We are planning to create a new bigfix server with different hostname and IP address.
Is it possible to migrate also the action history and the clients settings from the old server to the new bigfix server?
No, because even if you do some SQL-side copy of data, the endpoints will come in the new environment with new ComputerIDs; custom sites/fixlets/etc will as well, so the history won’t match/show anything… We went through this several years back and just kept a db backup of the original environment for audit/compliance/reporting purposes and skipped the migration of history.
You could perform a Migration rather than building a new server from scratch. With this method you restore the database and content from the original server onto the new server. An overview of the process is available at https://help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/10.0/platform/Platform/Config/t_mgrt_rootapp_server.html
You’ll need to install the same version of BigFix as is running now. If you also want to upgrade the platform, I’d suggest performing the migration first, testing that it has been successful, and then performing the upgrade after.
After the migration, you may either set up a DNS Alias redirecting the original platform hostname to the new server, or use the BESAdmin Tool to configure the “Last Fallback Relay” option to point to the new Root Server (or a Relay connecting to the new Root Server).
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Thank you very much for your inputs.
I would also like to ask What types of content in database can be exported and reimport to new server database through SQL query directly?
None of them. Everything important in the database is digitally signed, and will be invalid if you tried to copy it to a new deployment.
Besides the signatures, all the computers, Fixlets, and sites will get new IDs on the new deployment, so none of the data would link correctly.
You can export everything from the console as .bes files (not from DB/SQL) and then export. If you are planning to retain the same exact site/content structure, just create the custom sites in the new environment and then start exporting them from the old console site-by-site (select all -> right-click -> export; in the new environment File -> Import). As I said, the IDs of everything will be different though, just bear in mind (if you are exporting/importing baselines with custom content they won’t match and might need to be recreated to maintain the links).