Moving SIMS Discover to a new server

On the OLD server

Firstly, you will need to backup the user-defined elements of Discover (graphs, groups, etc.) using the Discover Backup Utility.

  1. Navigate to the SIMS SQL Server Binn folder and then locate and run the 'Discover.Backup.Gui.exe' to display the Discover Backup Utility dialog.

  2. In the Discover Database Connection Settings panel, enter the name of the Discover SQL Server Instance that hosts your Discover installation.

  3. Enter the Discover Database Name, E.g. Discover

  4. Enter your SQL Server Username and SQL Server Password in the relevant fields. E.g. the user SA and the SA account's password. 

  5. In the Backup panel, select the required Operation by clicking either the Backup or Restore radio button, as appropriate. - To restore a backup, you must specify an existing Discover database.

  6. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the Backup File.

  7. Click the Go button to begin the Backup or Restore process.

  8. Click the Quit button if you do not want to run the selected process.

Once a backup of the Discover database has been completed, you will need to move this backup file (.dbk) to the new server. 

IMPORTANT  Discover backup files should be treated with the same degree of security and protection as any other backup file, e.g. SIMS and FMS backup files etc.

On the NEW server

  1. You will need to install a clean copy of Discover again, with a new Discover database, using the correct installers for the version/release that matches your current SIMS .net installation. This can be done through SOLUS 3, or by a download available on request from OSMIS.

  2. Once Discover has been installed onto the new server with a new database, please login to the Discover Configuration Utility or Administration Utility and run a data transfer for the 'Current Year'.

  3. When the data transfer has completed successfully, you can then use the Discover backup utility again on the new server to restore the user-defined settings from your original Discover data to the new database.

    IMPORTANT If you have restored a backup of your original Discover data through the Discover backup utility, run another data transfer to ensure everything has been synchronised.

  4. The Discover Clients on each workstation are likely to still be pointing to the old server, you will need to modify each of the client configuration files, on each workstation to point to the new server, I.e. the 'Discover.Designer.Desktop.exe.config' file (e.g. C:\Program Files\SIMS\Discover Client or from the Autumn 2013 release: C:\ProgramData\Discover) to ensure the details have been updated to point to the correct/new server and SQL Instance.

Alternatively, the Discover Client can be uninstalled and reinstalled using the new updated details. If you are using SOLUS 3, this can be done by updating the Discover environment details to point to the new server and then reinstalling/deploying the Discover Client to the required machines.

If you are going to update the Discover.Designer.Desktop.exe.config on each workstation, you will need to update the following lines:

IMPORTANT the example below must use double quotes, as single quotes will not work.

<add key='authenticationServer' value='MyServer\SIMS2016'/> <--The server name and SQL instance that your SIMS database is hosted on.
<add key='authenticationDatabase' value='SIMS'/> <--The name of your SIMS database.
<add key='interactiveLogonAuthenticationPrefix' value='SIMS_'/> <--The name of your SIMS database followed by an underscore (_).
<add key='discoverInstance' value='MyServer\SIMS2016'/> <--The server name and SQL instance that your Discover database is hosted on.
<add key='discoverDatabase' value='Discover'/> <--The name of your Discover database.

Once one configuration file has been updated to use the correct and up-to-date details of your new server, check that these changes work and that you can access Discover. If so, you can copy and paste this working configuration file onto other workstations that have Discover installed, replacing the old configuration file.