Moving HCL Traveler to a new server

There are times when it is necessary to move an HCL Traveler server to a new piece of hardware or a new Operating System.

The following use cases are possible reasons for need to move HCL Traveler to a new server:
  • Moving an HCL Traveler server to new hardware for improved performance
  • Moving an HCL Traveler server from an unsupported operating system to a supported operating system; this may be a requirement for upgrading an HCL Traveler server if the underlying Domino® server has dropped support for the existing OS

The following information outlines the best practices for moving from one system to another.

Moving a System in a Highly Available (HA) environment

In an HA setup, you must create a new system, then retire the old. To do so, perform the following procedure:
  1. Install the new operating system, Domino®, and the HCL Traveler application on the new server using a similar configuration as the existing HCL Traveler server, including SSL settings, SSL certificates, Domain certificates and any security settings.
  2. Add the new server to the HA pool. See Configuring HCL Traveler for enterprise database for more information.
  3. Verify the server is running:
    1. Log into the servlet on the server and verify the appropriate user status messages: http(s)://hostname/traveler.
    2. Log into the web admin interface of any of the servers in the HA pool and verify the new server appears in the Servers view, and that it reports its status as available: http(s)://hostname/LotusTraveler.nsf.
  4. Update the Load Balancer, IP Sprayer or Proxy server being used for the HA Pool to route traffic to the new server.
  5. Verify the new server is receiving and handling traffic. A simple way to do this is to login to the web admin interface and review the information in the Servers view. A fully functional server will show a similar availability index as the other servers in the pool and also contain a reasonable number of active users.
  6. Update the Load Balancer, IP Sprayer or Proxy server being used for the HA Pool so that it does not route traffic to the old server.
  7. Shut down Domino® on the old HCL Traveler server.
  8. Shut down the system completely if desired.
  9. Verify the old server shows as unavailable in the Servers view of the web admin interface.
    Note: The old server will no longer show in the servers view after 24 hours of inactivity.

Moving a stand alone system using an Enterprise DB

Whenever possible, it is recommended, when moving to an HA Pool or single server, to use Enterprise DB to assist the process. This results in the least amount of down time, but requires additional equipment setup for the administrator. To do so, perform the following procedure:
  1. Setup Enterprise DB by following the instructions in Deploying and configuring the enterprise database.
  2. Configure the existing HCL Traveler server to use the Enterprise DB. The server must be at 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 1 or later to perform this step. See Configuring HCL Traveler for enterprise database for more information.
  3. Note that there may be up to a ninety minute outage during the local to Enterprise DB migration.
  4. Verify the old server is running without issues using the Enterprise DB.
  5. Install the new operating system, Domino®, and the HCL Traveler application on the new server using similar configuration and settings as the existing HCL Traveler server, including SSL settings, SSL certificates, Domain certificates and any security settings.
  6. Configure the new HCL Traveler server to use the same Enterprise DB as the existing server. See Configuring HCL Traveler for enterprise database for more information.
  7. Verify that the new server is running:
    1. Log into the servlet on the server and verify the appropriate user status messages: http(s)://hostname/traveler.
    2. Log into the web admin interface of any of the servers in the HA pool and verify the new server shows up in the Servers view, and reports its status as available: http(s)://hostname/LotusTraveler.nsf.
  8. Configure a Proxy, IP Sprayer, Firewall, or Load Balancer to redirect traffic for the old server to the new server.
  9. Verify any existing users continue to function without interruption.
  10. Shut down Domino® on the old server, and power off the system if desired.
    Note: At this point you have a standalone setup with an Enterprise DB. Moving to an HA environment will require setting up additional HCL Traveler servers and a network IP Sprayer/Load Balancer. See Configuring the HCL Traveler High Availability Pool for more information.

Moving a stand alone system to a new stand alone system

This method assumes you currently have a stand alone HCL Traveler server and simply want to move it to a different stand alone server without setting up an Enterprise DB. It also assumes you will have only minor, if any, network configuration changes.
Note: There will be a degree of system outage using this method. As such, it is recommended that an outage window be planned for and announced to the user base.
  1. Install the new operating system, Domino®, and the HCL Traveler application on the new HCL Traveler server with a similar configuration as the existing HCL Traveler server, including SSL settings, SSL certificates, Domain certificates and any security settings.
  2. Verify the new HCL Traveler server is functional. In this case, use on test user to sync against the new server and verify it works as expected.
  3. Shut down both HCL Traveler servers.
  4. Copy the following items from the old HCL Traveler server to the new one:
    1. The entire directory of <data>/traveler/ntsdb.
    2. The file: <data>/LotusTraveler.nsf.
  5. In the notes.ini on the new server, set the following parameter: 
    NTS_TEMPLATE_INSTALL=1
  6. Start the new Domino® server. The HCL Traveler server may perform database migration depending on the version of the old server. Wait until you see the message Traveler Started... before continuing. If moving from an older version of Traveler, the data migration process can take up to 120 minutes to complete. If moving to the same version of Traveler, startup should only take a few minutes.
  7. Change the Proxy Server, Firewall, or other network appliance to route traffic for the old server to the new server.

    Or...

    Change the physical hostname and IP address of the new server to be the value of the old server. If you choose this option, you should also change the hostname, IP Address and External URL parameters in the Domino® server document and any Internet Site documents to match the physical server changes. A Domino® server restart is recommended after making these changes.

  8. Verify any existing users continue to functional normally.
  9. Power off and decommission the old server if desired.