Moving RE7 db to a new server/network

Donna Bursey

Hi, there - new person in the neighborhood! ?


We are a hospital which has recently joined with several other local hospitals and we are the biggest shop. We have an instance of RE at another location (whole different RE instance from ours, just want to have it accessible for our programming/reporting, etc.) and are planning to move it over to our servers so we can start delivering some reporting for that site. I'd like to put that instance on the same server as our local RE instance so we have all our databases on one server. Will there be any problems around serial numbers, etc.? What about the Console – anything there we need to think about? Perfect world would be if we could access their RE via our RE logins, too – and vice versa. The person handling the Console part is confident that he can just search for their instance and attach it to the console and it will be available. Then, I think we'd have to create network logins for the site so they can access our network. Obviously, their RE serial number will be unique to that RE instance, so I'm thinking it should all be smooth…but one never knows! Haven't done this before, so I'm pretty sure there will be something I'm not seeing. Grateful for any input/advice --


Thank you!

Dariel Dixon 2

I'm not sure what the benefit would be to having multiple instances on the same database server.  I don't think it would be that great of an idea just from a performance standpoint.  And from a DR standpoint as well.  Just a personal opinion.  I'm not sure, but I can imagine that you can have the same client accessing databases on different boxes, but I don't know if you'd want to.  It might be just as easy to keep them on different boxes.

Donna Bursey

Our location/DBAs do not allow linked servers, and I want to be able to write SQL against multiple RE db's for reporting purposes, so we have to have them on the same server. Plus, our db for storing our objects is also on that server, so...makes sense, and really - I don't see an alternative. Neither db is very big, which may also be a factor. As for actual GUI access - there will be very few times when a user would be trying to access both our RE and their RE at the same time, so hopefully this would be a non-issue, but given RE's fragility, I hear you. ?

Dariel Dixon 2

I see.  That's tough.  Since you're running reports from the SQL backend, you might not have an alternative.  It sounds like there won't be many people in RE, but I'm always concerned when I have a lot of users in the database.  Fortunately, most aren't doing any processor intensive work, but performance is always a concern.

Donna Bursey

Yeah, it's helpful to be small. Between the two db's, we MAY have a million records.

John Heizer

Yes, this should work, although getting help from BB for this configuration may be difficult (they tend to be reluctant to support anything but NXT these days).  Have your IT folks scour the Knowledgebase and you should be able to find information on how to configure the setup.

Donna Bursey

Word on the BB street is that we should have no problems because that instance of RE has its own, unique serial number, so there should be no conflicts. And realistically, I can't see what difference it makes where the db lives, but...one never knows. Annnnd, I totally hear you on the support issue, although I've been lucky there. However, I've learned to request technical support right up front, because the Chat folk are def NOT technical. But they know how to do a mean KB search!


Thanks for the reply!

John Heizer

I know it gets tricky getting the configuration files correct on the workstations.  You may have to uninstall RE from the workstations and reinstall from the server when its configuration file (deploy.ini) has been correctly created (RE likes to push that information from its REDeploy folder).  When configured correctly you'll get to choose which db to connect to when you launch RE (just as you can choose between your live data and the sample db today).   And you have to be careful with RE patch "upgrades" because the workstation can't cope with accessing two different versions of the database.


Unless you've got a seriously underpowered SQL server you shouldn't have performance issues running two dbs on one server.  The bigger problem may be having remote locations because the way canned reports work the server often sends huge amounts of data to the workstation which then selects/processes the data, so if your data pipe is small it can bog things down (we have this problem with a remote location).

Donna Bursey

Yes, the clients are a whole 'nother thing. We currently have one place that is inside our network, and I hope to replicate that environment because Citrix access is...yuk...so I will need a bunch of IT resources to get this thing done in a way that works well for all. And we'll have to do some training at the local site regarding client installs, or plan to administer them somehow. Idk about your places, but at our place, RE is the red-headed stepchild. We end up doing a lot of the heavy lifting on proper installation, troubleshooting, etc.


Well, the project is at the beginning, but I'm hoping to see some traction soon. Thank you all for your thoughts/input! I may be back for more!