Sims testing enviroment?

[RichB]

I want to set up a Sims testing enviroment, where I can pull an image of what is currently in sims and then export it to Virtual Pc machine or something like this where the admin team can play around with sims and not break the real one?

 

Can this be done? and if so how?

[creese]

Live data or training data.

 

Either way you can Restoreui a backup or DBAttach/deattach databases.

 

I often bring school data onto my PC to test.

[vikpaw]

Yep, more and more people do this now.

Search the forums for instructions on moving SIMS server, the principle is the same, except you carry out all tasks on the VM.

Essentially, set up a VM as you want with Windows, SQL, then restore a backup of SIMS from the live server on to it.

Copy over the Document Management Store. Rename the file to it and change the setting in SIMS to point to it. Alter the connect.ini to point to new server and you're away.

I usually label the Virtual in the shared folder to say it's a test server, also map a different drive to it, and call it something else e.g. SIMSTestServershare so that there can be no issues with people connecting to the live server. when i say people i mean, me, as i don't let others use it.

[philserre]

We're trying to set up a test sims server before moving sims to a new server. If we start with a Windows 2003 server, which has no apps on it, what is the order of installation for SIMS and SQL server? Does it matter which way around these are done? We have tried putting sims on and sql server but cannot log in to sims and cannot locate the original sims instance in SQL Server Management Console. We didn't detach the database on the original server before copying it over, but did stop the sql server. Thanks, Phil

[vikpaw]

Fully patch Windows 2k3 server

Install SQL (i'm assuming you're using 2005 - best to stick with that for your test, you can do another test when you're confident to move to SQL 2008 which is needed by October) and fully patch. When installing, choose a named instance, SIMS2005 is one of the norms.

Install SIMS, usually, running simsinst and selecting options to make it a server / doc store.

You should detach the original db and copy to the new server, then reattach. Using dbattach, this backs up all the usernames and passwords into the sims mdf. ( i think i'm right with this).

Otherwise, your passwords etc are stored in your master table which you wont have taken over.

I actually, just take a .bak backup file created by SQL management studio and restore to the server, but i'm usually just adding to an existing test install, so not sure if you could do that for a fresh install.

[philserre]

Thanks for the advice. We are planning to do this tomorrow. We orginally set this up in the reverse order so maybe second time lucky! Phil

[vikpaw]

good luck