Move your QlikTech ProgramData folder

There are a number of reasons why you would want to move the C:\ProgramData\QlikTech folder to somewhere else.  For example:

-  Disk size issues 

The C: drive too small and the QlikView performance logs, reload logs, etc. are filling it up.

-  Failover

You have a "cold" standby server and it would be much better to have the ProgramData\QlikTech folder on the SAN drive so that when the cold server boots up, it will already have all the settings, schedules, etc. from the old server.

There are ways of moving the ProgramData folder - the supported one from Microsoft (with caveats!) is to do it during the installation of Windows - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949977

This isn't really going to be an option for you if the server is already built by the nice friendly folks in the IS department.  They might also object to you trying to move the whole ProgramData folder anywhere else, just for QlikView.

I have run into this situation a couple of times now and there is a really neat solution - move the QlikTech folder to its new home and then create a symbolic link in the old ProgramData folder.  Everything will still work perfectly!

To do this:

1.  Stop all of the QlikView services.

2.  Move the QlikTech folder from C:\ProgramData to its new location, for example E:\ProgramData.

3.  Run a Command Prompt in Admin mode.  CD to the C:\ProgramData folder and run the following command:

     MKLINK /D QlikTech E:\ProgramData\QlikTech

4.  Restart all of the QlikView services.

All done.  Do the same on the "Cold" server (you will need to bring down the "hot" server first) and create the same symbolic link to the same SAN location and it will work as if it was the "hot" server and no need to ship settings files.

Hopefully you will find this useful.

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Stephen Redmond is CTO of CapricornVentis a QlikView Elite Partner