Export System Users and User Groups

[lock999]

Hi,

Without doing a full repository export, is there any way to export only System Users and User Groups (like we export spaces) and then import them back in another Alfresco repository? I did not find any documentation on this.

Thanks

[gilles]

I'm also highly interested being able to do this.
Thanks in advance. Even if you answer that it's not possible (for the moment)

Gilles

[hsantander]

Hi, I'm interested in this feature, if it's possible, and in exporting the categories created in the repository.
Any of the Alfresco Engineers could confirm if those things are posible?

Thanks

[mark_smithson]

Although I haven't tried, it may be possible with the import/export command line tools.

[stebans]

Hi all,

I would like to get users, categories, spaces, properties to eventualy migrate them from one to another Alfresco as been discussed on this thread. I cannot make a full export as I have a big amount of data. I'm looking for the best way to get around it, if I cannot export from the web interface.
I'm trying the command line tools, from a place I can access 'alfresco/application-context.xml' the but unfortunately I am not able to run the following export command as of now (Alfresco-2.1CE)

java org.alfresco.tools.Export -user admin -pwd *** -verbose -store user://alfrescoUserStore myUsers.acp
‍‍

I'm getting this strange error which doesn't seem to be related:
12:34:56,468 ERROR [transform.magick.AbstractImageMagickContentTransformer] ImageMagickContentTransformer not available: Failed to perform ImageMagick
transformation:
Execution result:
   os:         Windows XP
   command:    imconvert "C:\DOCUME~1\…\LOCALS~1\Temp\Alfresco\ImageMagickContentTransformer_init_source_21639.gif"  "C:\DOCUME~1\…\LOCALS
~1\Temp\Alfresco\ImageMagickContentTransformer_init_target_21640.png"
   succeeded:  false
   exit code:  1
   out:
   err:        Cannot run program "imconvert": CreateProcess error=2, Le fichier spécifié est introuvable
  
The following error has occurred:
Error creating bean with name 'serverConnector' defined in class path resource [alfresco/core-services-context.xml]: Invocation of init method failed;
nested exception is java.io.IOException: Cannot bind to URL [rmi://localhost:50500/alfresco/jmxrmi]: javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: alfresco
/jmxrmi [Root exception is java.rmi.AlreadyBoundException: alfresco/jmxrmi]

Why would the exporter need Imagemagick "imconvert"? Why is it required?

The "java.rmi.AlreadyBoundException" issue has already been discussed, but I still don't know how to get over it.

Any tip?

Thanks in advance,
Stephane

[pmonks]

The ImageMagick error can be ignored - it's simply telling you that the ImageMagick binary (imconvert or imconvert.exe) is not available, and so image based transformations won't be possible.  The export tool doesn't attempt to do any transformations, so this won't be an issue.

The java.rmi.AlreadyBoundException exception is the real troublemaker here - basically it's telling you that one of the ports that the export process is trying to bind to (the RMI port - probably 50500) is already in use by another process.  In all likelihood this is happening because you're trying to run a command line export while the main Alfresco server is still running.

As described at http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Export_and_Import#Export_.26_Import_Command_Line_Tools, the export tool uses an embedded repository, which basically means that it requires exclusive access to the repository - you cannot have another JVM concurrently accessing the same repository (note that this is a bit of a simplification, but for practical purposes this is the easiest way to ensure everything works correctly).

[sacco]

You may also find that the  CLASSPATH  given in the Wiki is wrong: 
basically, you probably need to add to it anything not already included from
the WEB-INF directory in the exploded webapp.

Additionally, every version of the embedded repository that I have tried has
had bugs which have completely prevented it from starting.  Somtimes you
may be able to get aroung these by deleting beans from your configuration
files or disabling parts of them (it's not a good solution, but it's the only
one I've found so far).

This said, I haven't yet managed to import working users: they appear in
Alfresco, but can't actually be used for anything.

Has anybody else made any progress.  I'm beginnig to suspect that unless
you're paying for Enterprise support then this feature may turn out to be a
lost cause.    :cry:

[sacco]

On the subject of the command line Import/Export, I was slightly alarmed
to find out that it requires to run a full embedded repository from an
exploded installation!  This rather limits (liquidates) its usefulness as
a recovery tool.

Are there any other tools available for fixing/recovering repositorys?
The last time I had an integrity problem I basically couldn't even discover
what it was as the problem node crashed the node browser just as
effectively as it crashed everything else which touched it.  it couldn't
even be deleted (in the event that taking out a big chunk of the Data
Dictionary seemed like the best remaining choice).

I'm always nervous when I don't have a robust way to salvage my users'
data in case of an emergency!

[pmonks]

Export / import is not intended to be a substitute for a backup regimen.  Every production Alfresco instance should be backed up using filesystem backup of the content store and backup of the relational database (using whatever tools the relational database vendor provides).  This is described in more detail at http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Backup_and_Restore.

[sacco]

port / import is not intended to be a substitute for a backup regimen.

Clearly, and I have robust ways to do that.

However, in the event that something goes rotten inside the repository
(which has happened to me), I am now the proud owner of a backup of
a broken repository.  How far do I need to roll back to avoid simply
replicating the problem a week later?  What should my users do in the
meantime while we wait to see if it will repeat.

Given that I haven't seen any tools that might help even to diagnose a
problem (short of taking the DB schema and source code in one hand,
and plunging directly into the RDBMS), I don't see any way to
address these issues except for crossing my fingers.

A minimal and robust way to export data and import it into a fresh
repository which doesn't depend on having a fully functioning installation
to start with would therefore make me feel slightly more comfortable.