Created a Test copy of Production and now would like to refresh that data, how?

[Stephen_Dinh1]

We need to refresh our Test environment with Production data (DB and Files). How do we go about updating the data without going through the whole process again?

[AdamShaneHyland]

As a quick follow up to this, while I'm not making an absolute statement here, I believe the identifiers do align when using the Test System Creation Utility.  I only looked at Keyword Types (keytypenum) and Document Types (itemtypenum), but they were the same in both databases.  I further confirmed that the gaps in identifiers existed where applicable.

NOTE: This was tested in 20.3.23.1000. 

[Roger_Linhart]

@Chris Boultinghouse One other angle on this, we manually refresh our non-prods from production with a database and diskgroup copy. Afterwards, all the identifiers are aligned.

[Chris_Boultingh]

Thanks for the follow up, Adam! We'll be upgrading to EP4 later this year, so we shall find out soon enough. 🙂

Chris

[Chris_Boultingh]

@Chris Boultinghouse One other angle on this, we manually refresh our non-prods from production with a database and diskgroup copy. Afterwards, all the identifiers are aligned.

That's what we have done in the past as well, it's just that it also means we have to change all the disk group pointers and such, and of course then there are lots of broken document links unless we also synch prod and test store servers (which we only tried once... what a mess). 

I was just hoping there was an easier, less manual way to do it!

Chris

[Roger_Linhart]

@Chris Boultinghouse Serendipity FTW. I'm refreshing one of our non-prod instances today. I should be done tomorrow afternoon.  Our server support team manages copying a couple terrabytes of document store in a timely manner. My refresh checklist is a 53 page Google document. It is a lot of work. You don't know how many times I've considered writing a SQL script to make all the changes on our non-prods. I've not yet had the guts to violate that part of the license agreement. 😉