How to perform a restore of a old NPrinting backup from another server on top of existing live environment?

[iLoveDataVis]

Hej,

We have a single node NPrinting server that is live with data and usage.

We want to perform a restore of an older backup of NPrinting. The backup zip file is about 140GB in size.

We want to do this because we are migrating from in-house servers to an AWS hosted Windows 2016 Server machine. In theory it's nothing special, just a windows server hosted in the cloud. We have already proved NPrinting running there. Now we want to restore a backup from a different host.

So to summarise -

1) We have a in-house server where NPrinting is backed-up. We have the zip file.

2) This 140GB zip file is copied to the different host.

3) This new different host is already up and running with NPrinting, we want to restore a backup of NPrinting on this new machine.

What are the steps please to perform a restore of NPrinting of an old backup on top of a new environment? Is there a guide?

Any special things to be mindful of?

We wanted to avoid uninstalling NPrinting, installing everything again, and then perform a restore as the backup is coming from a different host.

Our version of NPrinting is old but we are planning on upgrading soon after completing the above.

Tak (thank you) for any help.

[Frank_S]

HI @iLoveDataVis 

Check out this article before proceeding.

How to BackUp and Restore Qlik NPrinting Repositor... - Qlik Community - 1715863

Kind regards...

[iLoveDataVis]

Hi @Frank_S ,

Thank you.

Given the server we want to restore on already is running, do we need to uninstall the software entirely first?

What would be the best way to go about it? Not sure whether we should uninstall everything and start fresh.

If it is possible to restore without uninstalling, will NPrinting overwrite everything with the contents of the zip file backup?

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

As long as its running on exactly the same version of NPrintign as the one where backup was taken you dont need to uninstall or reinstall anything. Effectively you will be removing the existing repository and putting in place the new one. 

Because of that you may need to reconfigure later NPrinting engine.

Also once you restore repo from backup user access to NPrinting will be based on privildges/users which were set in repo where backup was taken.

cheers 

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

by the way - all the steps are on https://help.qlik.com - those are the steps I always follwo at least.

[Ruggero_Piccoli · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Backup and restore procedures are documented in detail in the official help site at https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/May2021/Content/NPrinting/DeployingQVNprinting/Backup-restore..... I linked latest version because your is out of support so the related help is offline but, based on what I remember, the procedures are the same.

Pay attention that when you restore a backup on another computer the local repository is cleaned. What you will have after the restore is not the merge of local reports and configurations plus the ones that come from the backup. You will have a restored system that is an exact copy of the backed up one at the moment you created the backup. If in the target system you have developed, for example, new reports that are not available in the source system where you created the backup you can export the report and import on the old system and then create a new backup. 

Best Regards,

Ruggero

[iLoveDataVis]

Hello @Ruggero_Piccoli 

Many thanks for the very useful and detailed answer. It gives me insight I need to understand the restore process.

Would the restore also restore all the report templates as per what was held in the backup? I imagine the answer is yes but just want to check for thoroughness.

What we want to do is as you say, restore to the exact copy of the backup when it was taken in the different host.

[Ruggero_Piccoli]

Hi,

Yes, the restore has all the templates and restore them.

Best Regards,

Ruggero

[iLoveDataVis]

Thank you @Ruggero_Piccoli 

Few more questions

1) Is there anywhere we can find the logs for restore activities? I.e. to monitor or to detect errors.

2) We are restoring a backup from a different host on to a live host. The Engine manager will need updating to the new engine server name. Is that as simple as once the restore is finished -> log into NPrinting console > Engine manager > remove the old server entry -> add the new server engine? It is a single node server set-up.

[Ruggero_Piccoli]

Hi,

1) restore errors (and messages) appear in the -console

2) yes, remove and add the new Engines

Best Regards,

Ruggero