[acs] Server migration problem with Behaviour Manager

[themightymrp]

I hope somebody can help with this, I have a ticket open with Serco but it has been open for 9 days now and I don't have an answer from them!

 

We are moving our CMIS/ePortal system from 2 seperate servers onto one big shiny new one with overkill power (to cope with Behaviour Manager). When I restore my backups onto the system I find that all of the behaviour events for students are blank! There should be thousands upon thousands of entries!!

 

Here is the weird part, if Serco restore our backup onto their machines it all works fine. If I restore our backup onto a test machine that uses SQL it works fine. If I restore the backup onto a test machine using an Access DB it works fine :-/ It's only on the new server.

 

Having done a lot of checking around I believe I may have found the cause. On the new server, the APPAPPFIELDS table does not contain correct data for the SetID column, instead of showing 2011-2012 for example, it shows TMP_CMIS. Has anyone seen this before??

 

I have tried single table restores but that didn't work. I have even taken a fresh backup from the old server and tried restoring again but still get TMP_CMIS.

 

The specs for the new and old servers are below, does anyone know of an incompatibility that Serco don't want to tell me about?

 

Old Server:

 

Single CPU running at 3.2Ghz

4Gb RAM

Windows Server 2008 R1 (32bit)

SQL Server 2008 R1 with SP1 (32bit)

RAID 5 array for data storage

Facility build 11.3.28

 

New Server:

 

Dual Quad-core Xeon 2.8Ghz

16Gb RAM

Windows Server 2008 R2 (64bit)

SQL Server 2008 R1 with SP3 (64bit)

RAID 5 array for data storage

Facility build 11.3.30

 

Any thoughts are appreciated

[Banjo]

You haven't said whether you are doing a backup restore using SQL or the.bdb files?

 

My Advice, don't bother with the SQL restore route, use .bdb. If you are using .bdb files then scrap the current database on the new server and create a new one with the same users and permission as the last database. E.g. You'll need to create a user within the new instance of SQL that matches the owner of the old database (usually STUD_ADMIN)

[themightymrp]

Should have mentioned that you're right - I have been doing the backups and restores via the .bdb files. I have also deleted and recreated the SQL database from scratch twice and set it all up, using the STUD_ADMIN account, exactly as described in the documentation. This is not the first time I've had to set up a new server to host Facility, its the 4th, so I'm aware of the procedure and have had it working in the past.

 

Another thing I have tried is installing build 11.3.28 on the new server and restoring the data to that (seeing as it matches the build on the current working server). That gave the same result I had hoped that it would show the data and I could then perform an upgrade to build 30.

 

Driving me nuts!

[themightymrp]

Solved it!

 

The installation documentation provided by Serco says to limit the growth size of the SQL Transaction Log whilst doing the setup of the database. The documentation shows a 'suitable size' of 500Mb. Well, I changed this to allow Unlimited growth, re-imported the APPAPPFIELDS table an eh-voila!! It worked!! The log grew to an amazing 18.4Gb !! I am unsure whether or not to re-impose the size limit or just leave it alone now though :-/

 

Wish I had been told this 9 days ago!!!

[Banjo]

Good stuff

 

Why don't you turn the old server into an eportal server, as the CPU is clocked higher than the new server?

[themightymrp]

We are going to be running both CMIS and ePortal off of this new server, hence the high spec (2 quad cores). I have plans for the other server to be used as our Printer Server as the current one is chugging along quite slowly on ancient hardware

[michael2k6]

Hi there,

 

Sorry that you've had problems with that documentation. I've looked at the document you're referring to and you're right, it is outdated.

That part of the document comes from the days when the hardware requirements were much less and disk space was a premium.

 

I've prioritised this for tomororw so that others don't encounter the same issue; I know that this doesn't bring back the time you've waited, but please know that we're doing something about it.

 

Kindest Regards

Michael Sanderson

Customer Success Manager

Serco Learning

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post above is my own and does not represent the views or opinions of my employer or their associates.

[Banjo]

We are going to be running both CMIS and ePortal off of this new server, hence the high spec (2 quad cores). I have plans for the other server to be used as our Printer Server as the current one is chugging along quite slowly on ancient hardware

 

SQL will love the additional memory and extra cores and performance will be improved. However, the clock speed of the new server 2.8Ghz is lower than the outgoing 3.2Ghz and Eportal does like it clock speed on a single core!