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Backup Alfresco

hienque
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
Hi everyone,
I want to backup all of Alfresco . I use Windows 2k8. And Alfresco will move to new server. How can I backup and restore?
12 REPLIES 12

bisana
Champ on-the-rise
Champ on-the-rise
(a) copy alf_data dir
(b) take a copy of your alfresco DB instance
© On the new server, restore the DB
(d) install the instance in new machine, do not start the service
(e) copy the contents of  previous alf_data to the newly installed alfresco instance
start the service,

hienque
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
Thanks bisana!
Can you guide me detail steps to backup and restore DB (b&c). My DB is installed default(postgresql). I do not know much about database

bisana
Champ on-the-rise
Champ on-the-rise
If it is the default installation, it is very simple
Just copy the whole Alfresco  installation and copy it to the server where u want it to

hienque
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
So I just need to copy the whole Alfresco installation and run startup.bat in tomcat folder.
Many thanks for your help!

hienque
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
it failed when I copy the whole Alfresco installation (c:\alfresco) and run startup.bat(tomcat) of another server.

bopolissimus
Confirmed Champ
Confirmed Champ
Hi hienque,

I don't use windows, so this is general advice only.  Also, you don't provide enough detail in your first post.  It's not clear if you're using the alfresco bundle installer or if you installed alfresco into an already running tomcat.  It's also not clear if you're using the postgresql that comes with the bundled installer or if you're using a postgresql instance that's installed separately.

Below (and Joseph's post above) assumes that you're using everything from the bundle (java, libreoffice, tomcat, postgresql, the imagemagick and swftools  stuff in common).  If this isn't the case you should say so.

1. are you using the alfresco bundle installer and the database that comes with the bundle?

2. did you *stop* alfresco before you copied it over? Note that when you stop alfresco it should stop the bundled database (postgresql) as well as the bundled tomcat.  After stopping alfresco, look in the task manager and ensure that both postgresql and tomcat stopped.

3. If you didn't first stop alfresco before copying over, first stop alfresco.

4. Once alfresco is stopped, the simplest way to move alfresco to the other server would be to copy the whole alfresco directory over. You could zip it up and unzip at the other server.  Or you could just share the remote drive and copy the whole alfresco directory over to the shared drive. 

5. When copying everything over, make sure that everything is installed to THE SAME directory.  e.g., if the original directory was C:\Alfresco-4.2.c then the destination should be the same.

6. I don't know what username alfresco runs as on windows, but you should make sure the user it runs as on the original should also be on the destination.

7. On linux, the bundled postgresql runs as the postgres user.  See on your original alfresco what user the postgresql server runs as and create that user on the destination server.

8. Once you copy everything over (first making sure that on the original alfresco is stopped as is postgresql), you should be able to start alfresco on the destination server.

9. If it still doesn't start, you'll want to look at your catalina.out or alfresco.log files and look for ERROR or EXCEPTION.  Those will point you at the reason for alfresco not starting.  If you're not clear on the error, paste your alfresco.log or catalina.out here  Possibly XXXX out (better) or remove (not so good) anything confidential that you don't want to expose to the world (ip addresses, usernames, hostnames, domain names, etc).

Hi this does not appear to work.

I copied the entire install folder accross to a unit with a fresh Ubuntu installation.
Then I moved it to a folder with the exact same path

When I run sudo sh Install_Directory/alfresco.sh start
everything except postgres starts, all I get is Unknown ID: postgres

Do I have to install postgres?
This makes no sense, surely it was copied across, in the Alfresco Installation folder?

nikes
Champ on-the-rise
Champ on-the-rise
You need to provide more information and also log file for error messages.

Did you set your new alf_data location in alfresco-global.properties file?

hienque
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
@bopolissimus
Thank your enthusiastic answer!
1. I am using the alfresco bundle installer and the database on Server X(windows 2k8 64bit - C:\alfresco)
2-3. I stopped  Alfresco (tomcat Server and Postgre)  before zip full alfresco folder.
4-5. I copy zip file to another Server ( also Wink28 64bit - C:\alfresco) and extract.
After that, I run startup.bat (tomcat folder on Server Y) . But it is not finished. it stops as shown
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/4645/errorvzy.png

@Nikes: Thanks. My detail anwser is above.