Migrating from a Personal Vault to an Altium Vault Server
Contents
- Pre-Migration Preparation
- Migrating the Data
- Post-Migration Vault Access
- Troubleshooting
- Not Running Migration Tool as Admin
- Target Vault Not Empty
- Incorrect Source Vault Path
- Incorrect Source Database File Path
- Incorrect Source File Repository Path
- Incorrect Target Vault Path
- Incorrect AltiumLive Credentials
For many designers, their first experience with Altium Vaults will be through use of an Altium Personal Vault. Going back even further there are some early, trail-blazing pioneers, who would have experienced vaults at their embryonic stage, through use of a legacy Altium Satellite Vault Server (or 'Satellite Vault'). At some stage, as the testing of waters gives rise to wider adoption of the vault technology across an organization, the needs of the individual gives way to the needs of the enterprise. The additional features and functionality provided by an Altium Vault Server naturally make it the vault of choice at this company-level.
And while it has been possible to migrate data from a legacy Satellite Vault to an Altium Vault Server or Altium Personal Vault – using Altium's Vault Migration Tool – there has been no migratory path available for users of a Personal Vault to switch over to an Altium Vault Server. With some Personal Vaults holding considerable amounts of data, the last thing a designer needs is to have to release all that data again, duplicating their efforts and distracting them from the design task at-hand!
In answer to this, the Vault Migration Tool, in conjunction with the latest Altium Personal Vault and Altium Vault Server, has been enhanced to cater for migration of data from your Altium Personal Vault to your Altium Vault Server.
In this article, we take a look at the process involved in migrating data from an Altium Personal Vault into an Altium Vault Server.
Pre-Migration Preparation
Before migration can proceed, there are some prerequisite steps that need to be performed – 'pre-migratory' checks, as it were.
- To access the Vault Migration Tool, you need to first download and run a small executable –
VaultMigrationTool.exe
. This executable can be obtained by downloading a zip file, available from the Legacy Downloads for Vault Technologies page, and can be saved anywhere on your hard disk. Extract the downloaded zip file, which contains this executable, along with the filesVaultMigrationTool.exe.manifest
(which ensures the utility is run as administrator) andVaultMigrationTool.sql
(providing the smarts of the migration between source and target vault databases). - You also need to have the target Altium Vault Server installed on the required computer. The installation must be a fresh install, so that the vault contains no data. You can however define users and groups ahead of migration should you wish.
- If the target Altium Vault Server is not installed and running on the same computer as the Altium Personal Vault, you will need to copy the database and revision files folders of your Altium Personal Vault to that target computer.
Migrating the Data
Right-click on the VaultMigrationTool.exe
file and elect to Run as administrator. The Vault Migration Tool dialog will appear.
The tool can be used for four different purposes, as reflected by the options available at the top of the dialog:
- Satellite vault -> Altium Vault Server
- Satellite vault -> Personal Vault Server
- Personal Vault Server -> Altium Vault Server
- Update supply chain information in Altium Vault Server 1.1
Ensure that the third of these is enabled. The first two options are only of concern when migrating data from a legacy Satellite Vault. The fourth option is only for users who have been working with Altium Vault Server version 1.0 previously. It is run to ensure that the supply chain information – defined in Part Choice List Items – is updated to move from using the Global Part Catalog, to the Local Part Catalog associated to version 1.1 of the Altium Vault Server.
With the option to migrate enabled, use the various fields in the dialog to specify information required by the migration process. This information primarily relates to installation paths for the source and target vaults, and where the data for the Personal Vault can be found. Fields are initially populated with information based on default Vault installations.
- Source Vault Path – this field is optional. If the source Personal Vault and target Altium Vault Server are installed on the same computer, then enter here the path to the Personal Vault executable folder. For a default Personal Vault installation, this will be
\Program Files (x86)\Altium\Personal Vault\Vault
. If you have copied the database and revision files folders for the Personal Vault from another computer, ensure this field is blank. - Source Database File – enter here the path to the Personal Vault database file. For a default Personal Vault installation on the same computer as the target Altium Vault Server, this will be
\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Roaming\Altium\PersonalVaultData\DXPServer.dat
. If you have copied the database folder between computers, this will be in the location to which you stored that folder. - Source File Repository Path – enter here the path to the Personal Vault file repository. For a default Personal Vault installation on the same computer as the target Altium Vault Server, this will be
\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Roaming\Altium\PersonalVaultData\Revisions\
. If you have copied the revisions files folder between computers, this will be in the location to which you stored that folder. - Target Vault Path – enter here the path to the target Altium Vault Server executable folder. For a default Altium Vault Server installation, this will be
\Program Files (x86)\Altium\DXP Apps Server\Vault\
. - AltiumLive User – enter here the username (Email) element of your AltiumLive login credentials.
- AltiumLive Password – enter here the password element of your AltiumLive login credentials.
With all required information specified, click the Run button to proceed with the migration. As migration proceeds, messages will be displayed on the tool's progress in the lower region of the dialog. The process completes with the final message "Migration successfully finished
".
Post-Migration Vault Access
With the migration complete, you can once again connect to your Altium Vault Server. After successfully connecting through the Data Management – Vaults page of the Preferences dialog, you will notice that the Altium Vault Server has had its Name and Description changed, using the name and description from the Personal Vault, along with the suffix (migrated)
. These can of course be changed simply by editing the vault's properties.
And popping open the Vaults panel quickly verifies successful migration of the data into the target Altium Vault Server, with folder structure and Items exactly as they were in the source Personal Vault.
Troubleshooting
The following are some typical causes of the migration process (import of data into target vault) being aborted.
Not Running Migration Tool as Admin
The Vault Migration Tool is not run as administrator. This can happen if you double-click the VaultMigrationTool.exe
file, rather than right-clicking and choosing the Run as administrator command.
Target Vault Not Empty
The target Altium Vault Server is not empty. Even a single folder with no items whatsoever counts as data. The target Altium Vault Server needs to be a fresh install, with no data.
Incorrect Source Vault Path
The optional Source Vault Path is incorrect. While the path entered here is to the Personal Vault executable, it is used to find the configuration file for the Personal Vault – LocalVault.ini
– located in the \Program Files (x86)\Altium\Personal Vault
folder for a default Altium Personal Vault installation. This configuration file contains the paths to the database and file repository for the vault respectively, enabling the sub-fields to be auto-populated. If using a non-default installation, ensure this path is entered correctly. If the database and revision files folders for the Personal Vault have been brought across from another computer (i.e. Personal Vault is not installed on same computer as target Altium Vault Server), simply remove the entry in this field and use the sub-fields to manually enter the correct paths.
Incorrect Source Database File Path
The Source Database File path is incorrect and therefore the tool cannot find the Personal Vault database file, DXPServer.dat
.
Incorrect Source File Repository Path
The Source File Repository Path is incorrect and therefore the tool cannot find the Satellite Vault file storage directory, \Revisions
.
Incorrect Target Vault Path
The Target Vault Path is incorrect. While the path entered here is to the Altium Vault Server executable, it is used to find the configuration file for that vault – LocalVault.ini
– located in the \Program Files (x86)\Altium\DXP Apps Server
folder for a default Altium Vault Server installation. This file, among other things, contains the locations of the target vault's database and revision files folder.
Incorrect AltiumLive Credentials
Either the Username (Email), Password, or both, have been incorrectly entered. The AltiumLive Identity Service (IDS) does not recognize the invalid Username/Password combination and therefore cannot authenticate valid access to retrieve supply chain data from the Global Part Catalog.