Migrating primary servers is considered a large administration tasks. Network administrators should block out at a minimum three hours, or more if you have a very large database, and should select a time where downtime will be of minimum disruption to end-users.

This article describes how to migrate the PaperCut (NG or ChargeBack) primary server to a new system so that all data is moved to the new system. To ensure a smooth migration it is strongly recommended (actually required for versions prior to 7.2) to ensure that the versions of PaperCut on both the old and new servers is the same. The easiest way to achieve this is to upgrade the old server to the latest version, and then install the latest version on the new server.

NOTE: If you are running PaperCut on and external database (like SQL Server or PostgreSQL) on a different machine to PaperCut follow our external database migration process.

Upgrading the old server to the latest version.

1. Download the latest available version available from the PaperCut NG download page. For information on what has changed in recent releases, see the release history page. NOTE: Make sure you are eligible to upgrade to this release by checking our upgrade policy. Past releases can be downloaded here
2. On the old server, install the upgrade by following the steps in the Upgrading PaperCut NG.
3. After the upgrade is complete, check that everything is working as expected.

Migrating the data to new server.

The simplest way to migrate data to the new server is to use the backup and restore process.

1. Install the latest version of PaperCut NG on the new server. Make sure that the new server is running the same version of PaperCut NG as the old server. After the installation has ran, complete the configuration wizard and import your users. Although importing the users again is not strictly required - as this data will be overridden later - it does confirm that your new server has the correct network connectivity and also saves your admin password as entered in the wizard.
   TIP: If you have a very large list of users, try importing a small group of users, hence cutting down the import time.
2. Backup the data from the old system. To do this follow the instructions to perform a database backup.
3. Copy the backup zip file created in the backup step onto the new server.
4. Stop the PaperCut Application Server by running the script [app-path]/server/bin/<platform>/stop-server
5. Copy the [app-dir]/server/server.properties file from the old server to the new server. This file contains the built-in admin user password.
6. Restore the data from the old system into the PaperCut NG on the new server by following the database restoration instructions. On the Mac and Linux, the import commands need to be run as the papercut user.
7. After the data had been imported and the application server restarted, check that all data has been migrated across correctly and the system works as expected. It is recommended that perform some testing as described in our post upgrade test plan.
8. Install your provided license.

Updating user client, release station and secondary server connection details

If the server's name and/or IP address is changing then it will be necessary to update these connection details for user clients, secondary servers, and release stations.

User clients

If user clients are being run from the share on the PaperCut server, you just need to ensure that the clients are run from the share on the new server.

If clients have been installed locally on workstations, then the connection details need to be edited in the "config.properties" file in the user client install directory. On Mac clients, the "config.properties" file is embedded in the ".app" package and install the client again by copying it off the new server is often the easiest solution.

Secondary Servers

If you have secondary print servers, then the ApplicationServer= setting in the "print-provider.conf" file on these servers need to be updated to point to the new machine's network address.

Release Stations

For all release stations, the "connection.properties" file located in the release station installation directory must be updated to reflect the machine's new network address.

Secondary Servers (Internet)

If you have secondary Internet servers, then the "connection.properties" file on these servers need to be updated to point to the new machine's network address.

Categories: PaperCutNG

Keywords: migrate, migration, upgrade, move, moving to a new server, changing servers, transfer