Move your Data Archive to a new computer

Data Archive is designed to run on a variety of Windows operating systems and hardware. All the databases and tables are stored in a format that allows you to move Data Archive to a different computer or to a different location on the same computer. You can also move Data Archive collective members.

You may want to move your Data Archive as part of an upgrade. If you intend to upgrade to a new version of Data Archive in addition to moving to a new server machine, the recommended procedure is to first move Data Archive to the new server, and then upgrade the version of your Data Archive on the new server.

This section describes how to move a Data Archive server, and is applicable for Data Archive versions 2010(3.4.385) or later.

To move a Data Archive installation prior to version 2010 (3.4.385) from a 32-bit computer to a 64-bit computer installation), see the Knowledge Base article: KB00530 - Upgrading to 64-bit PI Data Archive while moving to 64-bit hardware. To move a Data Archive installation prior to version 2010 (3.4.385) from one 64-bit computer to another 64-bit computer, use the instructions provided below.

Note: Some interface nodes can recover historical data from their data sources and require neither PI Buffer Subsystem nor API Buffer Server. See specific interface documentation to determine if an interface requires buffering. PI Connectors use their own buffering to recover historical data.

The following flow chart offers a high-level overview of the entire upgrade at a glance. Related tasks are grouped together into phases of upgrade.

There are three distinct phases for the Data Archive move process. Each phase group together related tasks. The three phases of move are:

• Phase 1: Pre-move

  The first phase of a move focuses on planning and preparation. They include tasks such as generating a new license, testing buffering and history recovery, considering if the FQDN will change or remain the same, and backing up your data before performing the move.

• Phase 2a: Move a single server

  The second phase of a move involves the process of installing the Data Archive server on the target server machine, moving files to the target server, and verifying the new server.

• Phase 2b: Move collective members

  If you are moving members of a collective, the second phase extend to tasks that deal with moving collective members to new server machines.

• Phase 3: Post-move

  The third phase of a move prepares the moved Data Archive for use, including tasks such as changing the FQDN for the moved server, and creating new IDs for the moved server.