Moving an SVN repository/server

[PA-Paul]

Hi All,

We set up an SVN repository on our server a while back and have been using it fine. We use SVNserve on the server so that to access the repository we use svn:\\SERVER\repository\blah. My problem is that we have just installed a new server and want to move the repository onto that.

My initial plan had been to get all users (actually there are only 2 of us) to fully commit all changes, then use hotcopy to move the repository to the new server and setup svnserve on that. The problem is that I've been away and we can no longer access the old server (due to network issues). So I can no longer get to the repository to commit the changes which currently exist "in the wild".

My new plan then was to move the repository anyway (using hotcopy), and then somehow update the local clients to look to the new repository location when updating and committing. But I can't see how to update where the repository is on the local machines. So any attempt to "update" simply fails as is says the repository is no longer there.

Anyone know how best to deal with this?

Cheers

Paul

[Wim]

Hi,

right click on the folder where you have your code checked out en select relocate in the subversion menu.

That should do the trick.

Good luck,

Wim

Edited September 24, 2009 by Wim

[PA-Paul]

Thanks for the info, will give that a try. However, I discovered why we could no longer access the original repository from the client machines - someone had switched the old server off!! Having turned it back on I can now go back to my original plan!

Thanks again!

Paul

[Wim]

When something doesn't work and it has a power button or cord, ... always check them

good luck moving your repository

[PA-Paul]

So, finally that was all relatively painless. Have moved away from using svnserve to "visualsvnserver" that I just stumbled across on the web. This gives us https access to the repositories off site and was remarkably easy to set up.

My next question - backup. I've installed the respository on a windows small business server 2008 system which does a full back-up every night. But everywhere I've looked about backing up svn repositories it says to use "hotcopy" to make backups. Can I rely on the windows server back up to be able to rebuild my repository in case of a big problem? Or should I set up some kind of automatic "hotcopy" backup as well?

Any suggestions welcome!

Paul

[Tom Limerkens]

Paul,

I would not only rely solely on the Backup capabilities of the Backup of your server.

We have a similar setup like you have, and our backup strategy of the SVN is as follows :

1. Every project has its own repository in the Visual SVN server

2. Every night, an automatic script runs the hotcopy command on every single repository, and sequentially zips the hotcopy

3. The zipped hotcopy is stored on the backup tape

This way we have a stable backup of the repository, and can restore it to any SVN server without a problem.

We are now looking for an additional offsite backup with SyncSVN, but did not find a reliable solution yet.

General tip : Backup is there to recover from disaster and HW Failure, count it in in your procedures, and test your procedures,

and validate it at regular intervals, HW tends to become obsolete (Tapes, drives, ...)

Kind Regards,

Tom

ESI-CIT Group