Re: [p4] Help how to moving P4 server to a new server with no Downtime

Posted on behalf of forum user 'Matt Janulewicz'.

As Sam alludes to, it's best to start out with everything at the same
version of p4, which should be the latest version you're licensed to run.

If your db and/or archives are significantly large, 'no downtime' would
be subjective, relative to the time it takes to rsync and update all that stuff
at the new server.

To truly get more or less zero downtime, you would make a read-only replica of
your original server, put the proxy in front of it, then fully seed it so that
it's in lockstep with the original server. Then on cutover day shut down the
original, restart the new server as a non-read-only replica, and point clients
(or DNS) to the new one. We do this kind of thing every few months, it seems,
when we encounter flakey hardware or otherwise want to upgrade a server. It
helps that we already have a commit->edge architecture as this is all
somewhat advanced admin-y stuff, but in the end you get literally 10 seconds of
downtime while you take down one server and restart the other.

PS Do not forget to get a duplicate license for the new server before you
start! It's a bummer when you forget then suddenly your new server
won't start and you have to scramble with Perforce licensing to get one
issued. They're fast but when you're expecting a 10 second blip and then
everything breaks for 10 minutes, you look like a dope.  :)



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