Upgrading vBulletin 

From time to time it will be necessary to upgrade your vBulletin installation to the latest version, either to gain new features or to fix newly discovered bugs in PHP, MySQL or vBulletin itself.

You can upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin 4 from the following vBulletin versions:

Any previous version of vBulletin 4, from version 4.0.0 Beta 1 to the current version.

Any version of vBulletin 3 from version 3.6.0 and newer. If your vBulletin version is older than 3.8.0, it is recommended that you upgrade to at least vBulletin 3.8.0 before you can upgrade to vBulletin 4.

The upgrade process differs depending upon the version of vBulletin currently installed on your web server. 

When upgrading, the first step is always the same, in that you must log in to the vBulletin Members' Area and download the latest vBulletin package available, as described in the installation instructions.Warning:We strongly recommend that you back up your database prior to any upgrade.

A document detailing how to back up your database is available in the Technical Documents section of the vBulletin Manual's Appendices, here.

Links from this section:Preparing the vBulletin Files for UploadUpdating the vBulletin Scripts on Your Web ServerRunning the vBulletin Upgrade ScriptChecking for Updated TemplatesChecking for Updated PhrasesInstalling A Patch LevelManual NavigationNext: Preparing the vBulletin Files for UploadPrevious: Running the vBulletin Install ScriptUp: vBulletin ManualPage TopSearchHome

User Contributed Notes: Upgrading vBulletin Add a Comment

Shane Apr 20th '05, 10:57am

Be sure to read up on backing up MySQL via telneting into your server. Using phpMyAdmin might cause problems when reloading the database back into sync.

[ Editor: See http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/maintenance_ssh_backup ]

Brad Apr 20th '05, 11:03am

If you are in a situation where you can not back-up a large database without error because your host does not support or allow you to use telnet, you can use this php script to back-up safely:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8933

Remember, backing up via the admin cp or phpmyadmin can fail with large databases due to php time outs, this script dose not suffer from such problems.

Andreas Apr 20th '05, 11:06am

Remember to close down your board prior to upgrading!

Colin Dec 14th '05, 06:18am

If upgrading from vBulletin 2.x to a 3.x or 3.5.x version, you need to upgrade to *at least* 2.2.9. You can also upgrade to 2.3.5 or whatever is the latest 2.x version though, and continue the upgrade from there.

Mike Pepper May 27th '07, 09:44am

Re. Using PhpMyAdmin for backup.

There is a very easy way to use PhpMyAdmin for a backup in a situation like this; such as where you want a backup database "image" that you can quickly plug back in if an update were to fail.

For vB updates, do it like this:1. Shut down your forums.

2. In phpMyAdmin, open the database that you want to copy and click on the "Operations" tab.

3. Find the "Copy Database To:" section and check the (default) options to copy "data and structure" and to "Create database before copying".

4. Give a name for your database that is similar to, but different from your working database, and add put the date in it too. So, for example, if your vB datbase is called "vbdata", you might give the copy the name, "vbd_070526".

5. Click the "Go" button to make the copy. It will take many seconds, or even many, many seconds. (Best to do this in off-traffic hours always.)

6. All done. Your backup database is an exact duplicate of your production database, completely installed and ready to use including all permissions and privileges.

If you ever need to fall back to your backup database all that you have to do is go to the "Operations" tab in phpMyAdmin and rename the database to the name of your production DB. All done!

avalanch May 17th '10, 04:58am

oh no... god no... do NOT use phpmyadmin for a php backup. The software that me and many many other admins reccomend is mysqldumper, found at mysqldumper.net

Corrie Sloot Oct 28th '10, 01:26pm

I always preferred using the command-line mysqldump. You would run it with these options: mysqldump --opt -Q -u USERNAME -p DATABASE > DATABASE.TODAYSDATE.sql

Where USERNAME is the database username, DATABASE is the database name and TODAYSDATE is the date, in a format something like 2010-07-20

eva2000 Jun 15th '11, 04:24am

For very large forum upgrades i.e. vB 3.x. to vB 4.x also check out guide written at https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/entry.php/2481-vBulletin-4.x-upgrade-process-for-large-vBulletin-forums-eva2000-s-method

Roberto Muggli Jul 07th '11, 05:53pm

I would also like to recommend mysqldumper as avalanch did above.

Very simple to use and extremely clear as far as folder permissions and required manual actions are concerned.

Add a Comment

Downloading the vBulletin Package 

The first thing you will need to do when installing vBulletin is to download the latest version from the Members' Area.

You will need to log-in to the Members' Area using the Customer Number and Customer Password that was emailed to you when you purchased your license.

Once logged in, you will see a list of Current Licenses. For each active license that you own, there will be a Download vBulletin link that you can click.

Click the link for the license you want to use and you will be taken to the download page, where you will be given options for how to download the latest vBulletin package.

By default compression is performed on the JavaScript files included within the clientscript directory in order to reduce the size of the files. YUI Compressor is used to do this but you can choose uncompressed JavaScript files using the option described below.

You can choose from the following options:

PHP File ExtensionAs a general rule, web servers will use .php as the extension for PHP scripts, but some servers may use a different extension, or you may simply wish to use a different extension out of your own preference. Various extensions are available here for you to choose.

Download File FormatThis option allows you to choose the compression format of the package you are about to download. Most people will want to download the .zip package as Windows® has in-built support for zip files. However, if you are downloading the package directly to a Linux server you may prefer to use the tarball (.tar.gz) format.

CGI ShebangThis option will only be of use to you if your server runs PHP as a CGI rather than as a web server module. If your server runs PHP as a CGI and requires a shebang (such as#!/usr/bin/php) then you can enter the required text here and it will automatically be inserted into whichever PHP files in vBulletin require its use.

Download FileUse this option to control the contents of the package you are about to download. For example, if you have previously installed vBulletin you will probably not need to download the images again, so you can use this control to specify that the package you download does not contain the images directory. You can also download the uncompressed JavaScript package with this option.

When you have set the download options you can click the Download button to start the download. When the download prompt window appears, you should choose the Save option and choose a directory on your computer in which to save the package.

The package will then be downloaded and saved to the location you specified.

Preparing the vBulletin Files for Upload 

After you have successfully downloaded the vBulletin package to your computer you will need to prepare the scripts to be uploaded to your web server.

The first thing to do is to decompress the package into its constituent files. If you downloaded the .zip package and your computer is running a recent version of Windows® all the tools you need to do this are available as part of Windows®. This section will assume that you have downloaded the .zip package and that your computer is running Windows XP.

To extract the files from the package, open the folder on your computer where you saved the vBulletin package and right-click on its icon, then choose Extract All from the pop-up menu.

This will open a wizard to guide you through the unzipping progress. Accept the default options suggested and the system will decompress the files from the zip package.

When the unzipping progress is complete, you will find that the process has created a new folder called upload and another called do_not_upload.

upload - This folder contains the vBulletin files that need to be uploaded to your web server.

You should now rename the 'upload' folder to match whatever name you gave to the directory containing your vBulletin files on your web server. In this example, the folder containing the vBulletin files is called 'forums'. 

NOTE: If you have changed the names of the 'admincp' and 'modcp' directories in your config.php file, be sure to make the same change to these subdirectories prior to uploading.

The second folder is do_not_upload - This folder contains tools to perform various tasks on your board

searchshell.php - This file will allow you to rebuild the search index.

vb_backup.sh - This file will allow you to run a database backup via SSH/Telnet or a scheduled backup through cron.

tools.php - This file must be uploaded to the admincp folder and allows you to perform certain tasks should your board go down or you accidentally lock yourself out of the Admin Control Panel. This file

must be deleted immediately after use or it will cause a SEVERE security problem.

Note:As you already have a vBulletin installation running on your web server, you should delete the install.php file in the install directory before you proceed to upload the files.

Note:These instructions are for 3.5.0 and higher. If you are upgrading from vBulletin 3.0.x to 3.5.0, you will also need to recreate your includes/config.php file based on the new version of includes/config.php.new. Please see this page in the installation section on how to edit the config file. This step is not necessary for individual upgrades within the 3.0.x or 3.5.x series.If you are upgrading from vBulletin 3.5.x to vBulletin 3.6.x or newer you do not need to edit the config.php file.

Manual NavigationNext: Updating the vBulletin Scripts on Your Web ServerPrevious: Upgrading vBulletinUp: Upgrading vBulletinPage TopSearchHome

User Contributed Notes: Preparing the vBulletin Files for Upload Add a Comment

Glenn Carr Dec 22nd '07, 12:17pm

Regarding this statement:"Note:As you already have a vBulletin installation running on your web server, you should delete the install.php file in the install directory before you proceed to upload the files."

It is unclear to me whether this refers to the install.php in the current installation or in the upgrade package.

[Editor's Note: It is referring to install.php in the newly downloaded files or upgrade package.]

Martin Leonard May 04th '08, 11:29pm

The install.php should be removed after installation, so you should not have one in the current installation!

unfv Nov 05th '08, 09:31am

Remember to delete the favicon.ico file from the installation files if you have a custome one on your web site, and if you use vBulletin on the root

Add a Comment

Updating the vBulletin Scripts on Your Web Server 

Having downloaded the latest vBulletin package and unzipped it to a folder, you must now prepare your web server to accept the updated files. Before you do this you should close your forums. This will help eliminate any potential db errors as people attempt to access your forums before the upgrade is complete.

For uploading there are two ways that this can be done.

The first method involves overwriting all the files that were previously uploaded to your web server, while the second method involves deleting all the old files

and directories, and then uploading the new scripts. In this tutorial we will use the overwrite method.

Having renamed the upload folder as specified in the previous step, you should load up your FTP client of choice. In this example we will use Smart FTP.

Connect to your FTP server and with the new vBulletin files in the local pane and the existing old files in the remote pane, drag the forums directory into the parent directory of your remote vBulletin installation as shown here:

You will most likely be prompted by the FTP client at this point to ask if you want to overwrite the existing files. You should confirm this prompt, telling the FTP client that yes, you do want to overwrite the existing files. If the prompt gives you the option to overwrite all existing files without prompting again, use this option.

Most FTP client applications will handle the file transfers automatically, but if for some reason your application does not, you should make a note of the following:

All text files to be transferred in ASCII modeAll files containing plain text from the vBulletin package should be transferred in ASCII mode.Text file types you will find in vBulletin are: .html, .php, .js, .xml, .css.

All non-text files to be transferred in Binary modeThe remaining files, which are mostly images, should be transferred to your web server in Binary mode.Binary file types used in vBulletin include: .gif, .png, .jpg, .ico.

Warning:It is extremely important that you upload all the files from the latest vBulletin package, including the entire contents of the install directory.

Failure to upload all the files may result in the upgrade script being unable to successfully complete the upgrade process.

User Contributed Notes: Updating the vBulletin Scripts on Your Web Server

Add a Comment

Shane Apr 20th '05, 11:00am

Do not use a Browser FTP function. It allows for to many mistakes during upload. Use a dedicated FTP program.

StewardManscat Apr 20th '05, 11:06am

Remember to rename/replace your admin subdirectories... if you were foolish enough to follow the advice about renaming them for security purposes in the first place. The original directories are called admincp and modcp.

Retro Sep 30th '05, 11:13pm

Using FlashFXP, make sure you have your File Exist Rules set to overwrite any files that already exist, regardless of size.

<Added note by Floris>The same goes for many ftp clients, make sure you have it set to overwrite files, do not skip or resume files while uploading!

Mike Pepper May 27th '07, 09:44am

Alternative (3rd) method to shorten server downtime.

Upload to a temporary copy of your vB production directory, then when the upload is complete, switch the directories and continue from there.

The actual upload, after you've prepared the files, is the longest part of the server downtime. The objective with this method is to complete the upload of new files before you have to take down ("turn off") your forums.

Here are the steps:

1. Complete all file preparation as per the previous step, "Preparing the vBulletin files for Upload".

Then, before you upload any files go to step 2 here.

2. On your production server, COPY the entire vBulletin directory (or "folder") structure to another temporary directory. Be sure to preserve all attributes of ownership, permissions, etc.

For example, if your vB forums are in a directory called "vbbs", then you might copy it to one called "vbbsupdate". Your forums in "vbbs" will keep running for now.

On *ix at the command line use (e.g.)"cp -pr vbbs vbbsupdate"

3. Upload your prepared vB update files to your temporary "vbbsupdate" directory as described above in the "overwrite" method.

REPEAT: upload to your temporary directory; in this example the one called, "vbbsupdate".

4. Wait till the wee hours of the morning to minimize impact on your traffic.

5. Turn off your forums in the admin CP.

6. Back up your database so that the backup is as fresh as possible.

7. Switch the directories by first renaming your (e.g.) "vbbs" directory to "vbbsold" and then renaming your "vbbsupdate" directory to "vbbs" (changing the names to match your setup, of course).

8. Run the update script as described in the next step, "Running the vBulletin Upgrade Script".

Good luck. The few times that I've done it, it runs pretty smoothly.

Schnee Jun 30th '08, 06:17am

Don't delete your own favicon or you will get the VBulletin one back again.

A.I.Smari Jul 09th '08, 07:49am

If you're upgrading from a very recent version, you may consider deleting all gif/jpg files locally to save on your upload time.

Windsun Sep 09th '08, 06:22am

Just for the information, you can also use Microsoft Expression Web 2.0 in ftp mode to upload files.

Welshy Feb 02nd '10, 01:28pm

The SmartFTP shown in the sample above is an OLD Version.

The "Overwrite" has been long since, dropped. This was confirmed to me by "mb" the creater and owner of SmartFTP.

He recommended that we use the "Merge" option.

Can anyone tell me, that uses the SmartFTP, if they use the 'Merge' to upgrade their forum, Please? (Ie: I need upgrade my 3.8.1 to 3.8.4 PL2, and I do not want to lose any info on my database etc).

Thanks for your input.

klancy Apr 04th '10, 03:24pm

"Before you do this you should close your forums."

It might sound silly, but it's good to link actionable instruction sentences if those instructions are defined somewhere else. (I used to write help sections for a big site.) Surprisingly enough, even what appears like simple instructions will get a lot of clicks.

I am pointing this out as a general guideline since I've seen it in more than once place on this site. (opportunities to link so people don't have to hunt)

Stewart Whitfield Apr 04th '10, 03:24pm

I use SmartFTP and I use the merge function quite successfully.

Add a Comment

Running the vBulletin Upgrade Script 

Once you have uploaded the files to upgrade your vBulletin installation, point your browser to http://www.yourdomain.com/pathtoforums/install/upgrade.php. The screen will look like this:

When you have entered your customer number, hit the [Enter Installer] button and you should be taken to the first step of the install script. If after hitting the [Enter Installer] button you are brought back to the customer number entry dialog, there was an error verifying your customer number. Please check for mistakes and try again.

After entering your customer number, the install wizard will begin. Press Start Install to begin. 

The installer from this point is almost automatic. You will see the progress bar progress as it goes through the steps. 

If the upgrade script needs to retrieve any information from you, it will stop and show a dialog box requesting the information. Follow the instructions on the screen. These dialog boxes will look similar to this -

During the installation process, you may opt to have a more detailed output

view. You can view each step as it processes by clicking the "Show Details" button while the install wizard is running. It will present you with a view like this:

Once the installation process is complete, and you will be presented with a link to your Admin Control Panel. 

Enter the Admin Control Panel to verify that your settings, content and other details are still correct.

Installing the Mobile StyleLinks from this section:Using the Command Line UpgradeCommon Issues While Upgrading.

Manual NavigationNext: Using the Command Line Upgrade

User Contributed Notes: Running the vBulletin Upgrade Script Add a Comment

Using the Command Line Upgrade 

Starting with vBulletin 4.0.9, you can run the upgrade script from the command line and remove the overhead of your browser and HTTP calls. The command line interface is designed to specifically help big boards with the upgrade process and to eliminate the time caused by HTTP interaction. To run this interface go to your install directory and execute:

php -f upgrade.php

If you are logged in as the root user, you will need to run the upgrade as the user that the webserver runs under. This will prevent permission problems from occurring later if you store CSS as files. Use this command:

sudo -u <user> php -f upgrade.php

Where <user> is the user that the webserver is run with. On most systems, this is the user nobody. 

Your CLI version of PHP may not have been compiled with or configured to use the same modules as your web version. If you encounter problems in command line mode, switching to the web mode should be able to process through them. You can see your command line configuration by typing:

php -i > phpinfo.txt

You can then review the output in any text editor. You should inspect this configuration to make sure that it has mysql and/or mysqli available so you can connect to the database. You would also need to make sure that the command line version of PHP has XML support. If it does not, then you would need to run the XML imports from the Browser.

Common Issues While Upgrading. 

Q. I tried to run the upgrade wizard from the command line and got an error that MySQLi is not installed.A. Your CLI version of PHP may not have been compiled with the same modules as your web version. If you are missing mysqli and have set your config.php to use mysqli, you will receive an immediate error. Either add mysqli support to your CLI php or switch to mysql in config.php. You can switch back to mysqli after the upgrade process.

Q. When running the upgrade wizard from the command line, it will not import the standard XML files for the style and languages. What do I do?A. Your version of PHP may have the default XML support disabled for some reason. Run the upgrade wizard in your browser. It will skip to the XML import steps and import your files for you and complete the upgrade.

Q. I have a lot of posts and rebuilding the search index takes forever. Is there a faster way?It is recommended that large community sites use our Sphinx Search to index and search their content. This is a fast and robust search solution. If for some reason, you cannot use this search option, you can rebuild your search index from the command line using the searchindex.php in your Do Not Upload folder. You would run the searchindex.php file from the command line using this command:

php searchindex.php

Follow the steps on the screen.

Q. What is the Query Status button that appears in Browser Mode?A. The "Query Status" button is something that appears after a step has taken more than 20 seconds. Its purpose it to send a query back to the server and retrieve the status of the executing query. It provides a method for the admin to see what is going on with big queries.

Q. I receive an error similar to the following how do I fix it?

Warning: chdir(): SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid is 0 is not allowed to access ./../ owned by uid 10001 in /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/httpdocs/vb/40c/install/upgrade.php on line 16

A. This can appear if the command line configuration of PHP is using safemode. Either disable safemod or run the upgrade wizard in browser mode.

Q. I previously used the Command Line Upgrade and now I receive an error when I try to save my CSS as files. What is wrong?The permissions on your clientscript/vbulletin_css folder are incorrect. They may be set to 0755 and should be set to 0777. Recursively update the permissions to 0777 using your FTP client or chmod.

Checking for Updated Templates 

If you have closed your forums for the upgrade you can now open them, or you can wait until you have gone through the next two steps checking for updated templates and phrases.

When a new version of vBulletin is released, it is common for some of the default templates to have been updated to accommodate new features or fix bugs.

If you have not customized any of your templates, this need not concern you, but if you have customized some of the default templates there are a few steps you will need to follow after you have finished running all the appropriate upgrade scripts.Note:When running vBulletin upgrade scripts, one of the final steps imports the newest version of the default style.

Any templates that you have not customized will automatically be updated to use the newest versions.

However, any templates that you have customized will not be altered or overwritten by importing the latest style, hence the need for the following steps.

1 Firstly, you should visit the Styles & Templates > Find Updated Templates page to find out which (if any) of your customized templates may have updated default versions.

2 If you find that some of your customized templates do have updated default versions, you have three choices. You can either

Do nothing and hope that your customized templates will still work properly with the new vBulletin version. This is often not a problem, but sometimes a variable may have been renamed or else some other change may have been made that will render your customized template dysfunctional.

Click the [Revert] link for each template, removing your customizations to ensure that your templates are fully compatible with the new vBulletin version.

Click on the [Edit Template] link for each template, and compare the contents of your customized template with the version available by clicking

the [View Original] in order to manually update your customized templates to reflect the changes made in the default templates.

On the release of a new vBulletin version, the release announcement posted in the Announcements Forum at vBulletin.com will usually contain a list of updated templates.

This list will often tell you whether or not the changes made to each template were purely cosmetic, in which case you will have no need to perform the steps above for that template, or if the changes require you to revert or manually edit your customized templates to maintain full working order.

Checking for Updated Phrases 

When a new version of vBulletin is released, it is common for some of the default phrases to have been updated to accommodate new features or fix bugs.

If you have not customized any of your phrases, this need not concern you, but if you have customized some of the default phrases, there are a few steps you will need to follow after you have finished running all the appropriate upgrade scripts.Note:When running vBulletin upgrade scripts, one of the final steps imports the newest version of the default phrases.

Any phrases that you have not customized will automatically be updated to use the newest versions.

However, any phrases that you have customized will not be altered or overwritten by importing the latest phrases, hence the need for the following steps.

1 Firstly, you should visit the Languages & Phrases > Find Updated Phrases page to find out which (if any) of your customized phrases may have updated default versions.

2 If you find that some of your customized phrases do have updated default versions, you can either:

Do nothing and hope that your customized phrases will still work properly

with the new vBulletin version. This is often not a problem, but sometimes the phrase may have added text to describe new functionality or have made changes that break the values in the old version.

Click on the [Edit] link for each phrases, and compare the contents of your customized phrase with the version available. From this page, you may either update your customized version or revert to the default version by emptying the translation field.

Installing A Patch Level 

What is a Patch Level? How does it differ from a full release?

A patch level release contains fixes for only the most critical issues in the previous release. In most cases, these are released to address a security issue. However they can be released for data integrity issues as well.

A patch level is designed to be installed directly over top of your existing installation, with no other action. You do not need to run any upgrade scripts.

How to UpgradeThis is not a full upgrade. You do not need to run any upgrade scripts to complete the upgrade.

Patch: Download a patch file discussed in this thread and upload them to your web server, overwriting the existing files. The patch is available from the Members' Area patch page.

Full Package: Alternatively you can download the full package in the vBulletin Members Area and again upload the affected files mentioned in the release thread.Note:Patch Level Releases are only supported for their targeted version. If you are using a previous version, you will need to perform a complete upgrade for full functionality and support. Patch Levels will only be released for the latest version in an active vBulletin series.

The Admin Control Panel 

The Administrator Control Panel is the area of your board that only administrators and super moderators can access. From here you can control almost all factors of your board.

Logging-in to the Control Panel 

The vBulletin Admin Control Panel can be accessed by pointing your browser at http://www.example.com/forums/admincp/.

The first thing you will see when you access the Control Panel is a prompt to log

in. You will be presented with this login prompt even if you are already logged into the public area of the board. This is an additional level of security.

To log in, simply enter the username and password of a user account with administrator privileges, such as the one you created towards the end of the installation script process.

There are a couple of extra options that can be set on the login form. To see them, click the [Options] button to expand the form to its full size.

The two options you can set from the login form are:

Style ChoicevBulletin comes with a selection of styles in which you can view the control panel. Try them out and see which one you like best, or if you are feeling adventurous, create your own!

Save Open Groups AutomaticallyThis option allows you to have the system automatically save your preferences for which options in the Admin CP navigation panel are opened and which are collapsed by default, without you having to manually save the preferences.

Clicking the [Log in] button will submit the login details and options you have set, and log you in to the board.

Note:If you changed the value of $admincpdir in the config.php file and have renamed the admincp directory, the location at which you access the control panel will have changed accordingly.

Getting Around the Admin Control Panel 

The first thing you will see when you log into the Admin Control Panel is the welcome page. This page contains a quick method to search for users, some useful links and the vBulletin credits.

You will notice that the Admin Control Panel is divided into three distinct areas. The first and most obvious of these is the main panel, which currently shows the welcome page. This area (the main panel) is where the majority of your attention will be focused when administering your board.

At the top of the page is a narrow strip that contains information about the vBulletin version you are currently running and the latest version available to download. To the right of the strip are links allowing you to click through to the Forum Home Page (the starting point of the public area of the board), and a link allowing you to log out of the control panel.

To the left of the page is the navigation panel. This long, thin area is the key to getting around the Admin CP. When you first visit the Admin CP, you will notice that all the sections of this panel are in a collapsed state.

You can click the gadget on each section to expand it and show its contents, and click the gadget again to collapse that section again. Double-clicking a section's title will also toggle its state and either expand or contract it.

You can expand and collapse any sections at any time. You are not limited to having just a single group expanded at any one time.

When you have a section or sections expanded, hovering your mouse over the included links will highlight that link. You can then click to open the corresponding page in the main panel.

You can use the expanding and contracting sections to build a customized control panel layout for yourself. For example, you may find that you regularly use the 'Styles & Templates' tools, but very infrequently use the FAQ manager.

When you have established a set of expanded and collapsed sections that suits your way of working, you can save the state of the sections by clicking the[Save Prefs] link.

When you reload the Admin CP, you will find that the sections in the left navigation panel will have automatically expanded and collapsed in the manner that they were when you clicked the [Save Prefs] link.

You can expand and collapse any section in your administration session, and at any time you can click the [Revert Prefs] link, which will revert the expanded/collapsed state of all the sections to how they were when you saved your preferences.

If at any time you want to return to the welcome page of the Admin CP, clicking the [Control Panel Home] link at the top of the navigation panel will do this.

Backing Up The Database via SSH/Telnet 

In order to back up your database via SSH or Telnet you will require 2 things:

1) SSH or Telnet access to your site. You will need to check with your hosting company to see if this is available.

2) An SSH/Telnet Client, such as PuTTy.

Open your SSH/Telnet client and log into your website. The command line

prompt you will see will vary by OS.For most hosting companies, this will bring you into the FTP root folder.

Type in the following to create a backup in the current directory:

mysqldump --opt -Q -u dbusername -p databasename > backupname.sql

Or to create a backup in a separate directory (signified by /path/to/) type:

mysqldump --opt -Q -u dbusername -p databasename > /path/to/backupname.sql

You will be prompted for the database password. Enter it and the database will backup.

If your hosting company has you on a remote MySQL server, such as mysql.yourhost.com, you will need to add the servername to the command line. The servername will be the same as in your config.php. The command line will be:

Current directory:

mysqldump --opt -Q -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename > backupname.sql

Separate directory:

mysqldump --opt -Q -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename > /path/to/backupname.sql

You can then, if you wish, download the backup to your home computer.

User Contributed Notes: Backing Up The Database via SSH/Telnet Add a Comment

Kay Apr 20th '05, 11:06am

The best thing you could do is create a bash script that backs up all your DBs automatically (via cron) and have them sent to your email or load them on a remote server via sftp

Dean Clatworthy Apr 20th '05, 11:11am

Just a quick note, here's a link to putty:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Ianomed Apr 20th '05, 11:11am

If you run MySQL 4.0.23+ or 4.1.8+ you best supply the switch --hex-blob as well. Otherwise if you have thumbnails, attachments and/or avatars stored in the database, you may run into problems restoring these in-tact. These MySQL versions of course also apply on restoring, or the hexadecimal encoded binary fields won't be understood.

See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/mysqldump.html for additional details.

Zachery Apr 20th '05, 07:38pm

As of MySQL 4.1 both --opt and -Q are on by default.

Hamy Nov 17th '05, 11:35pm

Use --compatible=mysql40 to backup unicode correct.

Dan Dlugos Jan 28th '06, 10:42am

If you are getting errors like 'no such directory or file name', you must specify the file path from root, not from you user

directory. This is especially important if you are on a shared hosting server. Often time this is something like /home/username/..., but check with your hosting company for your path to root if you are trying to run the shell command & get the no such directory error

Colin Jun 29th '06, 09:50am

To specify a port, use -P (a CAPITAL p).The whole string, with port 4000 for example would look like this:

mysqldump --opt -Q -h servername -P 4000 -u dbusername -p databasename > /path/to/backupname.sql

Erik Klein Jun 11th '07, 01:16am

The -p in the commands listed above is the password.

Most have probably figured this out, but if you want the script to run without prompting for the password just put the password associated with the username immediately after the '-p' as in -pmypassword.

You can then set the script up in a cron job.

Add a Comment

Backing Up The Database via phpMyAdmin 

For purposes of this instruction,I am using phpMyAdmin version 2.5.6-rc1.

Go to phpMyAdmin in your web browser and select the database you wish to back up by clicking on the name. If you have multiple databases, you will need to select the name from the drop menu.

In the right-hand frame, you will see a row of links. Click [Export]

Now in the right-hand frame you will see three (3) areas. In the first area, called Export you select the table(s) you wish to back up by selecting them from the list. To select multiple tables, hold the Ctrl key and click the table names. To select all table, click the [Select All] link.

In the second area, called SQL Options, make sure you have the following boxes checked:

StructureAdd 'drop table'Add AUTO_INCREMENT valueEnclose table and field names with backquotesData

In the third area, check Save as file and type a name for the backup in the File name template :.If your system supports it, you may also choose a compression type. None is selected by default.

Click [Go] and you will be prompted to save the backup on your local computer.

Restoring The Database via SSH/Telnet 

In order to restore your database via SSH or Telnet you will require 2 things:

1) SSH or Telnet access to your site. You will need to check with your hosting company to see if this is available.

2) An SSH/Telnet Client, such as PuTTy.Note:If your database backup resides on your home computer, you will first have to upload it via FTP to your website

Open your SSH/Telnet client and log into your website. The command line prompt you will see will vary by OS. For most hosting companies, this will bring you into the FTP root folder.

You can either change directoties to wherever the backup is located and type in the following:

mysql -u dbusername -p databasename < backupname.sql

Or if you do not want to change directories and you know the path to where the backup is located, type in the following:

mysql -u dbusername -p databasename < /path/to/backupname.sql

You will be prompted for the database password. Enter it and the database will backup.

If your hosting company has you on a remote MySQL server, such as mysql.yourhost.com, you will need to add the servername to the command line. The servername will be the same as in your config.php. The command line will be:

mysql -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename < backupname.sql

Or:

mysql -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename < /path/to/backupname.sql

Restoring The Database via phpMyAdmin 

For purposes of this instruction,I am using phpMyAdmin version 2.5.6-rc1.

Go to phpMyAdmin in your web broswer and select the database you wish to back up by clicking on the name. If you have multiple databases, you will need to select the name from the drop menu.

In the right-hand frame, you will see a row of links. Click [SQL]

You will see a large input box for queries and below that you will see a smaller box labeled Browse.

Click the [Browse] button, navigate to and select the backup file on your home computer and click the [Go].Warning:There are sometimes file size limitations on importing a database backup this way. If your database is too large, you might encounter PHP timeout errors. In that case, you will need to attempt to restore your database via SSH/Telnet.