HOWTO: Move a VSS Database or Project to New Location

ID: Q176909

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 32-bit, for Windows versions 5.0, 6.0
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.0a

SUMMARY

This article describes three common scenarios for moving Visual SourceSafe projects or databases to a new location. The steps necessary to successfully accomplish this are detailed in the MORE INFORMATION section below.

Scenario 1

Moving the entire Visual SourceSafe server installation from one machine to another.

Scenario 2

Moving a project or projects from one database to another, while preserving the project's history.

Scenario 3

Moving only the DATA directory to a machine other than the Visual SourceSafe server. This scenario eliminates the need to modify clients accessing the database.

IMPORTANT: Whichever method you use, make sure to do a full backup of your data first.

MORE INFORMATION

The procedures within each scenario may vary depending on the version of Visual SourceSafe you are running.

Scenario 1

Moving the entire VSS server installation from one machine to another.

Copy the entire <server>\VSS installation directory to the new server location.

Make sure that the Visual SourceSafe clients can still access the data from the new location.

Step 3 varies according to what version of Visual SourceSafe you are using:

For Visual SourceSafe 4.x clients:
1. Locate the local copy of the Srcsafe.ini file (for example, <local drive>\vssclient\Srcsafe.ini) and open it in a text editor.
2. Edit the line containing the #include statement so that it points to the new location of the server's Srcsafe.ini. For example:
  
  Change:
  #include \\oldserver\oldshare\vss\srcsafe.ini
  To:
  #include \\newserver\newshare\vss\srcsafe.ini
For Visual SourceSafe 5.x or later clients:
1. Open the Visual SourceSafe Explorer. Click OK if you get the following error:
  
  File '\\oldserver\oldshare\srcsafe.ini' not found.
2. From the Visual SourceSafe Login dialog box, click Browse.
3. Click Browse from the Open SourceSafe Database dialog box.
4. Type in the UNC path to the new location of the Visual SourceSafe server directory and open the srcsafe.ini. This will add a new entry in the Available Databases list for the newly located database.
5. The old database reference can now be removed from this dialog box.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to add the correct operating system level privileges to the new server directory.

For additional information about required network privileges, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q131022 INFO: Required Network Rights for the SourceSafe Directories

NOTE: If you have any shortcuts to this database, be sure to modify the shortcut Target on the client that pointed to ssadmin.exe on the old server.

Scenario 2

Moving a project or projects from one database to another, while preserving the project's history.

NOTE: This process is for Visual SourceSafe 5.0 or greater only.

Use the SSARC and SSRESTOR utilities included in Visual SourceSafe 5.0. With these utilities, you can archive projects, preserve their histories, and restore them to a new database.

NOTE: You must have SourceSafe Admin privileges to use these utilities. For more information on the use of SSARC and SSRESTORE, see the Visual SourceSafe, version 5.0, "Visual SourceSafe User's Guide," Appendix B, pages 216-220 or under the SSAdmin Online Help topic "Basic Administrator Operations".

NOTE: In order to restore a project successfully your archive must include the latest versions all the files in the project. If you use the -v switch with SSARC to archive off earlier versions of your files, you will not be able to restore that archive to a different database because it needs the later versions.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q173387 PRB: Restoring an Archive of an Entire Database

NOTE: Because the physical file names get renamed when you restore a project to a new database, it may be necessary to reconnect projects that are integrated with Visual SourceSafe. Please refer to the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for additional information:

Q166305 HOWTO: Reconnecting a Visual C++ Project to Source Control

Scenario 3

Moving only the DATA directory to a machine other than the Visual SourceSafe server:

Copy only the <VSS server>\DATA directory to its new location.

Edit the <VSS server>\srcsafe.ini file's data_path variable. For example:

Change:
data_path = data
To:
data_path = \\<new server path>\data

Clients accessing this database do not need to be modified since the server's Srcsafe.ini has not moved.

Additional Tips

Remove permissions for all users at the operating system level for the old Visual SourceSafe installation to prevent them from checking their work in and out of the wrong database.

Once you are confident that the process is complete, delete the old Visual SourceSafe installation.

If there are shadow folders, journal files, or web deploy locations set up in the old installation, you need to make sure that all the paths correctly reference the new server location. These settings are in the srcsafe.ini file on the server copy of Visual SourceSafe.

When you start Visual SourceSafe from a client install, you might see the following errors:

Invalid DOS path: "<path>\scrsafe.ini"

Indicates an incorrect path in the #include line of the client's srcsafe.ini.

Invalid filename: "<path>\scrsafe.ini"

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q175950 HOWTO: Change the Name of a Visual SourceSafe Database

Additional query words: relocate

Keywords : kbSSafe400 kbSSafe500 kbSSafe600 kbSsafe600FAQ
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,4.0a,5.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto