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Migration Notes

TranslationMigration, pending..even of partial data, involves complex steps and benefits from careful planning. Back up the environment beforehand and prepare a rollback strategy.

This article outlines ways to switch from an existing instance of openthinclient to a new installation. An overview of the data used by openthinclient can be found in the article Backup and Migration.

Common Issues During Migration

Unlike during normal operation of the openthinclient Management Server, various unusual scenarios can occur during a migration.

Thin clients are registered with multiple servers

Due to the migration of the LDAP directory, a thin client may be registered with multiple instances. In this case, it's essentially random which server instance the thin client ultimately boots from. To address this situation, delete the affected thin clients from one instance. Alternatively, sporadically change the MAC addresses in the openthinclient Management Server.

Example:

Overwrite the first byte 00:e0:c5:03:12:2f > f0:e0:c5:03:12:2f

Duplicate hostnames

Especially during the migration of virtual appliances, it can happen that two identical hostnames exist on the same network. Possible solutions are:

    Consistently use IP addresses Change the hostname (on at least one instance) and re-register it with the DNS server or restart the VM
    Application configurations with missing application packages

    When importing LDAP data, application configurations may exist before the corresponding application package is installed. Because of the openthinclient manager architecture, this situation causes various errors that require analysis. Install any missing client packages in the package manager to resolve this condition.

    Complete migration

    In a complete migration, transfer all data from one instance to another.

      Install a new instance of openthinclient or create a new instance of the virtual appliance. Ensure that all application packages installed on the old instance are also installed on the new one (different package versions are acceptable). Export the entire LDAP directory.
      Shut down the server or services of the old instance. Copy the relevant files from the Manager home directory of the old instance to the new one.

      Smooth Migration

      As an alternative to exporting and importing, run two or more openthinclient instances simultaneously on the same network. To perform a smooth migration of an existing installation, follow these steps:

        Install a new instance of openthinclient or create a new instance of the Virtual Appliance. Review the settings for applications, hardware types, etc., in the existing installation, and manually transfer them to the new openthinclient instance. Then, create test thin clients by selecting the MAC address under PXE Clients as usual, and assigning a client name, location, and hardware type to the client. Note, the test thin clients remain inactive in the old instance. Remove them from the old instance or change their MAC addresses.

        If the tests succeed, export individual parts of the LDAP directory from the old instance and import them into the new instance.

        In addition to the configuration data, transfer the necessary files from the user home directory and the custom directory.

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