Gradience Pro / Enterprise - Moving the Software and Data to a New Server and Re-pointing the Clients While Upgrading to a New Version

--IMPORTANT!-- You should be installing the latest version of the software. To get the latest version - click here. 

Be sure that you install the same [iteration] of the same [version] on all machines where Gradience is to be installed. Otherwise you will encounter strange performance issues with the risk of unsolvable data corruption.

To find the version of your Gradience software click Help > About. If you cannot open the software, there are two ways to do so from outside the software:

1. 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.

Moving the Software and Data to a New Server and Repointing the Clients While Upgrading to a New Version

Perform a Backup at the Old Server:

Option One:

1. From within the program, click File > Maintenance > Back up Database.

2. Using the Select Directory window, navigate to where you want the backup to reside and click OK.

Option Two:

1. Click Start > All Programs or All Apps > Gradience > Maintenance > Database Monitor.

2. Log into it as you would log into the software and when it opens, click Backup > Backup Now.

3. Click yes to question about running a sweep.

4. Using the Select Directory window, navigate to where you want the backup to reside and click OK.

5. Click File > Exit > Yes.

Sever Connectivity between Gradience on the Clients and the Data on the Old Server:

At the old server, go to into Services and stop Firebird. If you need it for another application, you may restart it later. 

--IMPORTANT!-- 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.

At the Old Server:

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.

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.

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

At the new Server:

1. Download the installation file for the appropriate version.

To install version 11 please click here.

To install version 12 please click here.

--NOTE-- [During] installation:

• Select Server when given the option.
• Select [only] the software title(s) you need.

When the installation is complete, copy the installation file and paste it into a neutral location. You'll need to put it in a place where you can get to it from a client workstation.

2. Use the copy of your original database [gdb] to replace the new, blank database on the new server.

3. If you wish, you may also replace the new, empty, local, backup folder with a copy of your original.

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

5. Click Help > About to your license expiration date.

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

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

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

At the First Client:

1. Navigate to the neutral location where you saved the copied 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 and then save the change 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 earlier so the file [should] be good-to-go.

6. Go to the neutral location where you pasted a copy of your installation file. Copy it again and paste it to the desktop and run it from there. [During] installation...

• Select Client when given the option.
• Select [only] the software title(s) you need.

At Each Additional [Existing] Client:

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

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

3. Go to the neutral location where you pasted a copy of your installation file. Copy it again and paste it to the desktop and run it from there. [During] installation...

• Select Client when given the option.
• Select [only] the software title(s) you need.

At any NEW, [virgin] Clients:

1. Navigate to where you saved the [altered copy] of ini file that you used at all of the other clients and copy it again.

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

3. Paste the copied ini file into the newly created Gradience folder.

4. Go to the neutral location where you pasted a copy of your installation file. Copy it again and paste it to the desktop and run it from there. [During] installation...

• Select Client when given the option.
• Select [only] the software title(s) you need.

By the way, if you haven’t done so already, we highly recommend that you automate Gradience backups and ensure that they are sent to a network folder or a folder on an external drive. 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 this.

Please click here to allow Gradience to back up your data automatically.

Please click here to restore data that was previously backed up.

Click here to troubleshoot connection issues.

Hidden Folders - Making them Visible:

For a Windows 7 Computer follow these steps:

1. Open the C:drive and click Organize > Folder and Search Options > View.

2. Select Show hidden files, folders an drives.

3. uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.

4. Click Apply > OK.  

For Window 8 and Windows 10 computers follow these steps:

1. Click the Windows Start button. Usually this is the Windows logo in the lower left corner of your desktop. 

2. Click File Explorer.

3. Follow he steps shown in this image:

4. Repeat the process shown above again except this time check the box for File name extensions.