The first step to migrate from Windows to ZENworks appliance is to take the backup of Windows server that includes ZENworks configuration and data. If the primary server has the database role, the tool will automatically backup database also.
Before starting with the backup process, ensure that the following prerequisites are met:
If the Windows primary server, that is getting migrated, hosts the embedded database, then you need to stop the following services on all the other Primary Servers in the zone:
Micro Focus ZENworks Service Monitor
Micro Focus ZENworks Loader
Micro Focus ZENworks Client Management
Micro Focus ZENworks Administration Management
Micro Focus ZENworks API Gateway
For example: you have 3 Primary Servers (PS1, PS2, and PS3) in a zone. The database is hosted on PS1, and you want to migrate PS1, then manually stop all the services (Micro Focus ZENworks Service Monitor, Micro Focus ZENworks Loader, Micro Focus ZENworks Client Management, Micro Focus ZENworks Administration Management) on PS2 and PS3 before running the backup command. If the database is hosted on PS2 and you want to migrate PS1, then you need not have to stop the services for PS2 and PS3.
Ensure that the Windows Primary Server is working properly. You can verify this by logging in to ZCC to confirm that the managed devices can contact the Primary Server, and the diagnostics page shows all the processes as running for that Primary Server.
Remove any Unused/idle network adapters from the Windows Primary Server before taking the backup.
It is recommended to finish any remint activities before initiating the migration process.
If the certificate remint is done on ZENworks 2020 update 3 or later version, then the initial-web-service (IWS) file might have ZENAdminMgmt port instead of API Gateway port. Ensure that you update the API Gateway (default 443) manually in the IWS file
It is recommended that you patch all the servers in the zone with FTF- 23.4.0.94 or later.
It is recommended to perform the restore immediately after taking the backup. This would help you to minimize the downtime.
For taking backup of Windows Primary Server, perform the following steps:
Use the Zone super Administrator credentials to launch the migration tool. This user should not be an LDAP user.
By default, the migration tool does not take backup of content repository. It is recommended to use the tool to take backup of content repository if the data size is less than 50GB, you can use any third-party utilities to migrate the content repository data. For more information, see Migrating Content Repository.
You can take backup of content repository by passing the following flag while launching the tool:
-backupContentRepo true
NOTE:If the content repository backup was taken via the migration tool, it will be restored by the tool. If not, the content repository needs to be migrated manually on the appliance device. For more information, Migrating Content Repository.
Run the following PowerShell command to take a backup of Windows Primary Server data:
zenserver-migrator.ps1 mode=backup <-u (zone administrator username)> <-p (zone administrator password)> <-e (encryption password)> [-d (backup directory)] -skipImagingCollisionCheck true -skipImagingDirPathCheck true [-backupContentRepo (true/false)]
where,
mode must be backup
zone administrator username – ZCC Super Admin username. This user should not be from LDAP
zone administrator password - ZCC Super Admin password
backup directory - Path to the folder where the backed-up zip files will be placed. You need to copy the backup_zip folder created inside it to your ZENworks appliance device for restoration
encryption passphrase- Enter a passphrase for the backed-up files. This passphrase will be used for validating while restoring the data on the ZENworks appliance. You can either pass this as command line parameter or the tool will prompt.
For example, zenserver-migrator.ps1 mode=backup -u Administrator -p mySecretPassword -e myPassphrase@123 -d "C:\server_backup" -backupContentRepo true
Once the backup is complete then copy the created backup_zips folder on the target appliance for restoration. For more information on copying the backed-up data to appliance, see Post Backup Steps.
NOTE:The migration tool stops all ZENworks services before taking the backup. After the backup is done successfully, the services will not be restarted.The backup process does not support resumability. In case the backup needs to be taken again, ensure that you restart all the required ZENworks services before starting the backup
The backup tool creates multiple zip files for each type of data, for example, Collection, Configuration, Database and so on. These files are available in the backup_zips folder created inside the path specified using -d option. For example, if you specify “C:\server_backup" as the backup folder, then the backup files will be available in “C:\server_backup\backup_zips".