Migrating LIMS To A New Server

To migrate your existing LIMS database to a new server, we suggest following these steps. These steps are to minimize downtime for your organization and are the steps that we use as well.

Read this article for more information: https://nolongerset.com/sql-server-migration-steps/

Use this article to script your SQL Server database: https://nolongerset.com/scripted-sql-server-migrations/

1. Install SQL Server on new server
2. Transfer SQL Server logins from old to new server
3. Create and test database transfer scripts
4. Set databases to read-only on new server (to prevent accidental edits)
5. Set up backup and maintenance tasks on new server
6. Pre-deploy applications with code to auto-relink tables (based on read-only status of db on old server)
7. Set old database to Read-Only
8. Back up the database on the old server
9. Restore on the new server
10. Remove read-only status on the new server
11. Take database off-line on old server
12. Repeat steps 7 – 11 for each database
13. Update applications to point only to the new server
14. Decommission old server (not relevant if the old server continues hosting other databases)