Migrate Web Reports to a new host?

I’ve seen https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/Tivoli%20Endpoint%20Manager/page/Server%20Migration but it only mentions migrating the root server.

I’m interested in migrating BigFix Web Reports 9.5.4 to a new host, hopefully preserving the existing history, custom reports, logons, and scheduled reports.

Is there any guidance on how to do that? After installing Web Reports on the new host, do I just restore the SQL database from the source Web Reports server? Are there any files or registry entries I need to copy over as well?

Web Reports is much easier to migrate, and you can use the server process as a guide, but just do the WR pieces. The WR-specific parts of the process are:

  1. Detach and Attach the BESReporting db to the new SQL Server
  2. Copy over the WR-specific folders (if they contain anything):
    ** [BigFix Server folder]\BESReportsData\ArchiveData
    ** [BigFix Server folder]\BESReportsServer\wwwroot\ReportFiles
  3. Add back any custom WR settings in the registry, the ones that start with _WebReports
  4. If you defined AD users in WR prior to version 9.1, then set “UseLegacyADLogin” to 1 in HKLM\Software\BigFix\Enterprise Server\BESReports.
  5. Install Web Reports
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Thanks much, I should be able to give it a try next week.

OK, so maybe that took a little more than a week, but I’m just about to wrap it up and have a few additional notes to add.

On the whole, the migration went as described. I started by installing SQL Server and SQL Management Studio, and restored a backup of the BESReporting database from the source server.
In SQL, I needed to modify the Login for “LocalSystem” to grant the “db_owner” role to the restored copy of BESReporting.

I created the directories for ReportFiles and ArchiveData and copied the content from the source server. Then I installed BES Web Reports and it went without a hitch. After the initial install I had to log on, and in the Datasource tab I had to enter a Master Operator credential to my BES Server for the one-time configuration.

One gotcha is that after the initial install, I was unable to logon with any LDAP accounts. My original BES Web Reports server was first installed with BES 8.x, and used the old-style LDAP authentication. The new Web Reports did not have that flag set, and was trying to use the “newer” LDAP configuration, but my existing LDAP source did not have a group mapped to a Web Reports role, so none of them could log on. https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSQL82_9.5.0/com.ibm.bigfix.doc/Platform/Web_Reports/c_post_LDAP_upgrade_steps.html#c_upgrade_tem_web_reports
I logged in with the built-in operator account and assigned an LDAP group to a Web Reports role, problem solved. In the meantime though the lack of a role stopped all of the scheduled reports created by those users, and they had to be re-enabled individually.

I also found that, of all things, the Outbound Mail Server was not set. I had to configure that through Administration->Address Book->Email SMTP Server.

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A post was split to a new topic: Web Reports - Reconnect LDAP Users after migration to new host

I updated the steps to include the option to preserve old-style AD users and avoid the additional LDAP user migration you had to do in your new post.

I have a question. So I was successful in migrating Bigfix WebReports 9.5.9 with the help of this forum. How do I go about removing Bigfix WebReports from the host I had it on originally?

@paulFSM there is no way to remove it easily as the install is part of the Root Server.
You can run the BigFix remove tool for the version of BigFix that you are running, then reinstall the server without the webreports box checked.
To do the above make sure you back up the database (BFEnterprise) before doing it.
Also make sure that you have copies of the Masthead.afxm, license.crt and license.pvk and the pvk password for the reinstallation using masthead and existing database.
As WebReports takes up minimal space it would be far easier to just stop the Web Reports service and to disable it though.
Please open an RFE to have WebReports added to the BES Remove Tool as a separate entity for a future release.

Thank you @Geckoman for your response. This is what I thought would be the response. A some what related question. If I can’t uninstall/remove webreports on its own, can I at least remove webui components easily? webui was also on the main root server which I recently moved as well.

Thanks,
Paul

uninstall from the root server reinstall on the server of choice. Use the provided fixlets in the console, is the easiest path.

A post was split to a new topic: Web Reports - Migrate to new Root Server