Copy a Post Office to a Test Server

[cbristol]

I would like to copy a post office to a test server in order to test possible solutions to a problem we are having with the PO. The source PO is in a secondary domain and does not use directory association or authentication. The source PO's primary server runs on one server and its secondary domain and PO run, together, on another server.

The destination test server is independent of our live GW environment. It has a primary domain that is named differently from the live primary domain. The target PO will be in a secondary domain named the same as the live secondary domain and have the same name as the source PO. Live: PRIDOM/SECDOM2/PO2 Test: TESTDOM/SECDOM2/PO2. The test server also runs another secondary domain: TESTDOM/SECDOM1/PO1.

I used dbcopy to migrate the PO to the test server as described here - https://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7010760

However, the POA fails to start. I've tried copying wphost.db files around and a few other things, all without success. It's now complaining that port 1677 is in use. I changed TESTDOM/SECDOM1/PO1's port from 1677 to 1679 and verified that nothing is listening to port 1677 on the test server. PO2 is port 1677 in the live environment.

Am I on a fool's errand with this? Or is there a documented procedure for copying a live PO into a test environment?

Thank you, in advance, for taking a look.

CB

[laurabuckley]

Hi CB,

First thing that stands out to me is the fact that you are changing domain names. This may be the cause of many headaches. Also I don't recommend that you try replicate everything onto one server as that could introduce additional issues which you are trying to avoid.

Setup your new server. DBCopy both the secondary domain and PO that run on the one server onto this new server without changing any domain names. Before you start the agents isolate your server from your live network. Open the Admin Console and change the IP addresses etc of your agents. Alternatively edit the startup files to reflect the new IP's. That should do it. If the system complains about the primary domain being missing spin up a small server [I'm assuming that you are virtualizing this] and put just the primary domain on this server.

Let us know what happens.

Cheers,

[cbristol]

So, bottom line is that I'm trying to do something with my test server that the GW configuration differences between it and my live system are too big to make work. Darn.

I'd hoped to use the test system to validate Micro Focus's FTF fix to the problem discussed in this thread: https://forums.novell.com/showthread.php/501651-Top-Down-Rebuild

At this point, rebuilding my test system to be able to copy over the affected post office is likely more work than the benefit justifies. The test system works well for most of its intended purpose.

Thank you!

[laurabuckley]

You are welcome CB 🙂