Can Join Site be used to create a separate, duplicate GIS Server?

[JaniceBaird]

I am in the process of testing an upgrade from ArcGIS for Server 10.4.1 to 10.7.1. I am creating a duplicate server to use for testing so that I do not interfere with our production server. I have  been able to script a great deal of stuff but am curious if I could be using "Join Site" to more easily create a test server.

If I were to follow the directions for joining a second server to my site, could I then separate the two servers and end up with two duplicate servers? What would this process look like and would it cause any issues with my production site?

Has anyone been successful with this approach?

Thanks,

Janice.

[JaniceBaird]

I have read an earlier post in which this appears:

If you need to move services from one machine to another, you can go through the following:

1)  Move the config-store and directories to a shared location using the Admin API

2)  Install Server on the new machine

3)  Join the new Server to the existing site

4)  Remove the old machine from the site.

5) Set the config-store and directories back to a local drive on the machine or wherever they were initially.

What I am curious about is would both server machines work after these steps if the config-store and directories were copied back to local drives on each machine?

[JonathanQuinn · Accepted solution]

The site knows about a single config-store, which, in a multi-machine site, is located in a shared location. the joinSite workflow adds a machine to the site to use the same config-store in the shared location. Removing the machine will reset the site. If the config-store and directories are local in the original environment, you can try to run a backup and then restore the backup to your new server. If the config-store and directories were on a share, then the new site would try to use the shared config-store and directories, which would be a problem.

[JaniceBaird]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your input. I was just hoping for an "Easy" way to duplicate my server into my test environment. I have read in other posts that using backup/restore to a different server was also problematic.

I will continue my quest and post here if I have any break-throughs!

Thanks again,

Janice.