How to move a Ghost Solution Suite Server SQL database from one SQL server to another

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

These are the steps required to move a Ghost Solution Suite (GSS) SQL database from one SQL server to another SQL server. 

Environment

Ghost Solution Suite 3.x

Resolution

The steps for moving a Deployment Solution database from one SQL server to another are:

1. Backup the database.
2. Restore the database to the cluster.
3. Make sure that the DS service account has at least DBO rights to the database on the new SQL server
4. Stop the Deployment Server Services ("Altiris eXpress Server", "Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager", and "Altiris Deployment Server DB Management")
5. Redirect the ODBC to the database on the SQL cluster.
   1. Open C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and run odbcad32.exe
   2. Switch to the System DSN tab.
   3. Select your Altiris Express database.
   4. Select 'Configure'. 
   5. Change the SQL Server you want to connect to in the drop down box at the bottom of that window. 
6. Restart the services stopped in step 4

Note: If there are any problems encountered then you can run DSSetup and do a custom install and allow this installation process to run. It should detect the database on the new SQL server referenced by the ODBC connection and the process should complete successfully, allowing Deployment Solution to communicate with the database in the new location.

Additional Information

If custom users or permissions are set up on the old SQL server these users and permissions will need to be also set up on the new server.