Guidance on swapping out or switching Spotfire Servers

Sometimes, there is a need to switch or swap out Spotfire Server machines. Perhaps, their operating system is outdated or has become infected or due to other reasons. The following is some basic guidance for a situation where all of the Spotfire Server machines are Windows Server 2012 and they need to get replaced with Windows Server 2022 machines. The Spotfire Server database server remains the same.

• The following article is referenced here due to its relevance for creating new bootstrap file in Spotfire Server node: Creating the bootstrap.xml file (tibco.com)
• The Spotfire Server Config Tool is a .bat file that you launch on your Spotfire Server to manage Spotfire Server's bootstrap file. If you don't know the bootstrap file password, then you will need to create a new bootstrap file per this article: How to create a new bootstrap file for TIBCO Spotfire Server (if you e.g. do not remember the existing bootstrap password)
• From your Spotfire Server Config Tool, export your configuration to a configuration.xml file and archive it for future reference.
• Be sure to review the documented System Requirements to confirm that your version of Spotfire supports your database and that Windows Server 2022 is supported. System requirements: Spotfire Server System requirements
• The following is another useful article. Effectively, you will be replicating your Spotfire Server system, so, just disregard the step about copying the database to another location. How to Replicate a Spotfire environment
• When you are ready to make the server switch, you will need to alert your users that the system will be unavailable during this process.
• Turn off Spotfire Server Windows services on your old servers, so that the content of your Spotfire database is static. Then change the status of all of these services to Manual or Disabled so that server reboots do not result in them running again. You want a clean break; you don't want these servers to be active again.
• Go through Spotfire Server installation steps on your new Spotfire application servers. This article describes the process: Basic installation process for Spotfire (tibco.com)
• If Spotfire environment downtime is not acceptable, it's possible to avoid it, but the process is a bit more complex. It's still best to perform these changes when the environment has as little of a workload and user sessions as possible. While Spotfire environment with multiple servers can handle individual server outages, this always results in some of the end users having to reconnect and, possibly, loosing unsaved changes in any open analysis files.
• Please make sure not to upgrade Spotfire software during this server switch. Spotfire Server version on new servers needs to match exactly the version on old servers.
• If you have configured Spotfire Servers with HTTPS, then you will need to copy certificate files to the new servers. More info on HTTPS configuration can be found in this article: Configuring HTTPS (tibco.com)
• If your Spotfire environment is load balanced using a 3rd party load balancer such as F5 or AWS, then load balancer configuration will need to be updated to include new machines and exclude old machines.

Note that the Revvity Signals' Professional Services team is very experienced at installations and upgrades and may be available to either own or assist this process. If time is limited or Spotfire administration expertise is limited or risk tolerance is low, then this option should be considered.