Restore backup to different ArcGIS Enterprise?

[WilliamShoop]

So we have our ArcGIS Enterprise test environment at 10.7.1 and we would like to keep that environment just to test/QA. However we have plenty of integrations that need testing that we want to keep in a separate environment in case it slows down our QA process. My question is if we build a integration environment to mimic test and install the same version 10.7.1 to the servers, can we backup test with webgisdr and restore it to the integration environment? The main issue is that the URLs won't be the same for example https://testportal.domain.com/arcgis vs https://intportal.domain.com/arcgis and the ArcGIS Server URLs will also be different. 

Thanks in advance!

Bill

[TrevorNickolai]

Hey Bill,

Thank you for reaching out with this question on migration/duplication.  What you are after is a possibility with webgisdr and building an environment to mimic your other test/QA environment.  The key thing to keep in mind is there are a few requirements to complete this type of workflow.  The three key pieces with 10.7.1 Enterprise is keeping the PortalURL (typically Web Adaptor for Portal) federated service URL (services URL for ArcGIS Server, typically Web Adaptor for ArcGIS Server) and Database connections to your Enterprise Geodatabases (but this one won't stop you from completing the webgisre, it will just stop services from running successfully until the connections are fixed).

With the PortalURL and the federated services URL being the same, this is when we would want to utilize a host file manipulation to "trick" the new environment to believe it can resolve locally to a URL.

Example:
test/QA environment is - PortalURL: https://bills.test.com/portal
                                        FederatedServicesURL: https://bills.test.com/server.  

New environment -  actual fully qualified domain name is newtest.test.com.  We would access the host file (default path C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\host)  input the "newtest" systems IP address and assign it "bills.test.com"  such as: 10.0.1.1 bills.test.com.

Once we do this, our system will allow us to setup an Enterprise to mimic your test/QA environment.  Key thing to keep in mind is this doesn't make the new system accessible via network as the host entry isn't a DNS entry.  You could add a local host entry on your desktop (same as shown earlier) and your local desktop will start to see "bills.test.com" as the newtest machine and not test/QA.

This blog entry could provide you some more in depth details on this workflow: Migrate to a new machine in ArcGIS Enterprise using the WebGIS DR tool 

I hope this information I provide is helpful.