Restore production ERP 10 database to test environment

We have setup production ERP 10.2.200.12 environment that is configured with Windows Authentication using the Windows Active Directory Domain and we also have setup Epicor ERP 10.2.200.12 test environment that is configured on a separate Test Domain.

Now if we restore the production ERP10 database in to the test environment the Epicor Application Server fails to connect since it is referring to the production domain account that is not the same as in test environment (Windows Authentication).

The reason of setting up 2 separate environments on different domains is to avoid collusion of production with test in an event configuration changes are missed out after restoring production database in test.

Is there any best practices method on setting up a test environment of Epicor using Windows Authentication?

Looking forward to your resolutions.

Nikhil

1 Like

Hello Nikhil,

There are multiple things that need to be changed when making Test Environments (plenty of posts in this forum) and people often use DMT to make these kinds of changes. You could update the users SSO account by exporting the user file, do a mass replace from the production domain to the test domain and then update the user file with DMT.

Dear Mark,
DMT can be used provided the Epicor Application Server has successfully connected with the credentials. My main problem is the Application Server fails to connect in test environment after restoring the production environment database and we are using Windows Authentication.

The scenario is Production environment domain is ABC and user is called ERPStart with database name as ERP10, thus ABC\ERPStart domain account is configured with Windows Authentication to configure the Epicor Application Server.

The test environment domain is called TestABC with the same ERPStart account and database name is also same like production i.e ERP10 but when restoring the production database in test the Epicor Application Server fails to connect since it refers to ABC\ERPStart account in the test environment.

How can we update the production server credentials in test server so as to get the application server connected?

Regards,
Nikhil

A few thoughts:

  • I’m not sure there’s a way to easily mirror two different domains with the same passwords. I’m sure there’s a Powershell way to duplicate the users though.

  • You could switch to a non-SSO application server for the Test environment.

  • If you’re at 10.2.300 or up, you could use Azure Active Directory to have a single sign-on across both domains

As it is a test environment, you could consider doing a SQL update. DO NOT EVER DO THAT IN YOUR LIVE ENVIRONMENT, IT BREAKS YOUR SUPPORT AGREEMENT!

You would just need to run a script:

Update Ice.SysUserFile
Set Domain = 'TestABC'
Where Domain = 'ABC'

Update erp.UserFile
Set Domain = 'TestABC'
Where Domain = 'ABC'

Hi Mark,
Your suggestion sounds good but risky in terms of security.

Looks like there is no other way out to enable the epicor application server using Windows Authentication when restoring production database into test server.

Mark’s suggestion would work with DMT.

You should have at least one user that can log into Epicor via built-in security (https) just in case your domain server is down. Using that login, DMT could safely dchange your userfile to the test domain as Mark suggests.