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Migrating Your Fortis Software for Records Management Part 2

  

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Earlier this week we covered part one of migrating Fortis SE to a new server.  Now we are getting to the nitty gritty.  We're moving images and databases here.  

Attach or install the Fortis databases if you have moved or reinstalled your Database Server.

                Fortis SE or Fortis Embedded:

                Open the dbs.ini from the old server and note the DBdir= value in [DBSetup] section.

                Navigate to this directory on the old Database Server.

                Note: In order to copy the data files, the databases must not be in use by SQL Server at the time. Consult with a SQL Server administrator to facilitate this.

                Copy the .mdf and .ldf files corresponding to the names of the databases used in Fortis and move them to the directory noted in the DBdir= value of the dbs.ini on the new Database Server.

                Again, in the dbs.ini of the old server, note that each database has a section denoted by its name in square brackets, e.g.: [Records]. Within each section there will be an equal pair of values, LogFilePath= and FullTextInfo=. This directory is typically known as the Related files directory. Copy these directories to an equivalent location on the new server.

                Log into the Database Administration Station, hit “Open DB,” and click the “Install..” button.

                Type in or choose the name of the database. In most cases, this will consist of the “dbname” portion of dbname.mdf.

                For the related database files directory, give the new location of the corresponding Related files directory.

                Hit “OK” and your database will be installed.

                Note: There are circumstances which may prevent the Install Database function from recognizing the files in the new DBdir= directory. If this is the case, refer to the reference section “Attaching Fortis databases to a new SQL Server”. After attaching the database, run the Install Database command once more. The attached database will now appear in the drop-down list.

                In the dbs.ini of the old server, note that each database has a section denoted by its name in square brackets, e.g.: [Records]. Within each section there will be an equal pair of values, LogFilePath= and FullTextInfo=. This directory is typically known as the Related files directory. Copy these directories to an equivalent location on the new server.

                Copy the dbs.ini file from the old SYDATA directory to the new one.

                Edit all references to the old server in the new dbs.ini file to reflect the server change. These values typically are multiple instances of SERVER=, FullTextInfo=, and LogFilePath=.

                After editing the dbs.ini file, the Fortis workstations will now show the moved databases.

                Correct the image archive locations in the database if they are to be moved.

                Copy your image archive directories to the new server.

                Log into the Database Administration Station and open the database.

                Change the archiving location for all future documents.

                In the Document Explorer window, right-click and get the properties of the root folder of the database.

                Under the Archive tab, update the archive path to reflect the new location of the image archive. Hit “OK” to exit the folder properties window.

                These steps must be repeated for any folder in the database that has an archive location set in its Archive tab. When an archiving location is blank in a folder’s properties, it will inherit the location from its parent folder.

                Update the archive path for all existing documents.

                In the Database Administration Station, choose Tools>Update Archive Path. For instructions on how to use this tool, consult the documentation.

                To confirm that the command has worked, open the Update Archive Path tool once more and check to make sure that any paths pointing to the old server are gone. There are some configurations where you may see the an old path still appear on the list even though the tool had definitely run on that path previously. Simply repeat the steps above until the old path does not appear in the original archive list.

                Set up your backup solution for the new server.

                Deploy the remaining workstations, using the Fortis Installation Guide as a reference.

See, that isn't too bad.  No it is.  Call me and I'll do it for you if you'd like. 

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