Can I change the SQL collation of an existing Notification Server database?

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

Question
Can I change the SQL collation of an existing Notification Server database?

Answer
 

Changing an existing Notification Server database collation 'in-place' is not supported, so you would need to do the following to get to a new collation:

1. Create a SQL instance with the desired collation
2. Do one of the following:
   1. Create an installation of Notification Server and Solutions on a separate server, pointed to the SQL instance created in step 1.
   2. Create a new database from the existing Notification Server pointed to the new instance by going to:
      1. Configuration > Server Settings > Notification Server Settings > Database Settings.
      2. Set the SQL server name to the new SQL server\instance.
      3. Click the Create new database radio button and click Apply.

At this point you have a fresh Notification Server database with the desired collation, but with no data from the previous Notification Server database.

The next logical question is, How do I get the data from the previous database into the new database?

Below are some supported methods for migrating some of the data from the previous database to the new database. However, implementing the data transfer itself is outside the scope of support.

It is possible to copy resource data—not including history nor events—from the previous database to the database with the new collation by using Connector Solution to export the data from the previous database, and then importing that same data into the new database, again, with Connector Solution. This is considerable limitations, however, as described here:

How to create a Data Connector Import Rule to migrate data from an old Notification Server to Symantec Management Platform 7.x
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO77183

You could also export other items, such as reports and notification policies, by right-clicking them in the console and clicking Export and saving them as XML files. You would then import the XML files by right-clicking the folders they belong to on the Console (attached to the new database) and clicking Import.