Moving AYS From One Server to Another - At Your Service Repair Centre

When you change or upgrade hardware you may wish to relocate the AYS application or data to another server. Depending on your edition and setup, you can follow one of the following procedures.

In all cases, you can identify the path and name of the database in the AYS title bar inside [square brackets] when the database is open.

For Access databases, the prefix is “AYS -“ as shown

For Microsoft SQL Server databases, the prefix is “SQL -“

And for MySQL databases, the prefix is “MYS -“

You may wish to record this information for reference during the migration process.

MS-Access (.ays) databases

Your existing server is may be sharing a database from a Windows file share. This is explained in this article.

You can simply copy or move the files with an .ays extension to a new shared folder on a new server.

See “Workstation changes” below for some other steps you may need to take.

Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL databases

You can create a SQL backup file using your server maintenance tools (such as Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio or MySQL Workbench) and restore it on the new server.

Ensure that your user security is configured correctly for Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL database servers.

On one of your workstations, connect AYS to the database on the new server and ensure that the information in the title bar as explained above is correct.

See “Workstation changes” below for some other steps you may need to take.

The Process Manager is installed alongside AYS. Open the database in the new location (as described in “Workstation changes” below. If you have installed the Windows service on the old machine, stop and uninstall the service before installing and running Process Manager in the new environment. You will see these options in the “Startup” menu.

Workstation changes

If your client workstations are configured to automatically open the database, you may need to disable this option until the new databases are configured.

To disable this option, click “Cancel” when prompted to log in to AYS and uncheck File – AutoOpen Database.

You can now log in to AYS and manually configure the new database location. If you wish, re-enable the option to AutoOpen the database, and the new database will open when the user logs in.

You should archive or delete your old database once you are sure it has been migrated successfully to avoid conflicts with users working out of separate databases.