Need help relocating QlikView Web Server and Publisher files

[SeekTheLight]

We are an Enterprise customer.  We have two pair of QlikView servers running on a physical servers.  Each server pair is configured to use Microsoft Failover Cluster.  The servers are version 12.10.20400.0.  We also have a virtual server that only has publisher installed. 

The fail-over cluster works by monitoring the services on both servers.  If the failover cluster detects a problem with the active server's hardware or services, it will (try to) shut down the services on the active note, and start up the service on the inactive node (so that the inactive node becomes the active node).  Because maintenance can update files that store configuration data, we have moved a number of files from the C:\ drive of the web servers to a shared file server.  We also have a batch file that checks to see if settings.ini is different between the two web servers, and copies the newer version over the older version in order to keep this configuration of the off-line server in sync.  In a simple effort to manage space on the old file share and on the servers, we also moved the audit files of the publisher to the shared file server.  Lance Anderson of Qlik was instrumental in configuring all of this when we first set up the clusters.

We now need to move the files on the shared file server to a different shared file server.  When I look at the current shared file server, I see the following folders in the QlikView-Prod\QlikTech_OH directory (this is intended to be a reflection of the QlikTech folder for a server pair that we have nicknamed OH).

AltExtensions - Location seems to be defined in QlikTech\QlikViewServer\Settings.ini.  Managed in QMC

AltTempFiles - Location seems to be defined in QlikTech\QlikViewServer\Settings.ini.  Managed in QMC

ManagementService\AuditLog - Location seems to be defined in Publisher Management Service\QVManagementService.exe.config file

QVRoot - Location seems to be defined in QlikTech\QlikViewServer\Settings.ini.  Managed in QMC

QVSLogs - Location seems to be defined in QlikTech\QlikViewServer\Settings.ini.  Managed in QMC

WebServer - Location seems to be defined in QlikView\Server\Web Server\QVWebServer.exe.config

We think we can change the settings found in Settings.ini through the QMC.  We think we will need to change the locations in the other two files my manually editing the locations found in QVWebServer.exe.config and QVManagementService.exe.config.

We are not sure of the proper order for all of this.  Our current thought is:

1)  Arrange that there are no other users managing the QlikView server

2)  Back up settings.ini, QVManagementService.exe.config, QVWebServer.exe.config

3)  Copy the entire folder structure from the old file share to the new file share

4)  Modify the location in QVWebServer.exe.config to point to the new server

5) Modify the location in QVManagementService.exe.config to point to the new server location.

6)  Open up the QMC and change the stored location of folders in settings.ini (AltExtensions, AltTempFiles, QVRoot and QVSLogs).

7) Shut down the Publisher and then the Web Server cluster. 

😎 Copy Settings.ini, QVManagementService.exe.config, QVWebServer.exe.config from the active node in the cluster to the inactive node (so that the inactive node will have the right settings on a fail-over).

9) Start up the Web Server and then the Publisher.

Does this seem to be the proper path?  Are there other considerations that we have not anticipated?  We are comfortable moving any published files from one file server to another.  We have already done that successfully for several published Qlik apps.  We are a bit nervous about changing the ini/config files.

Any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

SeekTheLight

[rwunderlich]

I would recommend not editing settings.ini to make the updates and instead use QMC to make the updates when possible.  Reason being that the value may be stored somewhere else as well, such as the QVPR.  I don't think so for the files you listed, but why take the chance?  You can make the changes without downtime (although I recommend a quiet time) except for the QVRoot folder. 

When you change the QVRoot folder via QVC, the *.pgo files while automatically copy from the old folder to the new.  Changing the root folder restarts the Qlikvew Server service, the other changes do not. 

You will need to edit QVManagementService.exe.config manually, you cannot use QMC.  Stop the Management Service before editing. 

You mentioned QVWebServer.exe.config.  Was that for the webserver log location?  You have to manually edit that one as well as you indicated. 

You didn't mention if you had a seperate QVPR for each server and if so if you were monitoring it for changes?

-Rob
http://masterssummit.com
http://qlikviewcookbook.com
http://www.easyqlik.com

[Brett_Bleess]

Here is a link to a more definitive article on how to change log and application data folder locations for each of the services.  Note the QVWS has an extra step of copying existing files, this is key to ensure things behave correctly and only use the new location, so I just wanted to flag that one.  Hopefully this will fill in any gaps you may have.

https://support.qlik.com/articles/000004112

I believe you are also aware that QlikView is not cluster aware when it comes to Microsoft Clustering services, so it is very important to ensure all of the services on the box going down are in fact down before bringing up the services on the other node and ensuring the files on the file share do not get locked by the processes shutting down on the other node as well, as that may cause issues with the node coming up in being able to properly update files etc.  

Regards,
Brett