What's the best method to restore a 1 to 2 gig database?  I know there can be a timeout issue with Phpmyadmin.

Thanks!  

MySQL BigDump: https://wesbos.com/import-large-mysql-database-bigdump-php/

I would almost certainly just SSH into the server and import the database at the command line.

mysql -h<host> -u<username> -p -D<databasename> < /path/to/dump.sql

Note that this is the basic general command, but you may need to adjust it (e.g. to set character sets, specify other information such as a port, etc.).

2 hours ago, bfarber said:

set character sets

I want to emphasize that. I recently lost all my emojis during migration as my character set was not set to utf8mb4. I realized that two days later when my members have already added a good chunk of content in to the migrated db with broken emojis. 

What followed was a bit of nerve wracking, but very educational exercise in replacing the relevant rows and columns from the old database in to the new one.

8 hours ago, Adriano Faria said:

MySQL BigDump: https://wesbos.com/import-large-mysql-database-bigdump-php/

Thanks! Did you have to change php.ini on your server?  What sizes have you done before?