rnorth6920

There is usually an option for "test" or "sandbox" within your payment gateway provider. Just put the test payment info in your admin payment section and you should be fine. I'd prefer and on off switch built into IPS, but doubt we'll ever get that. So the previous option is the best option that I'm aware of.

I have topics with well over 10k replies and do not have any issues with them. VPS with 6 cores and 16 gb of ram with nVme drive. To be honest, it's way overkill, but nice to have enough horsepower to keep things smooth.

I would look for a different hosting provider. Having a hard 60 process limit will severely limit your site.

Do you have tasks set to be done with normal traffic, or do you have a cron set up? The default is the first option.

I would love to help out!

First, make sure your server supports the latest IPS version: If your IPS account is current, you can go into your Client Area and download the latest release. You will have to do a manual upgrade. And always have a full backup prior to doing anything. Also, PHP 8 is not supported on the version you are currently on. The current version does support PHP 8.1.

Do you have a control panel or are you adding the LAMP directly to the server? If possible, export the database: mysqldump -u MYSQLUSER -p MYSQLDATABASE > /db_backup.sql then import it on the new server: mysql -u MYSQLUSER -p MYSQLDATABASE < /db_backup.sql

That looks normal.

Is there no index.php file in the root folder?

You could try that and go to admin/upgrade and it could potentially upgrade the original database. I personally would not try that unless you have full backups of the files and database on hand.

Ensure you have a backup of your files and database. If possible, you can restore them so that you have a working site. Then I'd uninstall any 3rd party applications one by one. This would better your chances of keeping everything working correctly. If that works, then I'd upgrade to the latest 4.7 release.

If you're able to utilize your servers phpmyadmin, you can log in and select all your tables and repair them. That might help you gain some traction in getting back online. Also, you can perform a move to a new server without upgrading anything. I actually did the opposite of what you're trying to do, waiting until after the move to upgrade.

I currently use evolution-host, which uses OVH cloud. I actually got the service for free and have not had any issues except with my IP being on a level 2 and level 3 blacklist because of bad neighbors. This affects email deliverability a considerable amount. A newer host that I've began using is datawagon. Their prices are very low and IP's are not on any blacklists, and they include snapshot backups. It seems to be a smaller operation. I'm sure IPS Cloud would be the ideal choice, although I've never used their hosting service. At the end of the day, its a tough choice to make, but whatever you do, backup your data at least daily and you should be better prepared for the unexpected. * and if we're not allowed to mention hosting providers, sorry!

For a "managed" VPS this is completely unacceptable. It sounds like a headache but hopefully you figure it out soon. Good hosts are sometimes tricky to find.

Having a host with hard limits on things such as number of files or processes running is usually the one's you should avoid. Is this a shared hosting server or VPS? I'd look into a different host if I were you.