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Moving Archive Manager to New Server

John Barry
over 9 years ago

We are currently running Archive Manager (5.3) on a Windows Server 200R2 instance, and are considering a move to a 2012R2 server.

The current server has all the services, the attachment store and the website as well as SQL server installed on it.

We have found the KB articles that explain how to move the attachment store or the SQL database to another server.

 

Our question relates to the Full Text Index.

If we install Archive Manager on a new server (having already moved the attachment store and database), point the new install to the current database and attachment stores what about the FTI?

Is it possible to move the FTI, or is a full rebuild of the index required in this scenario?

Thanks in advance ...

 

 

  • +1 over 9 years ago
    Hello John Barry,

    The Index will rebuild itself if no Index is present when the Full Text Index Service (FTI) starts.

    When the FTI starts, it attempts to scan/verify all of the index partitions based on the FTPartition table.

    If it cannot find the index, it either will create a new one if the path is valid, or throw errors to the FTI.wlog saying it cannot access the index location for that partition.

    In some scenarios we recommend rebuilding the index depending on the state of it. However, you could manually move it and update the paths to reference the new locations before starting the FTI service in services.msc.

    You can find all of the paths under the FTPartition table in the Archive Manager database by running:

    SELECT * FROM [ArchiveManager].[dbo].[FTPartition]​

    When running that query you will notice the FTPartitionID column and the Location column.

    If you move the Index to a new server along with all of its subfolders including the Message & Attachment folders, you would want to update the paths.

    Before moving the index also ensure the "Archive Manager Full Text Index" service is set to Stopped / Manual start up or disabled then perform the move.

    Another way of doing it, which can take some time but at least you will know your index is getting rebuilt fresh and will be fully functional when it does is-

    Set the Locations Column for each of the Partitions to be the directory of your choice on the new machine:

    E.g.
    C:\Dell\ArchiveManager\Index\Message1
    C:\Dell\ArchiveManager\Index\Message2
    C:\Dell\ArchiveManager\Index\Message3
    C:\Dell\ArchiveManager\Index\Attachment4

    Once you start the Full Text Index Service, it will begin to rebuild the Paths and Index that are missing on the machine.

    This process can take up to a week or longer depending on how large the index is. There is also a chance that if you do an index move it may become corrupted and you may have to rebuild it anyway.

    Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

    Thank you,

    Dave
    • 0 over 9 years ago
      Thanks Dave for a thorough answer, this has cleared it up for me.
      • 0 over 6 years ago

        (A couple of years ago) using the advice from Dave we stopped the service updated the paths in the database and moved the folders to a different location.

        We actually moved them within the original server, to a different drive (on a faster disk)  and moved the SQL instance to another server which combined gave us the desired increase in performance.

        This all appeared to work as expected.

        However we have now noticed that all the newly created partitions that have been created since the change are in the original path F:\Quest Software\ArchiveManager\Index

        We can follow the same process for moving the existing partitions that are in the 'wrong' location, however we would obviously like to have any new partitions created in the 'correct' location.

        My question relates to how we do this.

        • The Configuration Console > Advanced Settings includes an entry Full Text Index Location however this is set to a value of F:\ArchiveManager\Index so it would seem that this setting does not control this (and perhaps this is a legacy entry?)
        • In the database table [FTRolloverPolicyID] there is a Locations column that is set to the path where the new index files appear to be created. Is updating the path in these Locations row entries the correct way to update the location for the new files to be created?
        • Or should this change be made through the (web site) Administration console > Index Rollover Policy > Partition Locations? > Add E: as a Drive, remove F: then 'Update Rollover' (for both Message and Attachment)
        • Or something entirely different?

        Thanks in advance ...

        • 0 over 6 years ago

          Hello , 

          If you open SQL, run the following:

          SELECT * FROM [ArchiveManager].[dbo].[FTPartition]​

          You will notice each partition references a path. 

          When the Full Text Index Service Starts it will verify if the paths exist as referenced in the FTPartition table. If they do not exist, Archive Manager will create them. The setting F:\Quest Software\ArchiveManager\Index was set when AM was originally installed but does not control what the actual paths in the database if they were manually set at somepoint.  

          You can set the Full Text Index Location path in the Configuration Console to the appropriate location so that new Index folders get created.  Also "Right-Click and Edit the FTPartition table" in the ArchiveManager database and update the paths accordingly to ensure existing index folders do not get created in perhaps what might be the old path. 

           

          Thank you,

          Dave

          • 0 over 6 years ago

            Dave,

            Thanks for the prompt response. 

            If I understand your response correctly the entry in the Configuration Console should control where the new folders should be created.

            However as I noted the path for that is currently set to F:\ArchiveManager\Index but the recently created folders are in F:\Quest Software\ArchiveManager\Index.

            Maybe I should raise a support request to look into this?

            In the mean time I can move the the recently created folders and update their paths in the database to get these (probably most frequently used indexes onto faster disk)

            Regards,

            John