Gradience Pro / Enterprise - Move to a New Server and Repoint the Clients to the NEW database Location

Please read the two important notes at the bottom of this article.

At the Old Server:

1. Find your production database file. Never assume the location of your data. You [may] have more than one Gradience database. You need to be sure that you are going to access the one that is in use.

2. Go to C:\ProgramData\Gradience. Open the Hrware.ini file. When it opens, ignore most of what you see and focus on just two lines. The line [very near the top] that starts with…

PATH=

…and ends with…

Hrware.gdb

…will indicate the specific location of your data.

3. Go to that location and copy the database named Hrware.gdb. Please also copy the Backup folder just above it as well. Save both in a neutral location that you can access from the new server.

Install Gradience on the New Server:

1. Download the latest version here.

--NOTE-- It is not until [during installation] that you will select the specific software title(s) needed.

--NOTE-- Please store the installation file someplace where you can access it from your clients later.  

2. Go to where you saved a copy of your original database and copy it again.

3. Go to C:\ProgramData\Gradience and replace the new database with the copy of your original.

4. Please also replace the new, empty, local, backup folder with the copy of your original.

5. Launch the software on the new server to verify that you can access your original data.

6. Click Help > About to verify your full, multi-digit version number and license expiration date.

7. Close the About popup and close the software and go to C:\ProgramData\Gradience.

8. Copy the Hrware.ini file. Don’t bother opening it. Just copy it.

9. Save the copied ini file to a neutral location where you can access it from the first client.

--IMPORTANT-- Ensure that the client is running the same [release] of the same [version] that is running on the new server. Otherwise you may encounter strange error and even unsolvable data corruptions.

You can find the version number inside the software by clicking Help > About but there are two ways to view the version from [outside] the software:

1. Open your Control Panel and go to Programs & Features to view it on the list. If it shows Gradience Professional, it will also give the version number. If it doesn't have the words Gradience Professional disregard it and go to step 2 below.

2. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Gradience and open the Common folder. Then scroll down to and right-click on GCore.exe and click on Properties > Details to view the full, multi-digit version number.

At the First [Existing] Client:

1. Go to where you saved the copied Hrware.ini file from the new server.

2. Open the file and very near the top, you’ll see SERVER=Localhost.

3. Replace the word Localhost with the name of the new server then save it and close the file.

4. Copy the now-altered ini file and go to C:\ProgramData\Gradience.

5. Use the copied ini file to replace the existing Hrware.ini file. Do not change the path in any respect. Do not use UNC. Do not use a mapped drive. The path on the ini file of the client must be 100% identical to the path line of the ini file at the server. All that needs to be different between the ini file on a server and the ini file of a client is that…

At the server the designation following SERVER= is the word Localhost while…

At a client the designation following SERVER= is the name of the server.

You made these changes in step 3 above so the file [should] be good-to-go.

At Each Additional [Existing] Client:

1. Go to where you saved the [altered copy] of the Hrware.ini file that you used at the first client.

2. Go to C:\ProgramData\Gradience and replace the existing ini file.

At Each New Client:

1. Go to C:\ProgramData and create a folder there named Gradience.

2. Go to where you saved the [altered copy] of the Hrware.ini file that you used at all of the other clients.

3. Go to C:\ProgramData\Gradience and paste the copied ini file. This will pre-point the software.

4. Install the appropriate version.

If you have troubleshoot connection issues visit this ARTICLE.

--IMPORTANT!-- Whether you are running version 11 or version 12; please ensure that you are running the [same iteration] of that version on [all] computers including the server. When you run different releases of [any] version on various machines that are all pointed to the same database, you will get weird, voodoo-like performance from the software and you risk corrupting the data beyond repair. Such corruption can cause functionality issues that cannot be resolved.

--IMPORTANT!-- I highly recommend that you automate Gradience backups for the end-users. Even if the server does nightly backups, it's just way faster and simpler to restore a Gradience backup than to recover a copy of the database captured by your nightly server backups. The links below cover these.

How to back up your data automatically.

How to restore data that was previously backed up.