Migrate the ESS to a New Server

Owned by Hannah Petty
Last updated: Aug 11, 2015Version comment
4 min read

In this section:

Overview

The EchoSystem Server (ESS) architecture allows for simple migration from one server to another as your deployment model changes. This page explains how to migrate the ESS, while preserving your settings, schedules, and content.

ESS on Windows in Default Locations

This article assumes that the ESS is installed on a Windows system in the default locations. System paths for Linux use a different format and will vary from the paths described in this article.

Addressing

According to best-practice recommendations, the ESS uses fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) in its configuration when URLs are required. This requires accurate name resolution to be available on your network to all devices. An advantage of this is that the FQDN of your ESS can be preserved during migration. We recommend that you update the DNS record of the host name for your old ESS host to point to the new one so that any existing content links from external locations are not broken.

Run the ESS Installer

The ESS installer is available from the customer support area of our website. We always recommend using the latest version of the installer so that your system is operating with the most recent features and stability updates.

At this point, we are only creating a brand-new installation on the target machine. This will create the necessary folder structures, program files, and registrations with the host operating system so that an ESS can run. We will migrate the database and content after we have confirmed a successful installation.

When the installer has finished running, it automatically starts the ESS service if you are running Windows. It will not start the Wowza Media Server (Wowza) automatically. If your paths have changed, it is important that you do not start Wowza until updating them in the ESS configuration during the next stage of the migration. At this point, you may attempt to log in to the ESS with the temporary default user name and password. Do not bother to configure it; rather, verify that it is running. We will overwrite its configuration with your original database in the next step.

Transfer the ESS Database

The first step is to verify that both the ESS and Wowza Media Server services are stopped. If you are running the ESS on Windows, execute the following from the command line:

net stop echosystemserver

net stop wowzamediaserver

Linux users should use the service management tools that are available with each particular distribution.

Once the services have stopped, make the copy of your ESS database that the new machine will use. Doing this preserves your settings, schedules, and all of your content indexes.

By default, the ESS database is installed in C:\Program Files\Echo360\Server (/usr/local/echo360/server on Linux-like operating systems). Copy the entire "db" and "etc" folders to their new locations on the new machine.

Be sure to preserve relative path structures and to back up (make copies of) the brand-new "db" and "etc" folders before overwriting them with the files from your original ESS in case the migration is unsuccessful.

After you have made the copy and the database is in place, start the ESS service again.

Configure Paths and Transfer Content

Once the service has started, log in to the ESS as usual (your user name and password will have been preserved if you correctly transferred the database) to verify and, if necessary, change the folder entries for all of the content in your System Settings.

While doing this, you will be setting the paths for your content storage. These paths should be defined before the content is copied from its location on the old ESS to its storage location on the new one. Once these are defined, simply copy the content folders to where you have configured the ESS to look for them. If you have been using a SAN for the storage of your active content, you may not need to copy any files. In this case, just make sure the path is accurate.

Configure Devices

Even if the URL to your ESS has not changed, you may still need to reinitialize your devices (this is necessary if your devices have an "Overdue" status).

DHCP Assumed

These steps assume you are using DHCP. If you are using static IP address configurations for your appliances, please substitute the device specific config.xml file (retrievable from each individual device page) for the generic file in these steps.

  1. Click the Configuration tab.
  2. At the bottom of the page, click Download generic device configuration. This will offer a file called device.xml. Save this in an accessible location.
  3. For Appliances, copy the device.xml file to the top level of a USB drive. Visit each appliance and insert the drive in any of the USB ports. It is not necessary to restart the appliance before or after receiving the flash drive; however, if you are powering on the appliance for the first time, please wait until the amber light turns off before inserting the drive. You will see a blinking light; after it stops, you can remove the drive again.
  4. For Media Processors and Classroom Capture, copy the device.xml file to the following location and overwrite the previous instance:
    C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Echo360\client\config\
    (On some systems, the first few elements of this path may be different or begin with a different drive letter.)
  5. The devices re-initialize with your new ESS on their next periodic updates.