How to migrate old Notification Server to a new server
Genaral notes:
Important: It is advised that you make a backup of your old database before proceeding with the migration.
Important: When migrating from one Notification server to another, ensure that all the solutions and Service packs / hotfixes that are installed on the old NS are installed on the new NS.
Important: Ensure that the NS Application Identity or the SQL Access account has sufficient rights (DBO) to the database.
Important: If you are migrating an NS 7 install, read this entire article before proceeding with the migration!
For NS 6
0) Install to a fresh DB
1) Ensure that the solutions, service pack / hotfix versions are matching your old NS.
2) Go to Configuration -> Server Settings -> Notification Server Settings -> Database Settings
3) Enter in the correct SQL Server and select the copy of your old NS's DB
... You may need to follow KB 2004 if you are unable to access the NS Console after following this process.
NOTE: Ensure that the old NS is not running off of the same copy of the DB!!
For NS 7
1) Ensure that the Fully Qualified Name of your new NS is the same as your old one.
...For example, if your old NS was named thisNS.ourCorporateDomain.com , you need to ensure that your new NS has the SAME name (e.g. thisNS.ourCorporateDomain.com ) before continuing
2) Install to a Fresh New Database
3) Install the exact same set of solutions, service packs / hotfixes that were on your old server
4) Once step 3 is complete, point back to a copy of the old DB by navigating to:
Settings -> Notification Server -> Database Settings
5) Enter the correct SQL Server and select the copy of your old NS's DB
Note: You can't select an NS 6 Database
Note: Ensure that the old NS is not running off the same copy of the DB!!
Please also read the NS SP2 Reference Guide at page 117 for how to restore the Notification Server to a previous configuration.
Assorted information:
If you are interested in using the import/export utility, see KB 2021
How to copy the NS database from one NS Server to another
NOTE:: For this to be supportable in Notification Server 7.x the source NS and destination NS servers must have the exact same name Fully Qualified name (e.g. thisNS.domain.com , it is not sufficient for just the machine name to match).
To recover from this situation. follow these steps:
1. Run the following SQL query on the database created during the NS install:
select Trustee
from SecurityTrustee
where Guid in
(select TrusteeGuid from SecurityRole where [Name] = 'Altiris Administrators')
2. Run the same query (above) on the database you can no longer access. This should return a different SID.
3. Run the following query on the database you can no longer access. This will replace the old SID with the current SID on the new NS server)
| UPDATE SecurityTrustee SET Trustee = 'SID on working DB(step1)' WHERE Trustee = 'SID from the access denied DB (step2)' |
4. Refresh the NS Console and you will now have access to all the tabs as per your Admin rights.
Note: An alternative method to get the SID is to logon as an Altiris Administrator account (on the NS host) and run command "whoami /GROUPS" and copy the SID for group "Altiris Administrator". A second alternative is to use Sysinternal's utility "psGetSid" with the /groups "Altiris Administrators" parameter (on the NS host).
Note: This technique only describes how to update the SID for the Altiris Administrator's Role. The process would need to be repeated for any other Altiris Roles. A more comprehensive approach is to rerun the NSSetup wizard (which will roll-back some NS settings to their defaults). If you don't want to run NSSetup, you can use the following query to identify the current SIDs on the Altiris Database and then modify them to use the right ones:
SELECT sr.name, st.*
FROM securitytrustee st
LEFT JOIN securityrole sr
ON sr.trusteeguid = st.guid
ORDER BY trusteeidYou can find all the right SIDs for the new Notification Server by running from the command prompt 'whoami /all'.
NOTE:: If the above-mentioned method does not restore access to the NS Console, run the following SQL Commands in Succession against the Database:
spStringCacheDisable
spStringCacheEnable
After running these two commands, refresh your console page. The Console page should load.
Listed below are some articles which include steps and best practices for Altiris server and/or database migration:
Notification Server
- Article 28820, "How do you migrate computers from one Notification Server to another?"
- Article 21789, "Steps to move Notification Server from one server to another"
- Article 20213, "How to move an existing Altiris database from one SQL server to a new SQL server?"
- Article 28707, "Migrating Notification Server from One Domain to Another"
- Article 2469, "How to move the Notification Server database from one location to another"
Helpdesk Solution
- Article 28976, "Migrating Helpdesk from one server to another"
Deployment Solution
- Article 18339, "Migrating PXE files from one DS to another"
- Article 25628, "Copy Computers/Groups to another Deployment Server"
- Article 27573, "How do you backup and restore the Deployment Server database?"
- Article 20683, "How do I move the Deployment Server Database from one MSDE to another MSDE?"
AppStream
- Article 42151, "How to migrate your Microsoft SQL database to another Microsoft SQL database"
Database/SQL