Backup, Upgrade, and Recover Qlik Sense

01. Upgrading Bundled vs. Standalone PostgreSQL

You and I have a couple of options when it comes to installing a Qlik Sense server and PostgreSQL database. The options are:

1. Install Qlik Sense bundled with PostgreSQL server.

2. Install standalone PostgreSQL server and then, separately, install Qlik Sense and configure it to use the standalone server.

If your Qlik Sense server is using bundled installation of PostgreSQL, then upgrading PostgreSQL becomes quite a hustle. With bundled installation of PostgreSQL, it’s easy to end up having a new version of Qlik Sense running on outdated and unsupported PostgreSQL database. This happens because when we upgrade Qlik Sense, the upgrade process doesn’t upgrade bundled PostgreSQL. The result is Qlik Sense server gets newer and newer while PostgreSQL remains on the same, old version.

Standalone version of PostgreSQL offers more flexibility and control over keeping PostgreSQL updated. The QPI tool, therefore, was created to help us upgrade and unbundle PostgreSQL.

At high level, QPI tool is used to upgrade PostgreSQL to a newer version, convert PostgreSQL to standalone installation, and copy contents of old version of PostgreSQL from bundled to the new, standalone installation of PostgreSQL.

02. How To Tell if PostgreSQL Installation is Bundled or Standalone?

Bundled

Most reliable way is to launch Services app and see if you have Qlik Sense Repository Database service installed and running:

If you have Qlik Sense Repository Database service installed and running, that is a sign that your Qlik Sense server is using bundled PostgreSQL database. This means that you likely are able to use QPI tool to upgrade and unbundle PostgreSQL server. I say “likely” because there are several other requirements for using the QPI tool. We’ll take a look at those in the next lesson.

Standalone

When a standalone PostgreSQL database is used, Qlik Sense Repository Database service is not installed. Instead, you will see a postgresql-x64-## service running:

If you see a service with a name that starts with postgresql-x64, that means that your Qlik Sense server is using a standalone installation of PostgreSQL. In this case, the QPI tool is not useful because it only works on bundled installations of PostgreSQL.

03. Where to Find QPI Tool

There are couple of places where QPI tool can be downloaded. Best place to go is to Qlik’s Downloads page. Alternatively, you may also find the QPI tool setup file on GitHub. We’ll go through a process of downloading and running QPI tool in the next lesson.