How to Migrate the Canary Historian to a New Server (version 24)

The following article explains the steps that can be taken when migrating the Canary Historian to a new server. Note, each environment is unique and additional steps may be required to complete the migration. For this particular scenario, it is assumed the Identity and License services are local to the Historian. If that is not the case, please contact support@canarylabs.com so that we can understand the architecture in place. The following procedures are designed to minimize downtime so that the old server is accessible while the new one is stood up.

1. Contact support@canarylabs.com or your Canary representative to request a temporary license to place on the new server. Once the server is operational, the license from the old server will be transferred to the new one.
2. Install the desired Canary components onto the new server using the Canary Installer. It is recommended to use the same installation locations as the old server as this will provide an easier migration. If needing to change install locations, there will be more optional files to modify in Step 7.

   

   In this particular example, the Historian Data, Service Data, and Service Install are installed in custom locations on the E drive. These locations may be differ for your use case.

3. Once installed, apply the temp license to the new server. See How to License the Canary System.
4. Stop ALL Canary services on the new server. All services, except the Admin and Identity services, can be stopped through the Services tile by clicking the STOP ALL button. Open Windows Services to stop the Admin and Identity services.
5. Are there any Calcs & Events running on the old server? If so, these should be stopped prior to migrating any files or data to the new server. Once data has been copied, Calcs & Events can resume.
6. Copy the contents of the Service Data folder on the old server to replace the contents on the new.
7. Update the following files on the new server. These are the default locations and may differ for your use case.
   • C:\ProgramData\Canary\Node\node.json - update IdentityClientEndpointAPI, IdentityClientEndpointOIDC, and LicenseClientEndpoint to use the new server name

     

   • C:\ProgramData\Canary\Views\views.service.json - update the Endpoint and Name to use the new server name

     

   • C:\ProgramData\Canary\Identity\identity.service.json - update the Axiom RedirectUri to the new server name

     

   • C:\ProgramData\Canary\Axiom\Files - update any Axiom charts or applications that use the Local Historian View for a SourceTag

     

     We recommend using Notepad++ to do a Find/Replace across an entire directory.

     

   • Optional - If changing the Historian Data install location, the C:\ProgramData\Canary\Historian\historian.service.json must be updated to reflect the new location. Update the Path for each DataSet and the global HistorianDataBasePath.

     

   • Optional - If changing the Service Data install location AND there are Virtual Views, the [newProgramDataPath]\Views\Plugins\ModelPlugin.config file must be updated to reflect the new location for each View.

     

8. Install and configure any certificates that may have been used on the old server. If just using the default self-signed certificate that Canary generates, nothing is needed here.
9. Copy the Historian Data folder from the old server to the new. This may take some time depending on the amount of historical data. A partial file will exist for each DataSet that is being currently written to, but it will be replaced by the complete file at a later time.
10. Once the historical data has been copied, the Calcs & Events service can be restarted on the old server.
11. Start ALL Canary services through Windows Services on the new server with the exception of Canary Calculations. This should not be started until all historical data is transferred and live data is coming in.
12. Navigate to any remote Canary Collector servers and configure them to send data to both the old server and the new server. This is accomplished by separating Historian destinations with a comma.

    

    By dual-logging to both, the old server can remain active until it is time to switch over to the new server.
13. While on the Canary Collector server(s), open the Admin tile>Settings screen to update the CLIENT ENDPOINTS with the new server name.

    

14. At this point, the new server should be operational with live data coming in and end users being able to connect. (The Calcs & Events service should still be disabled.)
15. Once the Historian has been able to do a roll-over (typically at midnight) and create a new file for each active DataSet, the partial file from Step 9 can be replaced with the complete file from the old server. The Historian service on the new server must be stopped in order to replace the existing partial file. Once placed, start the Historian service then validate the file. To validate the file, open the Canary Admin>Historian tile>[DataSet Name] and single-click the file. Select VALIDATE from the FILE OPTIONS drop-down.

    

16. With all historical data in place, the Calcs & Events service can be started. It may take some time for it to backfill all calculations before getting to Live mode.
17. Once configured and satisfied that the environment is running as expected, the old server name may be removed from the Collectors that were pushing to both Historians.
18. Return the perpetual license on the old server to the Canary License Web Portal by navigating to the License tile and selecting REMOVE LICENSE next to each product.
19. Return the temp license on the new server to the Canary License Web Portal by navigating to the License tile and selecting REMOVE LICENSE next to each product..
20. Pull the perpetual license on to the new server. See How to Transfer a License.

Note: It may be useful to take screenshots or have the Canary Admin opened on the old server to compare the settings for each service regarding endpoints and access lists.