesn't work out or something unforseen.

3) Currently thinking I will upgrade on my current VPS and see how things go with resource use, then move to new server later if absolutely necessary. Current VPS does not have litespeed or nginx at this time but is otherwise a decent SSD setup with I believe 6 cores and 5GB. Is there any major advantage to migrating to new host server first, then updating to Xenforo? Or, having both servers available for a few weeks during the update?

4) If I remain on current VPS for a while after Xenforo update, what server improvements would be ideal? PHP 7.3/7.4 I know. Perhaps SQL 5.7 or 8? Is there a free nginx or similar cpanel plugin that works well? I've used these in the past with vB but the free ones became problematic with SSL/https and I haven't tried since.

5) Is there a good post or manual entry on setting up ad script locations like Adsense or Doubleclick? I have some contractual obligations and am using vB4 ad templates now, and basically need to have something similar after switching. Preferably something not completely custom so it won't affect forum software updates in the future. I am not familiar with the Xenforo admin options at all but will pick it up quickly I'm sure, but getting the sponsor stuff running is a top priority.

6) Any other suggestions? Any other essential server or Xenforo addons?

Thank you in advance!
 
Hi - thanks for the info there. Sure, understood. The IP cost is due to IPV4 exhaustion - we have to ensure our IP space is properly utilized to ensure future operations. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions about anything.

Thanks @VeeroTechHosting - please check your conversation messages. I think I can do without SSL for my Xenforo account, so likely I could just move that over first in the near future in the SSD Business package.

If I move my second account with a Wordpress website from my current VPS with dedicated IP into a second SSD business package, I'd like to be able to get one when provisioned if that is possible. Also your website says $4 but customer service quoted me higher, can you confirm please?
 

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Thanks @VeeroTechHosting - please check your conversation messages. I think I can do without SSL for my Xenforo account, so likely I could just move that over first in the near future in the SSD Business package.

If I move my second account with a Wordpress website from my current VPS with dedicated IP into a second SSD business package, I'd like to be able to get one when provisioned if that is possible. Also your website says $4 but customer service quoted me higher, can you confirm please?

Hello - let me check these, looks like we have some messages in a few different places here. I will relay those into the ticket and have someone follow up with that info. Thanks for the screenshot, that should have been updated but looks like it was missed.
 
I currently have a vB 4.2.4 forum with over 2M posts. Vanilla forum only, no CMS/blog or other major addons. Only a handful of plugins remain, including Post Thank you Hack, Tapatalk and a few advertising and anti-spam ones. None are essential to keep and hopefully I can get rid of Tapatalk with the more robust Xenforo mobile design. Currently still on PHP and MySQL 5.6 but want to switch to a forum software updated for recent server software, ideally one with fast mobile design and less of a resource hog on traffic spikes. Database is over 4GB and total disk space almost 40GB with file system attachments and some backups. Traffic is usually 200GB/mo or less but can spike to well above in November/December. Averaging about 200 visitors in last 60 min, but can be up to 300 or more at peak times. Server load averages are always very low and memory use is under 3GB but that includes another account with a very low traffic website mainly used for email.

So, main issue is upgrading to Xenforo or other forum software, which is only a question of when. Second issue is if I can move to a less expensive semi-dedicated or premium shared server as current revenues may not support VPS for much longer. A few questions-

1) Can a premium shared litespeed plan like A2hosting Turbo or Veerotech Business handle a Xenforo forum of this size? Other recommendations for host and plan would be great. Must be considerably less than $50 to warrant a move and needs to be managed with great tech support, preferably with cPanel and a dedicated IP like I have now. Ideally ~$30 or less per month.

2) Anyone have recommendations for migration/import services? Cost is a factor. Already in contact with one that I will likely use but other suggestions appreciated just in case timing doesn't work out or something unforseen.

3) Currently thinking I will upgrade on my current VPS and see how things go with resource use, then move to new server later if absolutely necessary. Current VPS does not have litespeed or nginx at this time but is otherwise a decent SSD setup with I believe 6 cores and 5GB. Is there any major advantage to migrating to new host server first, then updating to Xenforo? Or, having both servers available for a few weeks during the update?

4) If I remain on current VPS for a while after Xenforo update, what server improvements would be ideal? PHP 7.3/7.4 I know. Perhaps SQL 5.7 or 8? Is there a free nginx or similar cpanel plugin that works well? I've used these in the past with vB but the free ones became problematic with SSL/https and I haven't tried since.

5) Is there a good post or manual entry on setting up ad script locations like Adsense or Doubleclick? I have some contractual obligations and am using vB4 ad templates now, and basically need to have something similar after switching. Preferably something not completely custom so it won't affect forum software updates in the future. I am not familiar with the Xenforo admin options at all but will pick it up quickly I'm sure, but getting the sponsor stuff running is a top priority.

6) Any other suggestions? Any other essential server or Xenforo addons?

Thank you in advance!
You did your best by switching from Mr. Vbulletin to Xenforo. I do not know any other software that follows such secure and current technological developments very well.
Make sure the rest is resolved over time.

I always say to my friends who have a great forum system. Switch to xenforo. But overall she is afraid. It is not work to be afraid. It is necessary to follow the technology.
 
@Devilwillcry4you Thanks for the recommendation, I am likely moving my Xenforo website to Veerotech next week. If all goes well, I may consider moving over my Wordpress site as well.

vB4 -> Xenforo upgrade is working well so far. The migration had some delays due to server issues, but @Claudio managed everything well, including my numerous dumb questions. Thank you! My database size and server memory use both dropped around 40%, which is a nice bonus when moving to shared hosting. With a few SQL backups on the server it saved me over 5GB disk space and over 1GB memory. Plus now running PHP 7.3 and MariaDB 10.3. For anyone like me concerned about moving vB ad placements to Xenforo, I have to say Siropu Ad Manager 2 is a dream. Not only can you easily move everything, but it is so much more flexible and easier to use and handy for widgets and stuff outside of advertisements as well.
 
LOVE Sirupu ad manager, that I purchased in March for one of my forums. I use RBS for my vBulletin 4.x forum banners, which has always served me well, but Sirupu's Xenforo product takes it to the next level.
 
Thank you again to @Claudio and Fernando at Todo10 for assisting with the server move and Xenforo setup. So far, I am way under all resource limits of the Shared SSD Business package @VeeroTechHosting , much lower than expected. The memory usage is so much lower than before. I have not seen it over 100MB today, whereas on the old server it was always between 1.5GB and 3GB. My previous VPS had 6GB memory but was on a sever at least 4-5 years old and seemed to be slowing down in general. I am not seeing any decrease in page load speeds, and tools like Think With Google, Pagespeed, GTMetrix and Pingdom show roughly the same performance. That is impressive, given it's 1/3 the price right now and I may be able to downgrade in the future if I can keep my disk usage low.

Only one issue so far with a possible incompatibility between the Litespeed server and the Xenforo LS Cache addon with the Siropu Ads Manager 2 addon, but otherwise the migration to Xenforo and shared hosting are a success so far. Thank you all for your input.

Update: Litespeed support resolved this issue here: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/litespeed-cache-for-xf2-community.144025/page-9
 
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