Had to do RBX restore didnt go to well :(

Ah dear it was one of those days where migration one was on the table and it had to be done.

Spoke to hc asked several questions
1. Does hc restore mysql usernames and passwords?
Answer No, it sets the sql password to something else
2. Does hc restore Microsoft sql usernames and passwords?
Answer No, it sets the sql password to something else

So i was sat their like $299 em

So i goes ahead but i made my own plan hc would do the following
1. Restore NT User accounts
2. Restore Website Data
3. Restore ODBC DSN's
4. Restore DNS

First of all i moved mail over no issues about 1min downtime for our users which is always good

Next i did a full mysql 4+5 backup restored them on the new server no problems including all users-names and passwords

Next ran hc backup, 2hrs later and 10gb of files i started to FTP it across

Starts rebuild, oh dear, hc wouldn’t rebuild eventually after an hour of messing about i created an empty mssql db and hc restored, took about 1hr 20mins for 50 user accounts.

Next i restored Microsoft sql databases quite simple using the backup hc had created a simple restore procedure can be run against mssql.

Now how to transfer mssql usernames and passwords?

Well good old Microsoft :)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918992/
Simple and easy, all users were restored with their passwords

After hc had rebuilt everything i checked dns oh dear it hadn't put any mail dns in, em if u don’t tick mail u don’t get any dns for mail, so i had to manually type 100 dns mail records :(

The fun continued i have no idea why but sites with asp.net 2.0 on previous server were restored with 1.1 :(

Anyways i sat there for two hours went through all our sites checked everything was working :)

HC take this as a suggestion research re-search, its possible to restore mysql and mssql usernames and passwords, i can understand ntusers no problems but if u reset all passwords you cause more downtime for end users.

Oh did i mention we decided to move from MSFTP to Serv-U u guessed it hc doesn’t support this so manual add 50 user accounts.

Oh and another thing even though hc settings had secondary dns ticked hc didn’t create secondary dns records.

Basically if the features were in place it would have been nice and quick, 10hrs of labor :( $299 for the app if it worked 100% id pay more but i don’t think its worth that amount im afraid.

Anyways that’s my super long rant, probably because ive been working for 36hrs straight :(

On a lighter note, our new load balanced hc 6.1 cluster is operational, he he and they said it wasn't posible :)

__________________
Chris Daley
Dwebs Ltd Director :: Company No. 05603664 :: Phone No. (UK) 0870 803 4423
www.Dhosting.co.uk - Web Hosting, Domain Registration, Windows 2003 NLB Cluster with HC 6.1!!!
www.Dwebs.ltd.uk - Web Design & Other Services
My views are my own and not those of my company.

Chris,

Sorry that you had to experance this pain as we did a couple months ago.

We are no longer relying on RBX anymore for backups and restores.

Rick

I reckon though it has a good basis for an excellent product, going to put foward our suggestions and would like to see 90% of them added in the future

Some of what RBX did i couldnt script not in the time we had but like i said its all about improving the product for the future.

:)

__________________
Chris Daley
Dwebs Ltd Director :: Company No. 05603664 :: Phone No. (UK) 0870 803 4423
www.Dhosting.co.uk - Web Hosting, Domain Registration, Windows 2003 NLB Cluster with HC 6.1!!!
www.Dwebs.ltd.uk - Web Design & Other Services
My views are my own and not those of my company.

redbaran - What are you using now? Does it handle NT user/passwords?

In process of using RBX to migrate to a new server.

The process is so slow because it send one file over at a time. Even on a 1000 MB lan connection. It would save alot of time if the files compressed before setting.

You can set a really low compression ratio so the compression wouldn't take very long since filesize doesn't matter too much, its the number of files being transferred.

KieranMullen

KieranMullen

I was thinking maybe compress each domain folder which is the main chunk of the files?

But yes its the amount of files its crazy sometimes :)

__________________
Chris Daley
Dwebs Ltd Director :: Company No. 05603664 :: Phone No. (UK) 0870 803 4423
www.Dhosting.co.uk - Web Hosting, Domain Registration, Windows 2003 NLB Cluster with HC 6.1!!!
www.Dwebs.ltd.uk - Web Design & Other Services
My views are my own and not those of my company.

I would like to add on my experience with a recent migration of HC win2k/iis5.0/6.1 to win2k3/iis6.0/6.1 using RBX tool

as everyone has already written RBX is too time consuming and doesnt compress data too true that adds onto delays in migration.

here is list of limitataion /what RBX didnt do which we actually expected it shall be able to do .

1) we wanted to hv all sites on new box running win2k3/iis6.0 under diff pools when asked that will RBX do this by default while we restore ? HC support updated in chat they dont know as they hv never tested this scenario.
and we culd test this in our test environment injust 20 minutes whereas HC support culdnt answer it in chat for more than an hour.

2) It was shocking when i found that RBX doesnt do any restore os iis settinsg suc as default document,virtual directories,hos headers which all were created using panel on source server.
we had to recreate all virtual directories under each client manually.

since on this web server we just web sites running so we didnt have any experience on mail migration/dns migration etc...


Now i need to make migration plan for next box
same scenario /platform /source to taregt
and we want all sites shall run in their own isolated pool while migrating on new win2k3 server, Can any one guide me how how do I plan for restoring IIS settinsg i want all settinsg intacta nd also want that RBX shall do rest of part...


all HC users out there , Please advise...



Deepa

Ouch !

I have never done iis 5 to iis 6 migration i know ms have some stuff to do it. I will do some searching for you :)

You might be better to do the rbx migration then manually restore certain parts etc

__________________
Chris Daley
Dwebs Ltd Director :: Company No. 05603664 :: Phone No. (UK) 0870 803 4423
www.Dhosting.co.uk - Web Hosting, Domain Registration, Windows 2003 NLB Cluster with HC 6.1!!!
www.Dwebs.ltd.uk - Web Design & Other Services
My views are my own and not those of my company.

RBX does not restore anything which was manualy done or not located in HC Database. After HC7 we will release its new improved version with enhanced functionality.

@ funky123

***1) we wanted to hv all sites on new box running win2k3/iis6.0 [under diff pools when asked that will RBX do this by default while we restore ? HC support updated in chat they dont know as they hv never tested this scenario.
and we culd test this in our test environment injust 20 minutes whereas HC support culdnt answer it in chat for more than an hour.

RBX does support migration/restore of domains having dedicated pools. I have just tested it and it is working fine. I believe you have not enabled option "Enable Separate Application Pool Creation for each Website" on new server under IIS tab of HC Settings. Before restoring your new server you MUST ensure that you have configured your HC exactly same as it was running on old machine.

***2) It was shocking when i found that RBX doesnt do any restore os iis settinsg suc as default document,virtual directories,hos headers which all were created using panel on source server.
we had to recreate all virtual directories under each client manually.

since on this web server we just web sites running so we didnt have any experience on mail migration/dns migration etc...

Actually IIS metabase is a large and complicated structure which has some limitations. You cannot restore metabase backup to another installation of Windows Server. It won't allow you to clone one IIS configuration to another server in your Web farm thats why RBX can not restore some configuration due to these limitations. You might like to consult with this
thread of HC forum.

_______________________
HC Support Team
support@hostingcontroller.com
http://hostingcontroller.com
+1-213-341-1419

I have migrated over 250+ domains through RBX last month, although I knew HC doesn't support virtual directories but to my pleasant surprise it saved me hell of time by transferring mail accounts from Mail Enable to Smarter Mail.

I think, RBX has reduced minimum 90% of my server migration time and some good $$$.

Thumbs up to RBX, I hope such a feature will be available in new version as well. BTW, when it's coming?


Blessed.