Performing a Server Migration from 2012 to 2019 server

[BregBF]

What is the location of the following files?
license.pvk
license.crt
publisher.pvk

Thank you

[AlanM]

The license files are the place you put them when the server was installed

Managing licenses

The publisher.pvk was the old method of logging on that hasn’t been around since 8.2

NEW TEM Admin User no publisher.pvk

(imported topic written by SystemAdmin) hi, i created a new local administrator. The login in the console with this user works well. But I could not find the certificate files publisher.pvk and publisher.crt??? For my older admin I have these files… Please for help Andi

[BregBF]

My position is this, I’ve adopted the BF environment and did not perform the original install. I’m looking to perform a server migration from Windows 2012 to Windows 2019. Was concerned about retrieving the license.pvk and license.crt files in preparation for the migration.

[cmcannady]

@BregBF, it’s not uncommon for long time users of BigFix to create a folder specifically to store these mandatory files. For example, on my Windows-based root BES server in my lab there’s a folder named BES License located under the standard C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise path.

Additionally, it critical to securely store the PVK passphrase used by BESAdmin to unlock the installation for updates, etc. If your organization has an enterprise password management service like Secret Server or similar… please use that. Alternatively, I use LastPass to store the PVK passphrase, license.crt, license.pvk and masthead.afxm for all of my lab environments. Please do not rely on local copies and/or text files as these can fail at the worst possible timing.

I hope this is helpful.

[BregBF]

I found the location of the files. It was stored in the original version folder (in my case BigFix 9.5.4. I have the pw for the BF admin tool. It’s been upgraded to 10.0.1. Is the PVK passphrase = pw for the BF admin tool? If so, I’m covered. So during my Server Migration the license.crt, license.pvk, admin tool pw and of course current masthead are all needed during this migration?

[cmcannady]

@BregBF

So during my Server Migration the license.crt, license.pvk, admin tool pw and of course current masthead are all needed during this migration?

That’s correct. The upgrade process will utilize those assets. Additionally, those same assets would be required to rebuild your BES environment should you experience a total loss of the root BES server. This is why I highly recommend storing these 4 assets in a password management utility like LastPass/SecretServer.