Massive Database Error - Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes

[Digital Jedi]

I posted this in the vB.org thread, but then I noticed the priority support links in all your posts, so I thought I'd give it a shot here, too.

I get this massive database error when I import the product XML file. It adds all the tables, but right around after it starts rebuilding styles I get this MySQL error and the page doesn't reload. It stops at this error, which has over a million characters in it. For obvious reasons, I can't post it all here, but here's the gist of it:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE vb_language SET title = title, phrasegroup_postbit = 'a:35:{s:20:"add_infraction_for_x";s:23:"Add Infraction for %1$s";s:20:

...<snip>...

"timezone_gmt_plus_1200";s:50:"(GMT +12:00) Auckland, Wellington, Fiji, Kamchatka";}' WHERE languageid = 1;

MySQL Error   : Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes
Error Number  : 1153
Request Date  : Friday, January 14th 2011 @ 04:25:17 PM
Error Date    : Friday, January 14th 2011 @ 04:25:18 PM
Script        : [url]http://www.cogonline.net/forums/admincp/plugin.php?do=productimport[/url]
Referrer      : [url]http://www.cogonline.net/forums/admincp/plugin.php?do=productadd[/url]
IP Address    : 184.1.72.73
Username      : Digital Jedi
Classname     : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.0.91-community

Any idea what could cause this, and do I need to watch out for some things?

 

[Fillip H.]

Please edit my.cnf and increase the max_allowed_packet size

If you are on a shared host, or for whatever reason don't have root access to your server, you will need to contact either your web host or your sysadmin and see if they will edit it.

If they cannot / will not, you will need to either un-install some phrase-heavy products or move to a VPS hosting solution.

 

[Digital Jedi]

Do you happen to know what I should request the size be increased to, or is it kind of trial and error? Also, would it be something I could have them set temporarily, just for the install, or is this something that needs to be increased permanently?

 

[Fillip H.]

It would need to be increased permanently.

Size is just guesswork really, we're using 32 MB on this host.

 

[Digital Jedi]

Well, what do you know. They increased it without preamble. Seems to have imported with no troubles. Thanks.