How to migrate FileVista to a new server

You can easily migrate FileVista to the new computer like this:
 
  1. Install FileVista on the new server with the installer. However do NOT complete the configuration wizard (configuration.aspx) as we will override this installation in the next step.

    If you have a license key for the latest major version, download the latest version of the installer:
    https://www.gleamtech.com/filevista/try
    Note that you will need a new license key for completing the update if your existing license key is for older major versions (e.g. 6.x, 7.x). You can get a new license key here:
    https://www.gleamtech.com/upgrade

    If you have an old license key and do not want to upgrade to the latest while migrating, then you should download the installer of the major version your license key is valid for.
 
  1. There are only 2 important files that you need to copy from the old installation to the new installation:

    FileVista\App_Data\FileVista.config
    FileVista\App_Data\FileVista.vdb5

    FileVista is usually installed under C:\inetpub\wwwroot which is the default folder for IIS, so look for your FileVista files there.

    Note that if you are using  SQL server as the database then you will not need to copy FileVista.vdb5 (or FileVista.vdb4) file (if it exists at all), just use SQL Server Management Studio to copy your database to a new SQL Server if needed.

    You may also need to change connection string in FileVista.config if there is a new SQL Server (e.g. if it’s not local anymore etc.).

    Copying these files are sufficient to import all your users and settings and enable FileVista start working. 
    However the files you store/manage is a different issue, the root folders are just pointers to these paths. 
    So you should manually copy those files, see step 3.

    When you copy these files to the corresponding folders on the new server, FileVista will work as expected.
    And it will run update.aspx if required on first access (eg. if your version was 7.x and you used the installer of v8.x). Enter your new license key if asked.

    Also don’t forget to copy any custom folders under FileVista folder. For example if you have root folders under FileVista folder like a root folder under FileVista\App_Data.
 
  1. If the physical paths of the root folders are changed for example, drive letters are changed, you can change the locations directly on “Edit Root Folder” window.

    If you have the root folders under FileVista\App_Data folder then you can copy them to the same location on the new server.

    If the paths for root folders were like ~/App_Data/Some Root Folder, then they will also work on the new server as it’s a relative path and does not contain drive letter or absolute path information
 
Questions:

I need to migrate our current site to another machine.  I performed a fresh IIS install and then performed a database restore overwriting the installation database.  It appears that the encryption of the passwords are different between the two machines.  How can I configure the new installation to decrypt the passwords as the initial installation?

Just edit App_Data\FileVista.config and set the AuthenticationKey property to the same value as in your initial installation's config:
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FileVistaConfiguration>
  <DbProvider>System.Data.VistaDB</DbProvider>
  <DbConnectionString>Data Source=|DataDirectory|FileVista.vdb5;  Open Mode=NonexclusiveReadWrite</DbConnectionString>
  <DbSchemaVersion>7.3.6</DbSchemaVersion>
  <AuthenticationKey>3102FF196003A0B05F9B812376A044786E803D4F9BF5795F2819CE5253776A82</AuthenticationKey>
  <RecoveryModeEnabled>false</RecoveryModeEnabled>
</FileVistaConfiguration>