Qlik Sense Upgrade with PgData in another drive

[Gestion-PSD]

Hi Community!

We are hoarding knowledge about upgrading one of our enviroments from April 2019 to June 2020.

We think we have almost all clear, but we have a doubt about Postgres behavior during the upgrade.

Let me explain: Due to disk space, we move PgData folder to another drive (D:) instead leave it on its original place in C:

As the PgData folder remains in LocalHost, we think there won't be problems during the upgrade, but we aren't sure about it.

Do you think there will be problems? Should we take some actions with PgData folder before upgrading Qlik Sense?

Thanks in advance,

Alonso Torres.

[Levi_Turner]

> Due to disk space, we move PgData folder to another drive (D:) instead leave it on its original place in C:

What do you mean by this? Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows uses PostgreSQL for an underlying metadata store. There are two valid configurations:

1. Use the bundled PostgreSQL database
2. Use a standalone PostgreSQL database

With (1) you will have a Windows Service with the name of Qlik Sense Repository Database. This database stores its dataDir in C:\ProgramData\Qlik\Sense\Repository\PostgreSQL\9.6. 

With (2), the name of the service, the architectural location of this service is arbitrary. Where the data sits is irrelevant to Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows.

It's technically possible to change the location for (1), primarily by using a junction. But this is not a supported configuration. To have support coverage you will want to revert the junctioning process and move the directory to sit in the expected location.

[Gestion-PSD]

Hi Levi.

I'll try to explain myself.

We have QS installed using the bundled PostgreSQL database. Postgres installs originally on the path you said.

However, we have had some issues with C: disk space due to the ammount of disk space occupied by Qlik logging database.

Increase C: disk space is not an option for us, so we needed to find a solution mantaining bundled database. As this server had an empty 😧 disk, our DBA dept. told us that they can move PostgreSQL from its original folder to D without changes on QS nor PostgreSQL configuration, as PostgreSQL remained on localhost.

Since we move PostgreQSL to D:, QS continues running and logging OK.

The moved folders are postgresql\9.6\data\ and all its content.

Now, we are in front of an upgrade of this QS, and we have doubts about how QS installation .exe will behave in this PostgreSQL configuration.

Regards,

Alonso Torres.

[Levi_Turner]

I am not entirely sure what mechanism was done. Suffice it to say that it would be highly encouraged to revert this change prior to the upgrade to ensure full support should something go wrong (or have a handy snapshot). 

[Gestion-PSD]

Hi Levi.

Of course, we'll have a snapshot and a full backup of the server prior to the upgrade.

Revert the changes (back PostgreSQL to C:) is not an option because disk space limits. So, we must deal with this and cross fingers.

Regards,

Alonso Torres.

[Gestion-PSD]

Good morning.

I've more information about how our DBA dept. move PostgreSQL Installation from C to D.

They followed, as I could see, the steps decribed in: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Change_the_default_PGDATA_directory_on_Windows

summarizing

1. change the value of a key in Windows registry (obviously using Qlik Sense Repository Database service name instead of described in the link)
2. move PostgreSQL data folder

With this configuration, Qlik Sense works absolutelly fine.

Regards,

Alonso Torres.