Author Topic: moving network database to another server  (Read 5795 times)

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emiller7101

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moving network database to another server
« on: 2011-05-23 09:26:28 »
We will be upgrading our network hardware. How do we move the database over to the new server and keep all of our Keywords intact. The location of the photos will also be changing.

I have emailed support and also called them and get no respond to this question.

ANy help would be apprecitated.

Can this be done?  

We are currently using version 7 but do have version 8 to upgrade to, would this be the time to do the upgrade as well?

EM

Daan van Rooijen

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moving network database to another server
« Reply #1 on: 2011-05-23 12:05:12 »
> We will be upgrading our network hardware. How do we move the database over to the new server and keep all of our Keywords intact. The location of the photos will also be changing.
>
> Can this be done?

Yes. And it's good that you ask this question, because ThumbsPlus uses the host name, drive volume labels and the folder paths to match your image files to the  thumbnail records in its database. Change any one of them from outside of ThumbsPlus, and it can no longer identify the files and match them to its records (note: actually, with files that reside on a network server, the drive volume labels may be ignored, depending on your settings).

The location of the database itself isn't important, as long as your users can continue to access it.

There are basically two ways to keep your files synched with the database:

    [*] By editing the database (if you have MS Access) to update the values that have changed in the process of upgrading the server (host name, drive volume labels, folder paths). Always keep a backup of the database!
    [*] By initially keeping the configuration of the new hardware as close as possible to that of the old situation: same server name, same drive volume labels, same folder paths. Then use ThumbsPlus (with full admin rights to the server) to change the volume labels of the drives in question and to move the files to the desired new folders. That way, ThumbsPlus can update its thumbnail records at the same time that it is making these changes for you. It cannot change the server name though, so if you want to do that, you still have to manually edit its name in the database. Also, volume labels may not be relevant, depending on your setting for Options | Preferences | Disks & Folders | "Match network volumes using share names".[/list]

    > We are currently using version 7 but do have version 8 to upgrade to, would this be the time to do the upgrade as well?

    ThumbsPlus v7 sp2 is very reliable and fully functional, but with ThumbsPlus v8 the developers are still working hard to iron out the last few wrinkles. If you don't really need features like unicode support, I'd stick with v7 for a while longer.

    I had to write this in some haste - if anything is unclear, please let me know. Also, I'm not a Cerious employee (I'm with CopyCats, their Dutch reseller) so if you want to hear from them, I hope one of them jumps in here too.

    Regards,

    -Daan-
    I'm volunteering as a moderator - I do not work for Cerious Software, Inc.

    emiller7101

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    moving network database to another server
    « Reply #2 on: 2011-05-25 18:08:00 »
    Daan

    Thanks so much for your help. It is really appreciated. Our question is, what are the steps to take to
    Install software on new server and then access photos where they are currently and then
    Move Photos to new server from within thumbsplus
    Then open database in access and change values.

    Let me know. WOuld like to do this tonight or tomorrow

    Thanks so much

    Daan van Rooijen

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    moving network database to another server
    « Reply #3 on: 2011-05-25 20:42:38 »
    > Our question is, what are the steps to take to Install software on new server
    > and then access photos where they are currently and then Move Photos to new
    > server from within thumbsplus. Then open database in access and change values.

    Well, where you install ThumbsPlus doesn't really matter (on the server or separately on clients) - as long as it has access to your database file and to the image files. So, you can just download ThumbsPlus v7 sp2 from [link=http://www.cerious.com/archive.shtml]http://www.cerious.com/archive.shtml[/link] and install it wherever you prefer to have it. Don't forget to enter your registration name and code (TP doesn't support network use in evaluation mode).

    The location of your database file (thumbs.td4) is not really important either. If it's a shared database, it should be on the server in a folder that all the users have read/write access to. In ThumbsPlus, you use File | Database | Open Database to select the database file that you want to work with (by default it will open the database that the installer just made, which is not your existing database!). Also, be very sure that you have a backup of your existing database.

    Before we go on, you should verify a few settings and change them if necessary:

      [*]Options | Preferences | General: Allow Folder Operations must be On.
      [*]Options | Preferences | Thumbnails: Automatically Remove Orphans must be Off.
      [*]Options | Preferences | Thumbnails: Make Thumbnails Automatically must be Off.[/list]

      If nothing has changed yet about the location of the photos, I don't think you will have to do any manual editing of the database. You should just be able to look them up through ThumbsPlus' tree panel (supposedly through My Network Places or a mapped drive letter), and it should show you their existing thumbnails.

      If (IF!) that is correct, you can simply lookup the new server in the tree (again through through My Network Places or a mapped drive letter -  use the same route that your fellow users will be using) and move the photos there using drag-and-drop or through File | Move.

      One thing to keep in mind: If the photo drive in the new server should have the same volume label as the old drive, and you can't change it beforehand, I think you should first turn this setting 'on' to prevent that ThumbsPlus gets these volumes mixed up: Options | Preferences | Disks & Folders | Match network volumes using share names.

      Afterwards, when all files have been moved, you may want to perform File | Database | Compact to physically remove the old records of the moved files from the database.


      ps:  if the old thumbnails do not show when you look up the image files, things get more complicated because something (e.g. share name, volume label, folder structure) must have changed between when it still worked and today. If the cause is not the folder structure, what you can do is to create a new database, lookup the image files and make a thumbnail for just one of the images (by selecting it and pressing F3). Then open that database in MS Access, go to the table named 'Volume' and make a note of all the field values for that volume. Then open your existing database in Access, again go to the Volume table, lookup the volume on which the images used to reside and update its values manually (with those of the new volume, where they are now). After that, when you open the DB in ThumbsPlus, it should recognize the image files again and show the existing thumbnails,so you can move them elsewhere.

      Well, I hope this explanation is not too fuzzy.. it's a complicated subject. If you think something is not quite right, please let me know and provide as many details as possible.
      I'm volunteering as a moderator - I do not work for Cerious Software, Inc.