Moving the SIMS G/S Drive - easy?

[sidewinder]

For some reason we have our SIMS G drive (or its S on most peoples setups I think) on our ancient FMS server, which causes a bit of a bottleneck and the machine isnt very reliable.

One of the SIMS technical guys from the council suggested moving it to another server, and that it shouldnt cause any problems as long as it was mapped with the same drive letter on both the server and any clients.

 

It doesnt seem a hard job but I wondered if there are any other things I should consider?

I cant afford the slightest thing to go wrong, else no-one will be able to get onto SIMS

[markman]

It seems odd to have two different drive letters to SIMS. Generally 'S' is used.

 

You would need a half decent server with full SQL to make it run better. We use a Dual Xeon Dell server with 2Gb of RAM, 2 x 73Gb SCSI's and it just serves SIMS nothing else. Capita have a recommended spec for servers and workstations.

 

Once all the files are moved over you will have to reattach the SIMS database to SQL on the new server and you can set the drive maping in AD.

 

We actually got Capita to do the database move part to make sure it went smoothly

 

Hope this helps.

[woody]

If you've never done anything like this before, I would also advise you to get local sims guys to do the switchover for you. I would definately change the letter to s: as during the process.

[sidewinder]

I have no idea why we use G. The SIMS installation here seems to be a complete bodge job. I'd quite like it if they just started it all from scratch to be honest

Surely would be Ok to leave as G though? Just to make things simpler.

 

I'm never sure whether this sort of stuff is meant to be my responsibility. We pretty much have SIMS managed from the council, I'm only really responsible for keeping the servers on and backed up. They have a remote connection via NetOp and they generally take charge of upgrades

 

Problem is Ive heard rumours its only this way because my predecessor didnt get on with one of the SIMS analysts. So I get the feeling half their team expects me to be managing the servers and half of them think it is them

[woody]

It won't be difficult to change the drive to S: You can get all the PCs to map drive S through group policy and if you are installing on a new server, it will be like a fresh start in many respects, so a good time to do it. There are a few ini files which you will need to change to S: but your Sims help team will be able to advise you of these. As I said, get them in if your not sure.

 

As to where your responsibilities lie, speak to the relevant people at the council. I have a feeling they will pass any hardware change responsibilities onto you.

[NetworkGeezer]

It depends what you what you want to do.

 

Are you just wanting to move the SIMS folder (i.e. the share you map to drive G: to) or are moving the whole SIMS installation including SQL database and Document Server?

 

Most of the SIMS client side code is now stored on the client hard drive.

Moving the SIMS folder should be quite straight forward but make sure no one is using Nova-T or Personnel 5 while your doing it.

 

Moving the SQL database and or DMS is more complicated as it requires installing a complete SIMS server install on the new server box and then restoring the current database and the document server files.

[sidewinder]

It is just the folder I want to move, sorry for any confusion

Thankfully SIMS itself is on its own dedicated server

[NetworkGeezer]

It is just the folder I want to move, sorry for any confusion

Thankfully SIMS itself is on its own dedicated server

 

Easy peasy then robocopy the files across to the new server or restore from backup then amend the script which maps the g: drive