Merging multiple single-server farms into a single multi-server farm

Considerations

• You can maintain only one Symphony Server database. The other Symphony Server databases are not used after this procedure.
• You cannot merge maps from the farms together. You must recreate the maps on the new multi-server farm.
• You cannot merge users and permissions from the farms together. You must recreate the users and permissions on the new multi-server farm.
• You cannot merge rules from the farms together. You must recreate the rules on the new multi-server farm.

Preparation

• Export all of the cameras from the Symphony Server databases that you plan to remove.
• Enable remote connections on the Microsoft SQL Server that hosts the Symphony Server database that you plan to keep.
• If you use NAS/SAN/UNC paths, create the proper users/permissions/access on all the Symphony Servers in the farm. You might need to run the Symphony AI services run as a specific user (Server Configuration > Settings > Servers > Select a server > Services -> Manage services -> This account). You also need to enable logon as a service for the user  (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/scsm/enable-service-log-on-sm?view=sc-sm-2019), even if they are an administrator user.
• Contact Senstar Support so all of the licenses from the other Symphony Servers can be moved to the main Symphony Server.

Create the new multi-server farm

• Run the setup wizard on all of the Symphony Servers that you want to add to the multi-server farm.
• Copy the database sections settings from the first server in the farm
• Apply the changes to all those servers one at a time waiting until the previous server has finished

Licensing the multi-server farm

• If the Symphony Server is online, licensing should be done for you during the multi-server-farm creation process.
• If the Symphony Server is offline, you need to set one Symphony Server setup wizard to offline and download the license registration file. Then update the server's profile on the Xnet. Next download a new license file from the Xnet. Then add the license file to the Symphony Server setup wizard for the Symphony Server to which you are adding the others servers. Apply the changes.

Cameras

• Open the Symphony Server configuration interface on the new Symphony Server and note each server's ID.
• Open the camera export CSV files(s) and edit the serverID column to the server ID of the Symphony Server in the new multi-server-farm to which you want to add the cameras.
• You can also set the storage paths for cameras in the CSV now. Then, as you add them, the cameras store data to the new location.
• Import the edited camera CSV files(s) into the new server farm one file at a time.
• The cameras will be assigned new camera IDs as they are imported into the multi-sever farm.

Footage

• If you need to move footage from an old farm to the new farm do so at this point.
• The footage, signals, signals2 files will all need to be renamed from the old cameras IDs to use the new camera IDs.
• Use a renaming utility like PowerRename which is part of Microsoft’s PowerToys is recommended (https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys).