How can I copy archive data from one server to another?

Question

I have an SDE 10.0 server and an SDE 10.1 server and I am trying to migrate the layers from 10.0 to 10.1. (On a side note the 10.0 server is running SQL Server 2005 and the 10.1 server is running SQL Server 2012.)

Some of the layers have archiving turned on and there seems to be no way to transfer the layer as well as all of the archival information. Is there a way to copy the layer and also its archive?

Alternately, can I just turn on archiving on the new server after transferring the layer, then copy the rows from the old server into the newly created archival table with a SQL tool (Import/Export Data)?

Answer 1

Per ESRI:

"It would not be possible to retrieve the same archival information after exporting the feature class into a new geodatabase."

So, in other words, one cannot copy archival information from one geodatabase to another. It must always live in the same geodatabase. Once you have transferred a layer to a new geodatabase you can set up versioning and then archiving, but you're essentially creating a new archive that starts from the date that you created it.

If you need to retain archival information when moving to a new ArcGIS version and a new server, the recommended course of action is to:

1. Upgrade the geodatabase to the new version
2. Backup the database
3. Restore the database on the new server

That should ensure that everything is retained during the move.