Daminion Server Questions

Q. I am trying to upgrade to version 5.5 Server. Do I need to install it fresh or is there a way to update our current version?

A.  Upgrade path:

1. Make sure that your maintenance is newer than the Daminion version that you are trying to install.
2. Download the latest Daminion Server 5.5 installer.
3. Launch Admin Panel of your existing Daminion Server 5.0 version.
4. Backup your existing catalogs (via Administration > Catalogs. Then right click and go to the backup menu for each catalog in the list).
5. Launch Daminion Server 5.5 installed on your server.
6. Follow the screen instructions. Your 5.0 version of the server will be uninstalled automatically but all files, thumbnails, catalogs, and settings will remain and 5.5 version will be installed.

You don’t need to install separately Daminion Clients 5.5 because they will be installed automatically on each client PC after an attempt to connect to Daminion Server.

Read this article about enabling web access in the new Daminion version.

Q. Is it possible to access the Daminion server via the Internet? 

A. Yep, there are multiple ways of how to do this:

1. Via VPN connection between remote computers and your office LAN.
2. By installing Daminion Server (non-cloud) on your corporate web server or a new web server.
3. Via port forwarding on your company’s firewall.
4. Via white IP address.
5. Individual files and folders also can be shared via Dropbox Connector (named Publishing Panel in Daminion).

Q. Is it possible to easily add photos from a mobile phone?

A.  The easiest way to add photos into Daminion Server at the moment is via Dropbox:

1. Install Dropbox on your server PC and on your mobile phone.
2. Import the Dropbox folder or its sub-folder into Daminion Server.
3. Mark this folder as Auto-Rescan.

Now once you share any photo(s) via your mobile phone with Dropbox, it will be synced with your Dropbox folder on the server PC and Daminion File Watching service will pick them up.

Q. Is it possible to install PostgreSQL on a separate drive? 

A. Yep, you need to download PostgreSQL and install it separately.

Q. How to change the location of the PostgreSQL installation?

A. Refer to the forum topic under this link.

Q. My login and password doesn’t pass verification and I can’t open my shared catalog

A. Try to open this catalog from another computer. If you are able to do this, please check whether 8082 and 8084 ports are open on your client computer. If not, add these ports manually (Windows Firewall > Advanced Settings > Inbound Rules > DaminionServerRules > Protocols and Ports).

1. The remote server and the client’s system time must be within (typically) 10 minutes of each other.  If they are not, security validation will fail.

Q. What is the best way to backup my Daminion Server?

A.  Here is the instruction on how to backup your Daminion Server database.

It’s recommended to add the “dump_postgresql.bat” file from the above zip archive into a scheduler of your third-party backup tool (we use free Cobian Backup).

Q. The option “Add Files” doesn’t work. Any ideas?

A. Open the catalog as LocalHost.

Q. I have a dedicated drive that the catalog can be on, rather than running it off the OS drive (if that would give it a better performance). Can I move it somehow?

A. Follow the steps below:

1. Stop PostgreSQL and Daminion Server services from the “Services” window
2. Move C:\PosgtreSQL\Data to a new location
3. Launch Regedit. Locate this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\postgresql-9.2\ImagePath

and specify a new PostgreSQL data location like this:
C:/Program Files (x86)/PostgreSQL/bin/pg_ctl.exe runservice -N “postgresql-9.2” -D “ANEWLOCATIONOFTHEDATAFOLDER” -w

Do not change any other part of the text except ANEWLOCATIONOFTHEDATAFOLDER

4. Start Daminion Server again.

Q. How to migrate Daminion local catalogs to Daminion Server?

A. There are several ways to do this:

1.  Open a shared catalog and go to the main menu: File > Import > Daminion Local Catalog (.dmc).
2. Open local and shared catalogs in Daminion Standalone version. Select all files and navigate to the Move To > Shared Catalog option from the context menu.
3. Daminion can automatically sync all of your annotations (tags) into the file metadata (for JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PNG, etc…). So once the sync process is done, you can just import your images from the local catalog to Daminion Server. All tags embedded into the metadata will be automatically extracted. (This way doesn’t work for some file formats, e.g. BMP).
4. Via CSV. To get more information, please refer to the articles Exporting Metadata to CSV and Importing Metadata from CSV.

Q. Is in the roadmap of Daminion the possibility to store the data in an MS SQL Database instead of a Postgres database?

A. Nope, at the moment. We offer an easy-to-install and out-of-the-box solution where all the necessary program components are included in a single package.

We started designing Daminion Server with the possibility to use virtually any corporate-level SQL Database but focusing on a single database allowed us to reach the best performance, and it works for most of our customers. Plus it is free! So now Daminion is available in two editions:
-SQLite-based (for local catalogs).
-PostgreSQL based (for shared catalogs).

Q. How to move a Server catalog to a new hard drive?

A. There are several ways to do this:

1. Create Symbolic Links to individual files or folders, and then these files or folders will appear like they are stored in the folder with the symbolic link even though the symbolic link only points to their real location. Follow this link to find a complete guide to symbolic links.

This way you can move your folders from drive #1 to drive #2, and leave just a small symbolic link on your drive #1. This is especially useful when your system drive is SSD with low capacity.

2. The second way is:

• Backup your Daminion Server catalog(s)
• Uninstall your PostgreSQL
• Install PostgreSQL on another drive
• Re-install your Daminion Server
• Restore your Daminion Server catalog(s)

Q. How to migrate Daminion Server from one computer (PC1) to a new computer (PC2)?

A. Please follow the steps below:

1. Launch the Daminion Server Administration panel on PC1.
2. Go to the main menu, Administration > Catalogs… and backup all your catalogs.
3. Install Daminion Server on PC2.
4. Launch the Daminion Server Admin panel on PC2.

Now we need to move all catalogs from Daminion Server on PC1 to Daminion Server on PC2. Repeat the below steps for all catalogs on PC1:

5. Create a new catalog on PC2
6. Copy the catalog name from the first catalog on PC1
7. Adjust “Folder to Store Uploaded Files” and “Folder to Store thumbnails” paths or copy them from the first catalog on PC1 (check carefully user names).
8. Copy files from the “Folder to Store Uploaded Files” folder on your PC1 to the “Folder to Store Uploaded Files” folder on your PC2.
9. Copy files from the “Folder to Store thumbnails” folder on your PC1 to the “Folder to Store thumbnails” folder on your PC2.
10. Restart Daminion server. Then right-click on a newly created catalog on PC2 and run the “Restore…” command from the context menu. Specify a catalog backup that you did in step 2. You also need to specify the _daminion##.backup file where information about Daminion users is stored, but you can do this only when restoring the first catalog only.
11. Repeat 5-10 steps for all catalogs on your PC1.
12. Add a new Daminion Server address on your Daminion Clients. You can omit this step if a new PC2 name is the same as your PC1 name or has the same IP address (if you for example just upgraded the server).

Q. How to set up Daminion Server when working across multiple offices?

A. Follow the instructions below:

1. First of all, you need to arrange a VPN connection between your offices. There are different (software and hardware) ways to arrange this:http://blog.daminion.net/tips/how-to-access-daminion-server-remotely-via-the-internet/
2. Then you need to download and install Daminion Server on your main office where your documents are located.
3. After that install Daminion Client on a client computer (in this or remote office), launch it, and go to the main menu: File > Open Shared Catalog. Press the “Add Daminion Server” button and type in the IP address of a computer where Daminion Server was installed. This IP will be different for computers in your main office and computers in other offices. Please consult your system administrator.
4. Repeat the above step on all other clients. Please note that you need to install Daminion Client once. All further client software updates will be automatic.

The above steps are enough to start working with Daminion Server across multiple office locations, however, you can drastically increase the  speed of viewing and accessing original images if you do the following:

1. Replicate a folder in your server computer in your main office with server computers in other offices by Windows DFS (Distributed File System). The replicated folder MUST be stored in the same location on all replicated computers. This allows you to make copies of your file server content in all offices.
2. Launch Daminion Client, connect to your Daminion Server as admin, and go to the main menu: Catalog > Replication Settings and then check what group of users can take advantage of this option.

After that when a user from a remote computer double-clicks a photo in his Daminion Client, he will open the local file instead of downloading it from another office.

Q. In setting up multiple Libraries with multiple clients, is there some sort of config file that specifies UI layout?

A. There are several ways to edit default UI settings:

1.  Part of the settings like a set of tags in the tags tree, thumbnail browser captions, and a set of tags in the Properties panel is stored inside the catalog (server or a local one). To set a default set of tags for all users you need to open a server catalog by Daminion client and go to the main menu:
   Catalog > Default View Settings…
2. A list of catalogs can be adjusted by editing this file: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Daminion Software\Daminion\1.0\CatalogsStore.xml
3. Other UI settings can be adjusted via this file: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Daminion Software\Daminion\1.0\Settings.xml
4. In Daminion 5.0 version you can adjust default UI settings for all users via the Administration menu in your web client.

Q: Does Daminion work with terminal services?

A: Yes, it does.

Q: Is it possible to use the existing MS SQL Server or MySQL with Daminion?

A: No. When installing Daminion Server, PostgreSQL is installed automatically as an out-of-the-box solution.