Environment
NetIQ AppManager 7.0.x
NetIQ AppManager 8.0.x
Situation
Knowledge Base database is too large for disk
Resolution
1. Install the NetIQ Knowledge Base Server on the new machine (choose to install the English content as well).
2. In Internet Explorer, navigate to http://<newkbserverhost>/NetIQKB/Web/RestartServer.aspx . This will stop the KB Server.
3. Using SQL Enterprise Manager, delete the NetIQKB database associated with this new installation.
4. Using SQL Enterprise Manager, make a backup of the NetIQKB database associated with the old installation.
5. Using SQL Enterprise Manager, detach (don't delete!) the NetIQKB database associated with the old installation.
6. Move the detached database files to the new server and attach them to the SQL Server.
7. The KB Server connects to SQL Server using a URL that specifies the hostname of the machine hosting SQL Server, and optionally specifies the SQL login credentials. The URL is specified in the Knowledge Base Server's configuration file, NetIQ\Knowledge Base\Server\Web.config. The URL can be set by running a KBTool command like this (assuming the current directory is NetIQ\Knowledge Base\Server):
bin\KBTool -set configFile=Web.config databaseURL=mssql://<sqlserverinstance>/NetIQKB
Here <sqlserverinstance> is the name of the SQL Server instance, which in the customer's case would probably be just "localhost" if the default SQL instance on the machine hosting the KB Server is being used. This command assumes that the KB Server will use NT authentication to talk to SQL Server.
If SQL authentication is desired, use this form:
bin\KBTool -set configFile=Web.config databaseURL=mssql://<login>:<password>@<sqlserverinstance>/NetIQKB
Here <login> and <password> are the SQL login and password.
In either case, the command will update Web.config with the new URL, and if login credentials are included they will be encrypted.
8. After updating the SQL Server URL, you should try accessing the Knowledge Base Server by opening a browser and navigating to http://<kbserverhost>/netiqkb . This will force the Knowledge Base Server to start up and after several seconds the initial page (where one chooses whether to view English or Japanese content) should appear. If the KB Server could not start properly, and the web page showed that an exception had occurred. The reason for the exception could be due to the fact that the wrong user now owns the database tables. There is a tool at the following link: \\ftp.netiq.com\tsfix\NETIQKB70649 in case you need to use it. Rename it from TableFixer.txt to TableFixer.exe. Here's how to run it, using SQL authentication to connect to the database:
TableFixer.exe -sql_info=<sqlinstance>:netiqkb:<login>:<password> -chown=true
Here <sqlinstance> is the SQL instance name (normally just the machine name, but possibly followed by a backslash and the instance name), <login> is the SQL login, and <password> is the password associated with the login. The sa account should probably be used to ensure that the account has the necessary permissions to change ownership of the database tables. Alternatively, NT authentication can be used instead by leaving out the login credentials:
TableFixer.exe -sql_info=<sqlinstance>:netiqkb -chown=true
A couple of notes:
1. When you detache the database and copy the database files, both the main database file (NetIQKB.mdf) and the log file (NetIQKB_log.ldf) should be copied to the new machine.
2. If KBTool is installed on any other machines (which I would consider to be unlikely) the kbServerURL setting in KBTool.exe.config on those machines should be manually updated to point to the new KB Server machine.
3. If after following these steps the KB Server isn't working, try running "iisreset" to restart IIS, then try accessing the KB Server via the browser again. If it fails, please run the following KBTool command:
KBTool.exe --debug -login kb login=Administrator password=Administrator > debug.log
(Note: That's two hyphens before "debug", and one hyphen before "login". Also note that if you have changed the Administrator password, the appropriate password should be specified rather than "Administrator".) This command will try to login to the KB Server and will likely fail, and the resulting debug.log file should be sent to NetIQ Support.