Transferring a Database to a New Computer

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
This help file does not exist in MainBoss 4.2.4, but the index for that version can be found here.

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When you install MainBoss Service on a computer, MainBoss stores various configuration information in the database. Amongst other things, this information tells MainBoss that the service is installed.

Now suppose you want to move your MainBoss database to a different computer, or you move your SQL Server to a different computer. Ideally, you should do this by following these steps:

  1. Have all users on all computers exit the MainBoss program.
  2. On the original server computer, login to an account with Windows Administrator privileges.
  3. If you are running MainBoss Service, uninstall it as described in Uninstalling MainBoss Service.
  4. Start up MainBoss and backup the database using Administration | Backups (as described in Backups within MainBoss).
  5. Exit MainBoss.
  6. Copy the backup file to the new server computer.
  7. Use Create New Organization from Backup to create a new MainBoss database from the backup file (as described in Restoring a Backup Within MainBoss).
  8. Install MainBoss Service on the new server computer (as described in Installing MainBoss Service).

This is the recommended approach for transferring a database to a new server or when you transfer SQL Server to a different computer. In some cases, however, you may be doing the transfer because the old server computer is unusable (e.g. due to hardware failure). In this case, you don't have a chance to uninstall MainBoss Service first, and you'll be working from an old backup. The old backup database contains records stating that the service is still installed, even though the service hasn't been installed on the new computer. To correct this situation, follow these steps:

  1. Make a copy of the most recent backup of your database from the old server computer.
  2. Use Create New Organization from Backup to create a new MainBoss database from the backup file (as described in Restoring a Backup Within MainBoss).
  3. Install MainBoss Service on the new computer and specify that it should work with the newly created database (as described in Installing MainBoss Service).

If the computer that was running the old MainBoss Service ever comes back into operation, you may need to delete the old service using sc delete. If you do not, the old service will start up every time Windows does. However, it will then check the MainBoss database and see that the database is no longer configured to use the old service. The old service will then issue an error message and terminate itself. Therefore, the old service won't interfere with MainBoss operations; however, it will add overhead to your system startup, so you should still get rid of it with sc delete.

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