Migration from Linux to Windows#

This article explains how to migrate your i-doit installation under Linux to a Windows server. The i-doit instance was installed on the Windows Server with the i-doit Windows Installer.

Preparation and Assumptions#

Before you start, there are a few things to consider. The aim should be to move without long downtime and above all without data loss. Everyone who works with i-doit data should be informed about the migration in good time. Nothing is worse than angry colleagues whose work has been interrupted.

You should also identify which interfaces are used by i-doit. Specifically: Which third-party systems such as Nagios, ((OTRS)) Community Edition & Co. access i-doit? Data access should be switched off during the move. The same applies to running Tasks, Backups and monitoring, which monitors that a running web server on the Windows system on port 80/443 is responding to HTTP requests.

As i-doit was installed on the Windows server using the i-doit Windows Installer, apache2, PHP and MariaDB are already sufficiently configured. In the following, we will only refer to MySQL, even if MariaDB is used. If changes have been made to the configuration under Linux, these should also be added to the new system. All services that i-doit expects should be accessible on the new system: DNS, SMTP, LDAP/AD. Is everything working? Okay, you're ready to go.

One last thing: We should have all system user accounts and their passwords ready that are used on the old and new system. This includes MySQL system users (root) and the i-doit user for MySQL (idoit by default).

Export Data from Linux#

To avoid having to transfer the files individually and to pack them into an archive, we use the zip command:

1

sudo zip -r i-doit.zip /var/www/html/i-doit/

If your i-doit instance is under a different path, adjust the command accordingly. Now you only need to download the ZIP file or transfer it to the Windows server. You can use scp to transfer the ZIP file. We execute the following command on the Windows server:

1

scp -r user@linuxsystem:/var/www/html/i-doit/i-doit.zip C:\

Export the Database from Linux#

Next, we need to export the database and transfer it to the Windows server as well. To export the database successfully, the following commands must be executed:

1
2

mysqldump -uroot -p idoit_system > /tmp/idoit_system.sql
mysqldump -uroot -p idoit_data > /tmp/idoit_data.sql

Once the two databases have been exported, we must then transfer the two SQL files to the Windows server as well:

1
2

scp -r user@linuxsystem:/tmp/idoit_system.sql C:\
scp -r user@linuxsystem:/tmp/idoit_data.sql C:\

The SQL files are now located on the Windows server under C:\

Migrate Data to Windows#

First unpack the ZIP file you have created under the following path and overwrite all files if necessary:

1

C:\ProgramData\i-doit\apache-2.4\htdocs

Afterwards we import the Database. To avoid errors, we first delete the existing databases on our Windows server:

1
2

DROP Database idoit_data;
DROP Database idoit_system;

We then recreate the databases:

1
2

CREATE DATABASE idoit_data;
CREATE DATABASE idoit_system;

Now we can import the databases from the old instance:

1
2

mysql -uroot -p idoit_data < C:\idoit_data.sql
mysql -uroot -p idoit_system < C:\idoit_system.sql

We also authorize the idoit user for the new databases:

1
2

grant all privileges on idoit_system.* to idoit@localhost identified by 'mypasswd';
grant all privileges on idoit_data.* to idoit@localhost identified by 'mypasswd';

The instance has now been successfully migrated from Linux to Windows.

Follow-up Work#

Following this migration, you should run various tests and reactivate the interfaces between i-doit and third-party tools. It is also important to have the backups running. If all tests are successful (which can hopefully be presumed), all colleagues should be informed that the IT-documentation is available again.

How long does such a migration take? If the preparation and the subsequent work is ignored, such a migration takes not longer than two hours, so it's worth it. Good luck!