[sims] Migrating from 2008 to 2012 - Queries etc.

[Sam_Brown]

Afternoon All,

 

Got a quote from Capita but they came in at ~900 quid so looking to do it myself this summer.

 

Our current set up is 2 servers. One with the DB on and one with the S:\ on. We'd be looking to consolidate the two existing servers into one on a new 2012 server.

 

Not done this before and have a few queries so bare with me.

 

1) In terms of the DB... Is it just a case of backing up the database and copying it to a new instance of SQL Server 2012? Or is there more to it than that? I remember hearing something about needing to use a SIMS Tool to do this in order to preserve user passwords etc. Also will a bog standard install of SQL 2012 work or does it need to be configured in weird and wonderful ways?

 

2) In terms of the S:\ and various other bits and bobs can I just move this manually or do I need to "install" it again from some sort of media?

 

3) Someone mentioned something about a document server. I've not come across this before in my use of SIMS. Is this just a shared folder which needs copying and SIMS configured to point at it?

 

4) In terms of SOLUS 2 \ SOLUS 3 how do I go about setting this up and migrating or installing?

 

Any help on the questions above would be awesome. Any guides on this would be welcome as well.

 

Thanks in advance,

[Cache]

I did this for the first time this year too and actually for the most part it was a fairly painless experience. If you follow the guide in Resource ID 21835 you can't go too far wrong. In answer to your questions though:

 

1. You should really use the Database Migration Tool as that will deal with everything automatically. Basically you download this and run it on your 2008 server which will backup the database and disconnect it for you. You then copy the database across to your 2012 server and run the tool after you have installed SQL 2012 and it will restore the database for you and you should be good to go. It should prompt you about the Backup paths and various other details throughout.
   
2. This will depend on whether you currently update using Solus 2 or Solus 3. If you are using Solus 2 then you will be ok just to copy it across, if you are using Solus 3 then your setups directory might be out of date. What I did was copy the S Drive across, download the latest installable ISO and all the update ISO's since then and then overwrite the S drive with the ISO's in sequence which provided me a current S Drive with any various legacy parts still present.
   
3. Document Server is how all the linked documents are stored on the server. You will need to install this from the Setup's folder on the S drive or can select it as an option when running SIMSINST in order to install the server components. Once you've got your SIMS server up and running, you'll need to go into the DMS setup option and update the server name to allow it to connect and work.
   
4. I did Solus3 about 3 weeks after the rest of the migration and it's fairly easy to do following the migration guide at the back of the Install and Configure guide, Resource ID 21925. The only thing that got me was because our Solus3 Install uses Windows Integrated Auth, when I came to redirect my agents it didn't work properly because I didn't enter the SA details on the Configuration String Editor on the old server. Editing again and using the SA details it worked a dream after that.
   

[Sam_Brown]

That's really really helpful thank you so much.

 

Just a few queries on what you said...

 

2) Is there a list of all the ISO's to download?

 

3) Once I've got it installed do I need to copy over existing documents? And what is the "DSM Server Option" I need to configure? Something within SIMS? Or a separate service?

[Jamman960]

I was going to migrate to SQL 2012 at the same time as moving from 2003 server to 2008R2 during Easter but having looked at the tech roadmap I figured it'd be better to switch to SQL2008R2 now(we migrated before R2 was supported last time so have an R2 lic anyway) then switch straight to SQL 2014 as its support starts just as 2008R2's finishes. either way it was fairly painless as per the instructions above.

 

I just need to move FMS and Solus 3 over now

 

James

[vikpaw]

That's really really helpful thank you so much.

 

Just a few queries on what you said...

 

2) Is there a list of all the ISO's to download?

 

3) Once I've got it installed do I need to copy over existing documents? And what is the "DSM Server Option" I need to configure? Something within SIMS? Or a separate service?

 

Summer 13 was the latest installable. Then it's an update iso for every update since then, so autumn 13 and spring 14. You just need to get the system updated to the same point your current DB is on.

[Cache]

3) Once I've got it installed do I need to copy over existing documents? And what is the "DSM Server Option" I need to configure? Something within SIMS? Or a separate service?

 

Sorry, DMS = Document Management Server.

 

Had to look up the option, it's Tools -> Document Management Server. Once you've installed DMS and performed the remapping in the Migration guide (which is basically, after you've installed the DMS you will copy the folder over from the old one, rename it from SIMS2008 to SIMS2012 or whatever you SQL instance is and then restart the service), you will need to update the computer name in that menu in order to allow the DMS to work.

Edited May 23, 2014 by Cache

[Sam_Brown]

Going to be doing this tomorrow. Wish me luck

[pauldredge]

Capita have notes on this on their support tech site. Its pretty easy to do. Have done it in about 80 schools so far across Northamptonshire.

 

Any queries drop us a PM

[Sam_Brown]

Capita have notes on this on their support tech site. Its pretty easy to do. Have done it in about 80 schools so far across Northamptonshire.

 

Any queries drop us a PM

 

Took about an hour in the end to do everything. Easy.

[themanfromict]

I'm going to attempt migration again tomorrow. Ran it last week, but migration failed due to FMS database being too big. Which lead to me having lots of fun detaching and re-attaching databases from 2012 and 2008.

 

The FMS database is 30 GB, and HDD currently has 42 GB available, but dropped to 11 GB when it failed. I've got it back to 42 GB again by deleting the failed the failed lfd and mfd files.

 

So it looks like I'll have to try shifting files to USB HDD temporarily. How much free disk space do you need for migration to succeed?

[Sam_Brown]

Wow. That is a big database! I'm guessing that's mostly log files? We're a secondary school and our SIMS db is approx 7 GB and FMS about 700 MB. Although I've known our log files to get absolutely ridiculous before (think we had 40GB before). There was a command we run to shrink the log files but I can't recall it off the top of my head (will dig out my old topic on it when I find it). I seem to recall capita giving us an re-indexing patch which also sorted out the log files. Might be worth giving them a chat.

 

EDIT: Do you have your log files set to SIMPLE or FULL and when was the last time they were truncated?

 

These might help...

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/enterprise-software/78212-mssql-log-files-massive.html

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2008/78232-shrinking-mssql-log-files.html

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/56348-how-shrink-ldf-file.html

Edited August 11, 2014 by Sam_Brown

[themanfromict]

I haven't truncated the database yet. We turned academy last year and the office switch FMS over to a second account, so the LDF is only 11 months old. I'll give that a go and see what happens.