How To: Restore the Velocity Database to a Different Computer

Owned by Anand Rajaraman
Last updated: Jun 26, 2024 by Del Gonzalez
9 min read

If you are restoring a backup of the Velocity database to the same computer (a Velocity Server, Data Server, or Standalone Workstation) where the backup was made, follow the instructions in Moving a Velocity 3.8 Database.

Suppose you are restoring a backed-up Velocity database to a different computer other than the one where it initially backed up; you must perform the additional procedures mentioned after restoring the Velocity database to the new computer. The other tasks are:

Licensing Velocity during the restoration of the Velocity Database

Contact the Identiv Sales department for licensing the Velocity system.

The Velocity license mechanism uses attributes of your computer to form a unique System ID used to license your system, which is used to validate the Velocity license.

Before Velocity v3.8.6, restoring your database on a new machine would invalidate the existing Velocity licenses because the new machine's System ID would no longer match the license stored in the restored Velocity database.

Starting with Velocity v3.8.5, the licensing mechanism provides a grace period of up to 30 days once you have restored the Velocity database on the new hardware. The grace period follows the Demo License of the newly installed Velocity software on the new machine. Therefore you may continue to use the new instance of Velocity (with the restored database) while you obtain a new licenses (for the new hardware) from Identiv.

During Demo License period you will see the Velocity Demo License expiration reminder (as shown below) each time an operator logs in until you have obtained a new Velocity Licenses for the new hardware.

The following rules of the temporary license apply while migrating Velocity Application from one system to another;

  • If the migrated system does not have a valid Velocity license (i.e… license for the new hardware), the 30 day demo license is used

  • An expired Velocity license notification message is displayed when the original Velocity license has bot been replaced with a new license within the 30 day demo period

  • If the installation is less than 30 days, a pop-up message reminder asks the user to purchase the Velocity Licensed version

  • Velocity licenses found in the database that do NOT match the Server ID of that machine will be removed

  • All other license types (i.e… Velocity integrations) are not applied or extended

Editing the Table Data on the restored Velocity Database

After restoring the Velocity database to the new system, perform the following procedure to edit the data in the SQL tables.

  1. On Windows 10 Pro, to locate the computer name of your system:

    1. Open Control Panel, click System and Security > System

    2. On the View basic information, see the Full computer name under the Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings section. Visit Windows Support to check the computer name for other types of Windows versions.

  2. From the Windows desktop, select Start > Microsoft SQL Server Tools 18 > Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18
    The Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio opens.

  3. Log in to SQL Server using your credentials

  4. Expand the Databases folder to display the Velocity database in the Object Explorer navigation pane

  5. Expand the Velocity database to display the Tables branch

  6. Make the changes specified in the following table by right-clicking each database table and selecting Edit Top 200 Rows from the pop-up menu. After each change, click outside the edited row for the changes to take effect.
    Note: Be extra careful while editing the tables because accidentally editing the tables can corrupt the database.

    The table describes the modification of the SQL table properties and their value after a Database restoration. A set of table properties such as Server_Name, Remote Computer Name, Application path, Remote Server IP, and its value are replaced by the destination system name or target system name, for example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

In this table:

Select this column:

Enter this data:

In this table:

Select this column:

Enter this data:

MiscProperties

AuthenticationPath

  • If using local Windows accounts, the name of the local computer. For example, after restoring the database to a new system, the local computer name would be VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

  • If using domain accounts, the Windows Domain name

VelocityServicesGroupPath

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

UseDomainAuthentication

  • 0=Use Local accounts

  • 1=Use Domain accounts

Organizational Unit (OU)

(This column exists only if you selected an Organization Unit during the Velocity installation.)
LDAP://OU=Organizational Name,DC=Domain Name,DC=Top-Level Domain Name

For example: LDAP://OU=ENGINEERING,DC=SECURITY,DC=com

Operators

Name

If you are not logging in as Administrator for OperatorID=2, use your Windows user name. (If you are using the Administrator account, skip this step.)

DirectorySource

  • If using local Windows accounts, update all rows to the local computer’s name. For example, the local computer name can be \\VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM after restoring the database to a new system.

  • If using domain accounts, update all rows to the Windows Domain name. For example, \\SQL_Instance_name.

Servers

Server_Name

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, after restoring the database to a new server, the server name can be VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

ServerExtensions

RemoteComputerName

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

Registry

AppPath

  • Destination of the application path. For example: C:\Program Files(x86)\Identiv\Velocity.

  • If this is a 64-bit version of Windows, the path is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Identiv\Velocity.

ComputerName

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

RemoteIP

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM

RemoteServerIP

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

SDServer

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

ServerName

New SQL Server Instance name. For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM\SQL_Instance_name.

Workstations

WorkstationName

Name of the new Velocity Server for WorkstationID=1 (all UPPERCASE). For example, the workstation name is VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM.

ScheduledServiceTasks

ComputerName

Name of the new Velocity Server (all UPPERCASE). For example, VEL1-LOCAL-SYSTEM (only if scheduled service has been created).

After each change, click outside the edited row for the changes to take effect.

7. Restart all Velocity Services and launch the Velocity Application

8. Click Velocity's menu button, then select Extensions > Server Extensions

9. The Velocity Server Extensions Manager appears

10. Click to highlight an existing Server Extension. The Uninstall button is activated.

11. Click Uninstall. The selected Server Extension is removed from the system.

12. Reinstall the Server Extensions that are used

To install a server extension:

  1. Click Velocity's menu button, then select Extensions > Server Extensions

  2. The Velocity Server Extensions Manager appears

  3. Click Install
    The Find Server Extension dialog appears.

  4. Search for C:\Program Files (x86)\Identiv\Velocity root directory. Several HEX files are located here, as shown.

  5. Select the extension you want to install and click Open
    The newly installed extension appears in the Server Extension list in the Velocity Server Extensions Manager. By default, the extension is enabled (checked) and the word 'True' appears in the first column.

  6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 to install more extensions

  7. When you are finished a message appears, prompting you to restart the Extension Service before the extension takes effect

  8. Click OK

  9. For the Service Extension to take effect, right-click on the Velocity Service Control Manager (SCM) to stop and restart the Extension Service

  10. Start the Velocity DIGI*TRAC Network Service

Moving Velocity Archive Files

In a larger facility with the events and alarms table in the Velocity database can become quite large. It becomes critical for the older alarms and events to be archived.

The Velocity archive file contains a snapshot of the alarms and events recorded for a specified Velocity system. This file is created every time the Scheduling Agent runs the Archive Alarm/Event Logs schedule.

To maintain the history of your Velocity system, you should copy the VelocityArchivexxx.mdf and VelocityArchivexxx_log.ldf files (where xxx is the time and date when the file was created) in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL15.IDENTIV\MSSQL\DATA folder from your old source system to the new target system.

Restoring SNIB2 and SNIB3 Encryption Files

  1. On the old system, locate the ...\ProgramData\Identiv\Velocity directory and find the velocitytmpxxxxx.dat files, where XXXX is the number of each encryption file.
    There should be one data file for each SNIB2/SNIB3 installed in the system.

  2. Copy all relevant .dat files to a USB drive, removable media, or network-accessible location.

  3. Paste the relevant .dat files into the ...\ProgramData\Identiv\Velocity directory on your new computer.

    These files will overwrite the existing files, and provide Velocity with the encryption information it needs to communicate with the connected SNIB2s/SNIB3s.

  4. Open Velocity and resume communication between this Velocity server and the SNIB2/SNIB3 installed controller using the specified encryption.

Importing the VelocityTLS certificate from one server to another

Deleting the VelocityTLS certificate added by the Velocity installer

To delete the VelocityTLS certificate:

  1. Open certmgr.msc, go to certificates > Current User > Personal > Certificates

  2. In the Certificate Properties dialog box, go to the Details tab and look for the field called "Issuer" or "Issued by". This will tell you where the certificate came from. Note down this information.

  3. If you want to remove the certificate permanently, select the certificate (VelocityTLS) and press the Delete key, or right-click on the certificate and select Delete.

Importing the VelocityTLS certificate from the Velocity database to the Windows Certificate Store

To import the VelocityTLS certificate from the Velocity database:

  1. Open a command prompt with Administrator privileges (i.e… Run as administrator)

  2. Change the Directory to Velocity installation directory (i.e… cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Identiv\Velocity)

  3. Run the GenerateVelocityTLSCertificate.exe with -import switch (i.e... C:\Program Files (x86)\Identiv\Velocity > GenerateVelocityTLSCertificate -import)

  4. Verify Velocity TLS certificate was imported to Current User > Personal > Certificates

Sometimes after importing the Velocity TLS certificate, permission for VelocityServices is not set correctly even though VelocityServices displays as having permission. When this occurs, you can fix this problem by deleting and re-granting permission to VelocityServices.

  1. Open certmgr with Administrator permissions and go to Current User > Personal > Certificates

  2. Right-click VelocityTLS certificate > All Tasks > Manage Private Keys...

  3. Select the user VelocityServices and click the Remove button

  4. Click OK

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