Alfresco Data Recovery Folder --> 4e? [Resolved 131556SEP12]

[cnsops]

[Re-installed 4.0d. Copied and paste recovered Alfresco folder over new Install. Copied and paste Keystore folder from 4.0e. Run Keystore script. Start services. All good.]


Hi Guys…

I'm fairly new to Alfresco and have been test driving it for the last 4 months. I have a problem and if you can point me in the right direction, I'd be content with that.

We've had a server crash with a messed up hard drive. We've managed to recover the Alfresco folder among others. There are no backups, except for the folder.

I've quickly been able to install Alfresco 4e in a virtual enviro, but I am unsure how to migrate, import, or transfer…whichever can be done into 4e.

Prior to the crash, I was told we could no longer search for files, but I now understand that had to do with Security related expiration.

Thanks for any help.

Stephen.

[billerby]

To be able to recover Alfresco from a crash you need to have a database backup taken at the same time as a backup of the alf_data-dir. Your situation seems unrecoverable to me at least.

/Erik

[cnsops]

Wow! That's sad.

I can always re-enter usernames and sites…what about the scanned documents. Are you saying I could not simply copy and paste into the relevant directory? Seems like a step backwards to me with all the advanced features of Alfresco.

Ok, if I can't do that, then couldn't I re-install 4.0d, then drop the recovered alfresco folder in place, perform the backup and import into 4.0e?

Thanks,
Stephen

[billerby]

Stephen,

The problem is that all metadata about your documents is stored in the database. If you look att the contents in your alf_data folder it contains all binaries (ie the files) but the files are named with an uuid dot bin [uuid.bin]. There is no way to know if its a pdf, a word document etc that information is kept in the alfresco database schema.

If you know that all files you have is pdf:s for example, you could maybe rename the .bin file to .pdf, open it and have a look.

The files are there (somewhere in the alf_data/contentstore/dateextension-tree), but you have no information about them.

/Erik

[cnsops]

Ok, so I've managed to reinstall Alfresco 4.0d. I've copied and paste the old Alfresco folder over the new one and I am able to log in and see the documents. I can't search for them and I'm assuming this is related to the expiry of the security certificates.

So, the next step would be to back up the database…uninstall 4.0d, install 4.0e, and import the database.

Need a fingers crossed smiley.

Stephen.

[givernaud]

Hello,
I'm in the same situation crash of a server, no backup of alfresco but we have been able to save the complete alfresco folder. But impossible to make it works on a new alfresco installation

[rjohnson]

I am not sure why you think that the certificates may have expired and why this is causing your search problem. Do you have errors in the log to support this thought?

If not, it quite possible that you merely need to re-build your indexes as these do have a tendency to corrupt on a server crash. Now, if you are using Lucene then you need to alter alfresco-global.properties to do a full re-index.If you are using solr then you need to remove the relevant index directories and the caches model directories.