VBulletin 4 Upgrade Thread

[Squid]

Lets get this done. I'm going to tentatively go in the morning tomorrow, so I'm going to post an announcement to that affect.

The process I'm going to follow is:

1. Create new folder forums in /tmp and initialize a git repository in it
2. Copy 4.2PL3 files into the folder & commit to the git repository
3. Take the forums down
4. Disable all plugins/products in admincp
5. Move existing php files/git repository to folder forums_old (I want a completely fresh slate)
6. Move new forums folder to wwwroot/
7. Take one last backup of the db
8. Close Port 80
9. Stop replication
10. Start upgrade
11. Wait
12. Rejoice when it all goes without a hitch (OK so maybe this last step is a bit optimistic the way things have gone)

[GrnEyedDvl]

Lets get this done. I'm going to tentatively go in the morning tomorrow, so I'm going to post an announcement to that affect.

The process I'm going to follow is:

1) Take the forums down
2) Disable all plugins/products in admincp
3) Take one last backup of the db
4) Move existing php files/git repository to folder forums_old (I want a completely fresh slate)
5) Create new folder forums and initialize a git repository in it
6) Copy 4.2PL3 files into the folder & commit to the git repository
7) Start upgrade
8) Wait
9) Rejoice when it all goes without a hitch (OK so maybe this last step is a bit optimistic the way things have gone)

Ok sounds good to me.


When you take the forums down, stop lighttpd entirely and/or close port 80. This will keep any other pesky admins from doing stuff while the forum is technically closed. This is one mistake I made when I closed the forums a few weeks ago, admins can still login and do stuff.

If you time it right you probably shouldnt have to do a database dump unless you really want to. If you look in the Vault server we are now getting nightly full backups and hourly incremental backups.

The incremental files look like this:

root@atlas:/vault/backups/database/twc/incr-backup# ls
20130220120001 20130220150001 20130220180002 20130220210001 20130221010002 20130221040002 20130221070001 20130221100002 20130221130002
20130220130001 20130220160002 20130220190001 20130220220001 20130221020001 20130221050002 20130221080001 20130221110001
20130220140001 20130220170001 20130220200001 20130220230002 20130221030001 20130221060001 20130221090001 20130221120001

And the full backup looks like this:

root@atlas:/vault/backups/database/twc/full-backup# ls
20130220111715 20130221000001

The folder names are actually date and timestamps.

So 20130221000001 = 2013-02-21 or Feb 21st of 2013 at 12:00:01.

The full backups run at midnight the incrementals run every hour on the hour.

You can also just stop the replication on Atlas and it will have a current copy of the database before any changes you make.

mysql> STOP SLAVE;

Then when you are done and everything looks to be working properly run START SLAVE;

Run SHOW SLAVE STATUS/G before you change anything and make sure it is 0 seconds_behind_master.

If we have problems with the upgrade and have to roll back we can just stop mysql on both servers and just rsync atlas to thor and be back up in about 20 minutes.


With git, I dont think I every initialized it on thor for the server folder. You might want to do that first, but if you are making a straight copy of the site then we should be ok.

I have a few things to do tomorrow morning, but I will make it home as soon as I can in case you need me for something.

[Squid]

I'm just doing a few things and then I'll start the upgrade process.

[Squid]

I've updated the order of things I'm going to do. I decided I could prep the new git repositories before taking the forum down so that will save at least a few minutes. I'm going to start things just after the last hourly backup.

[Squid]

We appear to be least partially up and running, but various things will not be available for a while until I get around to fixing stuff.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Lets keep this clear for Squid and I guys, we really need to be able to see what the other is doing without having to read 100 extra posts. Post in the Q & S please.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Ok the forum list when moving threads or other admin functions is no longer tabbed so you can see which forums are parents and which are children. With 1000 forums thats a killer.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Nice work on the forum transition gentlemen. Do we perchance have a running list of issues that need to be addressed?

EDIT: Well.. one thing is that the signature part of the postbit doesn't start before the end of the left-hand side. Might go see if I can find what's causing that, since it's annoying to have a one line post take up an entire page.

EDIT #2: Also... vBulletin 5 being a thing makes me facepalm. Old vB dev team please come back.

[Squid]

EDIT: Well.. one thing is that the signature part of the postbit doesn't start before the end of the left-hand side. Might go see if I can find what's causing that, since it's annoying to have a one line post take up an entire page.

Just got that one, it was a css rule clear:both; applied to the after post section (i.e. everything below the line where the signature is), I commented it out.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Just got that one, it was a css rule clear:both; applied to the after post section (i.e. everything below the line where the signature is), I commented it out.

Lets start a thread or even an entire forum just for documenting stuff like this.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Just got that one, it was a css rule clear:both; applied to the after post section (i.e. everything below the line where the signature is), I commented it out.

That was fast! Looks much better now.

Lets start a thread or even an entire forum just for documenting stuff like this.

Not sure entirely what you were looking for GED, but took a stab at it and created a Technical Tweaks and Hacks sub-forum with the same permissions as Cathedral/Encyclopedia (as it will contain vB code). Posted the location and change Squid made there. If that's not what you were suggesting, delete away!

[GrnEyedDvl]

No that works just fine.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Here's a list of requests/observations made by users so far that may need to be addressed (not listed necessarily in order of priority):

• BB Code: Jump and Anchor tags are broken and directing to main page (Fixed, needed {relpath} attribute)
• Cosmetic: Some emoticons have non-transparent junk around some edges, some of have been oddly resized, etc
• Cosmetic: There are new badges needing upload in the Content Art Staff forums
• Cosmetic: The favicon for the forums is not the TWC icon as on the rest of the site (Fixed)
• Forum Display: Fix the ad banners (or lack thereof)
• Forum Display: All usergroups are showing non-bold names (Fixed, was related to bold in postbit. See Edit #2 below.)
• Forum Display: Legend needs to be re-added for member listing
• Plugin: Update and enable the Downloads plugin (Fixed)
• Plugin: Update and enable the Reply All plugin
• Plugin: Update and enable the Hide Poll Results plugin
• Plugin: Fix reputation images (icons need to be changed and Modify Reputation Images plugin updated)
• Plugin: Don't Expire Cautions plugin needs to be updated and enabled (user notes not showing)
• Plugin: Update and enable the Adjust badge display plugin (note: the external file needs some modifications to change the usergroups which have associated badges (ie. Gaming Staff) since last it was edited)
• Postbit: Badge is displaying above avatars, usergroups all showing bold names, reputation in wrong location, etc (Should all be fixed and rearranged)
• Request: Header image across profile that doesn't interfere with other elements
• Request: Change the "Settings" link in upper right to read "User CP" or "My Account" (This is super easy, just a question of which term we prefer of the three) (Fixed, using My Account)
• Request: Make Visitor Messages the default tab when accessing your profile (Changed, see this post (Note: since reverted, may make it an option later))
• Request: Remove or relocate the Delete Post dialog above the post editing interface when you edit a post in a forum where you're a moderator in Advanced Mode (Fixed, see this post)
• Request: Update the default user titles to use the Roman names voted upon (Link)
• Request: Display the # of PMs for each folder next to the folder's name in the pm overview ledger

That's all the ones I saw. Most are probably low priority, though a couple important plugins in there. Obviously not exhaustive, was just transcribing from the upgrade thread.

On another note, my FTP seems to be wonky. I tried uploading editor images for the BB Code that's showing invisible, as well as a new favicon, and neither of them are working. Maybe I'm using login information for the wrong server? Can someone please re-PM me my FTP/SSH credentials for the live server so that I can insure that's not the issue.

EDIT #1: Yeah, now that I go back through PMs, I'm fairly certain I was using the Pandora information. I tried using the same username/password with Hostname: twcenter.net and it said Access Denied.

EDIT #2: The CSS change to fix the postbit displaying all usernames as bold has been documented here. The reason that all were showing non-bold on the forum display is due to the <strong> markup no longer working for some reason. I changed the markup for Admins/Mods to <span style="color:# ; font-weight:bold;"> instead and it fixed the issue. There may still be all bold names in places besides the postbit, haven't looked around everywhere. We really need to increase the size of usernames though.

EDIT #3: Updated the font size from 13px to 16px and changed the font family stack. Still up for interpretation, but at least the username is a bit more prominent in the postbit now.

EDIT #4: Fixed the order of elements in the postbit.

[Dragooon]

Great to see the site upgraded to vB4 , sorry I haven't been around, real life took over (got the biggest exams of my life over the next 2 months).

[GrnEyedDvl]

You do not have an account on thor, its a freshly loaded machine. I will get you and y2day setup in a bit, the wife is demanding that I take her to breakfast. Back in an hour or so.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Ok I just remembered that I already set something up that can be used for you guys to upload files to the server. I originally installed this for Content people to upload images but it will work for site files as well and since it runs off the www-data user there wont be any screwed up file owners after you create something. I will set that up for AL and y2day now. Once we are permanently on mjollnir I will setup true SFTP accounts with jailed access and all the other stuff I use on the Vault server.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Also, wasnt rep under the Join Date and all that other text? It seems to me that it was because we made more room for the rings and stuff but can someone confirm that for me or am I losing my mind?


Either way now that AL has access to the old files it should be easy to figure out.


So I think it was like this:

Username
Custom Title
Badge
Other Staff Groups
Avatar
Join Date
Location
Posts
Rep
Awards
Social Media Stuff

[Aikanár]

^ That's how it was:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[GrnEyedDvl]

Yeah I thought so.

Squid, I can tell from htop and mytop that you still have a bunch of stuff running. Do you think I should take a look at the Beta version of the Sphinx plugin for vBulletin or do we want to try and reindex the built in search function? I am more partial to the Sphinx plugin but it is still just a Beta.

[Squid]

I'm willing to try the beta. On the maintenance front, thread information has been rebuilt as has forum information. Thread keywords should be done by the morning. After that finishes I should be done with any major db hogging for the foreseeable future.