Multiple repositories running off one license server

Bobthebrain · January 2018

I've got a client right now that has a production Grooper repo, and it is actively in use on production work. They are wanting to know if it would be possible to create a second repository for Test/Dev, but still point it to the production license. The main concern here is testing and rolling out Grooper updates without causing issues with production work.

GrooperGuru · January 2018

The short answer is that pointing multiple repositories to a single license server is an unsupported configuration, and should not function properly. If you really need a second, totally isolated system, that system needs a separate license and license service configured.

With that said, I would challenge the conventional line of thinking that says you have to have a prod system and a test/dev system. We've made a series of architectural decisions from day one that make this unnecessary in the vast majority of situations. Let's first discuss the two types of upgrade scenarios... Major Versions and Minor Versions.

With a minor version release (meaning, for example, an upgrade from 2.60.0078 to 2.60.0080) there are no changes being made to any data in the Grooper file store or the database. The changes are purely in the application itself. So while it is possible it could behave differently than it did previously, it can't immediately cause data corruption.

With a Major version release (meaning, for example, 2.60.0078 to 2.70.0001) there will be changes to the database and or various objects in the repository. It is always recommended to do a complete database and filestore backup and/or VM snapshots prior to performing a major upgrade. In the event of catastrophic failure, you would just roll back.

To test a minor release of Grooper without a secondary license, you would start by selecting and upgrading a single workstation. It is important that this be a machine which does not run any Grooper services.

Uninstall the previous version from add/remove programs, then install the new version.
In admin, clone any batch process you'd like to test. This isn't a requirement, but will keep production statistics from being skewed by the tests.
Temporarily disable all services throughout the environment except licensing. This will prevent any batches you create from being immediately picked up and processed by other machines.
Create a new batch, and manually process it through each automated step. This gives you the opportunity to test all of the front-end user activities and the automated activities. Because the upgraded machine is effectively completing every task, this proves the changes in software have not negatively impacted results.
Once testing is completed and you are ready to upgrade the remainder of the environment, get all users out of Grooper and shutdown all global grooper services including licensing. On the already upgraded machine, launch Grooper Admin. Go to Infrastructure -> Machines. From here you can select any machine in the environment and choose to update system files. This will push all of the Grooper system files from this machine to the destination machine. A log will appear indicating which files were updated. If everything is successful, you should see quite a few files in this list.

Multiple repositories running off one license server

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