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.
5) Click install tab, the installation compatibility testing page shown as below.
6) Click start install button.
Enter the database setting, which I created on step 2, into this page.
7) Click “process to next step”, it will test the MySql server settings.
8) Enter the Administrator information to create the Forum Administrator.
Then the test of Administrator setting will run. The result looks like below:
9) Now the system will tell you the configuration file is created.
10) The advanced setting includes Email setting and Server URL:
11) All settings installation needed are entered correctly now. Ready to populate the database.
12) For now, the brand new installation of phpBB 3 is completed.
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.
