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Revit Server - Replacing a Central Server

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    #1

    Revit Server - Replacing a Central Server

    We are running into headaches replacing a Central Server. There is nothing in Autodesk Online Help about this only WikiHelp which apparently has some incorrect information: go figure

    To set the stage, we have a Central Server (CS) in Dallas and a NEW CS in Omaha.
    We were hoping that we could copy the data from the old CS to the new CS and then just repoint all of the Local Servers (LS) to the new CS during the weekend.
    Monday morning comes along, everyone creates new local copies, good to go, right? Unfortunately, no.

    It looks like we are stuck with the reality of having to open 51 models detached and save them back to the new CS, clear the cache folder from each of the 16 LS, then pray that all of the 51 models will successfully cache to all LS on Monday morning when people make fresh local copies.:banghead:

    If anyone else has gone through this yet, your insight would be appreciated!!!
    Tags: None
    #2
    Sounds about right.

    We've done some 'what-ifs' and that's almost exactly the scenario we envisioned. In the case of replacing a central, we thought we'd just wipe the Cache folder from the locals, no sense being too gentle, it's of no use anyway.

    There is going to be some down-time and the more invested you are in RS, and the more time zones your offices are in, the greater the impact on your users.

    I hope Autodesk is listening, we're certainly making a lot of noise about the Hub/Spoke topology of RS and how a single-point-of-failure is a poor decision. It's a great starting point but I sure hope we can evolve!

    You probably know this already, but you can start replication simply by selecting the file in Revit's open dialogue, no need to open the file. We have pre-populated a new local server using this method. You'll need someone to connect to that local server.

    ~B
    Bruce McCallum
    Principal
    Next Architecture

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      #3
      Yeah, the problem that we ran into was that our new RCS had to have a new name since it was moving from Dallas to Omaha. Corporate IT requires us to prefix EVERYTHING by location. It was quite the corrdinated effort. I'll send you a pdf of the flowchart that I made. Probably dont want to post it here in a public forum. :-)
      We have seen that 'feature' of pre-population and wondered how much it is affecting data syncronization if there is a model cached to 14 RLS but only actaully being accessed through one or two of them. Kind of related is the suggestion that someone from Autodesk made for us to 'preheat' the cache on a local server by copy the relevant folders from the 'Projects' folder of the RCS to the 'Cache' folder of the RLS. We didn't do it but it was intriguing.

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        #4
        Looks like we might have to do the same thing for upgrading to RS2012. Will keep you all posted.

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          #5
          I have no helpful input except to wish you luck. However, this is one of the reasons we decided to go with a virtualized implementation of RS. If we need to "move" the server in the future, we just move the virtual machine to wherever the new virtual host will be.
          Network Administrator
          Dallas, Texas

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            #6
            We are virtual as well. The catch is that the name of the virtual server needed to change. As far as upgrading to RS2012 it's looking good. There is info on WikiHelp now and it looks pretty straight forward. We should be testing it next week.

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              #7
              The upgrade to RS2012 was pretty painless, for us... Once we realized that in Windows Server the only software that appears in Add/Remove programs is what was installed by the USER that is logged in, LOL. We had a heck of a time uninstalling before that.

              Sadly, the documentation (i found) wasnt adequate. But i digress. We didnt have to open the models with detach, or anything. We remoted in to the CS and all of the LS's, uninstalled, installed RS2012, pointed it to the same folders, good to go.
              Aaron "selfish AND petulant" Maller |P A R A L L A X T E A M | Practice Technology Implementation
              @Web | @Twitter | @LinkedIn | @Email

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