Now I will go through all steps to upgrade phpBB 2.0.22 to phpBB 3.
I use Dreamhost to host my phpBB forum. The forum I upgrade in this sample is http://forum.g2soft.net
To upgarde a phpBB 2 forum to phpBB3, I have to install a brand new phpBB 3 forum first, then convert the old phpBB 2 forum to phpBB 3. After testing, then let the phpBB 3 forum replace the phpBB 2 forum.
This is the part 1, covering the brand new installation of phpBB 3 and backup the old phpBB 2.
1) Backup all phpBB 2 files and database.
SSH to the server.

tar cvzf forum.g2soft.tar.gz ./forum.g2soft.net

Use phpMyAdmin to export database of this forum.
2) Create a new dadabase
Use phpMyAdmin to create it, named as phpbb3
3) Get the phpBB 3 package and decompress it.
SSH to the server.

wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/phpbb/phpBB-3.0.0.zip
unzip phpBB-3.0.0.zip
cd phpBB3
cp -r -f . ~/forum3.g2soft.net

Here I use forum3.g2soft.net as a temporary domain for converting processing.
4) Start to install this new phpBB3
Enter http://forum3.g2soft.net in the Firefox. The introduction of phpBB3 is coming.
phpbb3-01

5) Click install tab, the installation compatibility testing page shown as below.
phpbb3-02

6) Click start install button.
Enter the database setting, which I created on step 2, into this page.
phpbb3-03

7) Click “process to next step”, it will test the MySql server settings.
phpbb3-04

8) Enter the Administrator information to create the Forum Administrator.
phpbb3-05

Then the test of Administrator setting will run. The result looks like below:
phpbb3-06


9) Now the system will tell you the configuration file is created.
phpbb3-07

10) The advanced setting includes Email setting and Server URL:
phpbb3-08

11) All settings installation needed are entered correctly now. Ready to populate the database.
phpbb3-09

12) For now, the brand new installation of phpBB 3 is completed.
phpbb3-10

There are two options to do. One is start to use this new forum. The other one is convert the old forum or other forum to this new phpBB 3 forum.
I still remember my target work is to upgrade my phpBB 2.0.22. So I selected the “proceed on to convertor”.

Please see the part 2 of Upgrade from phpBB 2 to phpBB 3.

David Yin

David is a blogger, geek, and web developer — founder of FreeInOutBoard.com. If you like his post, you can say thank you here

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