Using drop path vs copying packages during migration to new server

[itinfrastructure_7135]

Hi,

During the migration, the ProGet article says "Copy your packages to the new server. You should copy these to the exact same directory path that the old server used."

What's the difference between the above mentioned method vs using a drop path as described by this article?

I have both, nuget and npm packages to migrate.

Regards,
K>

[atripp]

Hi @itinfrastructure_7135 ,

The first article refers to migrating a ProGet, including the SQL Server database. The database contains things like users, feeds, and package metadata. When that information is in the database, ProGet will expect the file to be in a specific location on disk, so that's files must be moved.

The second article refers to importing packages into ProGet, and it's effectively uploading new packages.

Thanks,
Alana

[itinfrastructure_7135]

Hi Alana,

Thanks for yours previous explanation.

I completed the migration of ProGet from one server to another in two stages.

1. I set up ProGet on a new server connecting to a cloned database and moved all Nuget and NPM packages to the same location on the new server.
2. A week later, I run a final one way sync of modified packages to the new server using a separate drop path for each package type. All packages were bulk imported and removed from the drop path so I assume it went well.

Can you see any issues arising out of migrating this way? Do you have any advice / recommendation of what to check and watch out for?

Should I still manually move modified packages as an extra precaution even I imported them via drop path? I already had one user reporting she couldn't find a package.

Thanks,

[atripp]

Hi @itinfrastructure_7135 ,

The easiest approach is this:

1. Notify users of downtime
2. Shutdown old server
3. Migrate database, files
4. Start the new server
5. Edit DNS to the new server

Using the drop-path isn't required, and that whole process probably wouldn't take too long.

There are ways to reduce downtime, but that mostly involves using something like "robocopy" or another tool to mirror the package files across servers. The database is relatively small to backup/restore.

Otherwise it sounds like you're on the right track!

Cheers,
Alana