Moving Your Database to a New Computer
Though a database can be shared between multiple computers, there may be a time when a different computer will be made the database server; this usually occurs when you get a new computer and want to take advantage of additional speed and memory. You may also decide that you want a different computer on your network to be the database server.
Moving your database is really quite simple.
To move your database to another computer:
- Exit SixBit on all computers that are attached to the database.
- On the computer currently hosting the database (we will call this the OLD host), perform a database backup as described in Backing Up Your Data. Save the file to a location that has SQL backup permissions from the computer that will now host the database (we will call this the NEW host), or to a thumb drive so it can be transported to the NEW host computer. The best place to move the backed up file is to the Documents|SixBit Backups folder on the NEW host because that will already have backup permissions (Note: if there is an issue with folder permissions, please review the SixBit Knowledgebase article here).
- If it is not already installed, install SixBit on the NEW host. Create a dummy, empty database during the installation. The database will be restored over the empty database.
- If SixBit is already installed on the NEW host, ensure that it is connected to a database that resides on the NEW host. Follow the steps in Opening a Database to make sure the database on the NEW host has been opened.
- On the NEW host, perform a database restore from the backup, as described in Restoring Backed Up Data.
- On any other networked computers, connect to the database on the NEW host by following the steps in Opening a Database. Ensure that the NEW host computer name in the Computer drop down is selected.
- After SixBit is installed and the database is restored on the NEW host, in SixBit click File > Manage > Agent to enable the SixBit Agent to run tasks on the new computer. Note: this step is required for Allocation Plans, Scheduled Listings, Automatic Backups, and all listing and orders refreshes to work properly on the new computer.
- Setup backups on the new computer. In SixBit, click File > Options > Backups > Make this the Backup Computer. Then click Browse and select a valid path for your automatic backups.
- For users with External Picture Storage enabled, the backup will be a .zip file. This file must be extracted (right-click and click Extract All) and the pictures folder must be moved to C:\ProgramData\SixBit\Pictures.