Migrating an LPR database from Security Center 5.6 GA or earlier - Security Center 5.8 GA

Security Center Installation and Upgrade Guide 5.8 GA
Applies to
Security Center 5.8 GA
Last updated
2019-09-27
Content type
Guides
Guides > Installation guides
Language
English
Product
Security Center
Version
5.8

If you are upgrading from Security Center 5.6 GA or earlier to 5.8, you must migrate your existing LPR data to the new database structure.

Before you begin

Upgrade your system to Security Center 5.8 GA.
IMPORTANT: The LPR database migration is not compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and later. Before attempting the migration, ensure that you are running an earlier version of SQL Server. The following database engines are supported:
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 Express/Standard/Enterprise
  • SQL Server 2012 Express/Standard/Enterprise
  • SQL Server 2014 Express/Standard/Enterprise
After migrating to the new database structure, you can upgrade SQL Server as needed.

What you should know

  • The LPR database improvements were released in Security Center 5.6 SR1. This procedure applies to systems upgrading from Security Center 5.6 GA and earlier to Security Center 5.8 GA.
  • Starting from Security Center 5.6 SR1, license plate reads and hits are decoupled from the LPR images (license plate, context, and wheel images). As a result, the LPR Manager can store up to 6 millions reads in the SQL Server Express database, which is 25 to 30 times more reads than before. The responsiveness of the LPR reports is also improved because of database enhancements and the lazy loading of report images in Security Desk.
  • You can migrate the database while the system is in operation; however, we recommend that you perform the migration outside of peak usage hours. Depending on the size of the database, the amount of image data to migrate, and the performance of the Archiver disk, the database migration can take from several hours to several days to complete.
  • If the system includes more than one LPR Manager role, we recommend that you migrate one LPR Manager at a time. Upgrading in increments does not affect system functionality.
  • While the migration is in progress, you can edit reads that were collected after the Security Center 5.8 GA upgrade.
    CAUTION:
    Do not attempt to edit or protect old reads and hits (pre-upgrade) until the migration is complete. If you must edit or protect an old read, you can temporarily stop the migration.
  • Database cleanup and housekeeping is only done after the database has been migrated and validated.
  • You can stop and restart the migration without losing data. For example, you might need to stop the migration if you are experiencing performance issues while migrating the database on a live system and you prefer to perform the migration in stages each night.
    CAUTION:
    If you experience problems during the migration, you can restart the migration, but do not restore the database. If the system is in operation during the migration, restoring the database causes the loss of all new LPR data that was added after the migration started.

Procedure

  1. Back up the LPR database for each LPR Manager role.
    1. From the Config Tool home page, open the System task, and click the Roles view.
    2. Select an LPR Manager role, and click Resources.
    3. In the Actions section, click Database update () .
    4. In the Actions section, click Backup/Restore ().
  2. Back up the Directory database.
  3. Assign a unique logical ID to each of the LPR Managers in the system. The logical ID is used to reference the LPR Manager role for the migration process.
    CAUTION:
    After the migration starts, do not change the logical ID until the migration is complete.
    1. Open the LPR task, and select Roles and units.
    2. Select an LPR Manager.
    3. In the Identity tab, enter a Logical ID.
    1. Click Apply.
  4. Launch the database migration.
    1. Start the Security Center Server Admin () application.
    2. Enter the server password that you set during the server installation, and click Log on.
      The Server Admin Overview page is displayed.
    3. Select your server from the Servers list.
    4. From the Actions drop-down list, select </> Console.
    5. Select the Commands tab.
    6. From the commands list, expand License Plate Management commands and select Start SC 5.6 Database Migration. The Enter parameters window is displayed.
    7. Enter the logical ID of the LPR Manager role whose database you want to migrate.
    8. In the writeTrueToStartMigration field, type true and click OK.
    The system starts the migration on the selected LPR Manager role.

After you finish

To view the progress of your database migration in Server Admin, from the commands list, expand License Plate Management commands and select Database Migration Status. Enter the logical ID of the LPR Manager role whose database you are migrating, and then click OK.