Moving Microsoft SQL Server or MSDE to a New Server Computer

March 28, 2006 | KB: 1011155
Laserfiche Server - United (MS SQL) 7, Laserfiche Server - Team (MSDE) 7, Laserfiche Server - United (MS SQL) 8, Laserfiche Server - Team (MSDE) 8

Summary

You may wish to move your Microsoft SQL Server installation to a new computer after you have installed Laserfiche. Moving your SQL Server requires three steps: installing SQL Server on the new machine, detaching the databases from the old server and attaching them to the new, and unregistering and re-registering your repositories.

Resolution

To change the location of your Microsoft SQL Server installation

  1. Unregister your Laserfiche repository or repositories. For more information, see the Registering and Unregistering Laserfiche Repositories tech paper.
  2. Detach the databases associated with Laserfiche from MSSQL or MSDE. If you are using MSDE, make sure that all expansion databases are detached as well. For complete instructions on detaching a database, see the following Knowledge Base article:
    1011003 HOW TO: Attaching and Detaching a Microsoft SQL Server Database

    Note: When the database or databses are re-attached, they must have the same name that they originally had. Please take note of the database names before detaching.

  3. Install SQL Server on the new computer.
  4. Copy the database files to the new computer. You will need to move both the .mdf and .ldf files for each database. If you are using MSDE, you will also need to move the .mdf and .ldf files for all expansion databases.
  5. Attach the database or databases to the new SQL server using the same name under which they were previously attached. If you are using MSDE, you will need to attach all expansion databases as well. For complete instructions on attaching a database, see the following Knowledge Base article:
    1011003 HOW TO: Attaching and Detaching a Microsoft SQL Server Database
  6. Register your repository or repositories again. On the "SQL Server Specific Settings" step, be sure to specify the new SQL Server computer. All other information will remain the same. For more information, see the Registering and Unregistering Laserfiche Repositories tech paper.
  7. Verify that the repository and its documents can be opened and viewed without problem before removing your original SQL Server installation.