How to migrate dtSearch settings to a new computer

Article: dts0242

Applies to: dtSearch Desktop 7 and later, dtSearch Engine 7 and later

Preconditions

- Any indexes and documents on network drives must be referenced using the same names on both computers.

- Any indexes and documents on the old computer must be copied to the same locations on the new computer.

- The dtSearch data folder (Options > Change dtSearch Folder) must be identical on the two computers.

Warning

Directly modifying the Windows registry can render your system inoperable. Please fully back up the computer being modified before proceeding. Please see this Microsoft article for more information on editing and backing up the registry:

How to add, modify, or delete registry subkeys and values by using a .reg file
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/310516/how-to-add-modify-or-delete-registry-subkeys-and-values-by-using-a-reg

Steps to transfer

Copy dtSearch Data

(1) Click Options > Change dtSearch Folder to locate your dtSearch data folder

(2) Install dtSearch on the new computer and when prompted for the dtSearch data folder, enter exactly the same name that was used on the old computer.

(3) Copy all files from your dtSearch data folder to the same folder on the new computer.

(4) Open RegEdit on the old computer and export everything under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\dtSearch Corp.\dtSearch to a .reg file. On the new computer, import this file using RegEdit.

Copy Index Library (*.ilb) files

(1) On the old computer, open Index Library Manager to see the list of index libraries and the indexes in each.

(2) On the new computer, open Index Library Manager and verify that each index library is present and contains the indexes you expect.

(3) If any indexes or index libraries are missing, locate and transfer the missing index library (*.ilb) files to the new computer.

Copy Scheduled Tasks

(1) Open Windows Tasks Scheduler

(2) For each scheduled task, click "Export" to export the task to an XML file.

(3) Copy the XML files to the new computer.

(4) On the new computer, open Windows Task Scheduler and use "Import" to import the tasks.

(5) After importing the tasks, set the account and password for the task on the new computer (the password is not exported in the XML).

Where the names are stored if you need to change something

If the new dtSearch data folder cannot be the same as the old one, you will need to find and change all references to the data folder and change them to point to the new location. dtSearch uses XML files and the registry to store file locations, so you can edit these settings directly if you need to.

The files to check for paths are:

The XML files exported from the Task Scheduler.

The .dtSearchTask files in your dtSearch data folder.

The .reg file exported from your old computer.

The index library (*.ilb) files transferred from the old computer to the new computer.

How to edit the Scheduled Tasks

(1) Each scheduled task that you export will contain a reference to a .dtSearchTask file that describes the task. It will look like this in the XML data:

<Exec>

<Command>c:\dev\src\source\dtsearch\bin64\dtIndexer64.exe</Command>

<Arguments>/t "c:\<your dtSearch data folder name>\dtSearch--daily.dtSearchTask"</Arguments>

</Exec>

The path to your current dtSearch data folder will be in the <Arguments> tags. Before you import the task on the new computer, change the name of the .dtSearchTask so it points to the correct location. (After you have imported the task on the new computer, you can change the name of the .dtSearch Task file in the properties for the task.)

(2) Each .dtSearchTask file will contain a list of the index paths to be updated. If the index locations changed, open the .dtSearchTask file in a text editor and update the paths so they are correct.

How to edit the paths in the registry

On the new computer, change these paths in the registry to update the locations if needed.

(1) Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\dtSearch Corp.\dtSearch\Settings, change the DefaultIndexFolder and PrivateDir setting.

(2) Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\dtSearch Corp.\dtSearch\Indexes, change the DefaultLibrary and LibraryList settings to update the locations of your index library (*.ilb) files.

How to edit the index locations

Each index library (*.ilb) file is an XML file, so you can edit it directly in a text editor to change the index locations if needed. You can also use Index Library Manager to do this, using "Remove index" and "Add index" to update the index references.