Migrating the IQ Server

Overview

This process also allows you to duplicate IQ Server instances. It is not a best practice to duplicate the server as a deployment strategy or for horizontal scalability purposes.

To move a Sonatype IQ Server instance to a new location, you'll need to know the following:

  1. The location of the current IQ Server installation directory (e.g. the location of your nexus-iq-server .jar), and the desired location for the new IQ Server directory.
  2. The location of the current sonatype-work directory, and the desired location for the new sonatype-work directory.
  3. The current location of your Sonatype license file, and a desired location for the license file going forward.

Be sure that the new location/server meets system requirements for as documented here.

If you're also re-locating the external database, then a copy of the original external database should be moved into a new server, and the moved instance configured to point at that new server.

Moving the Server

The installation directory of a Sonatype IQ Server installation is portable and can be copied to the new location. Preserve operating system file permissions when doing this. Likewise, the sonatype-work directory of a Sonatype IQ Server installation is portable and can be copied to the new location. If you're not sure where the sonatypeWork directory of your installation is located, check the value of the sonatype-work property within the config.yml file.

The config.yml file, located under the installation directory, is the main configuration file for the IQ Server install. If you have made any customizations to this file, they may need to be adjusted in the new installation.

Note that these directories must be copied when the IQ Server is not running.

Once the installation directory and sonatype-work have been moved to the new location, copy the license file, start the IQ Server, and follow the prompts to upload the license file.

Moving the Server with rsync

As noted, migrating the IQ Server usually requires that the IQ Server is first shutdown. However, a backup tool like rsync, which is included in Linux distributions, can help reduce downtime. To use a tool like this effectively, make an initial copy of the sonatype-work folder while IQ Server is still running. If you're using rsync, this can be done with:

rsync -avP <source> <dest>

Once this completes, shut down IQ Server, and run a rsync copy with:

rsync -avP --del <source> <dest>

This second copy should run quite quickly since rsync will only be handling the delta of files between the first and second copy.

Additional Documentation