v4.1.4: Assign multiple IP to the Vault server

[kha]

Current my Vault server is having an IP address (204.x.x.x) that we want to switch it to another network (208.x.x.x). Last time, we tried to assign both (208.x.x.x)) and (204.x.x.x) to the Vault server, one of the users got the check-in problem right on the back. We are not sure if assigning 2 different IPs to Vault server causes that problem or not.

Looking at the config file, we see that the 204.x.x.x IP is hard coded in there. Is there any suggestion what step we should take to switch from 204 to 208 network?

[Beth]

You could just perform a quick uninstall and reinstall of Vault (keeping the same database), and that should take you only about 5-10 minutes. That might be the easiest route. It sounds like your SQL server may be on the same machine, which would be the IP address you found in the web.config, if that was used when installing.

If the user uses the IDE integration with Visual Studio, then the bindings need to be completely redone.

Back when you assigned both 204.x.x.x and 208.x.x.x to the same machine, was Vault changing where it needed to look? If not, then I would suspect some DNS routing issue that was making it go to the wrong IP.

[kha]

What if people use the server name to bind, do they need to rebind if we keep the server name the same but only change the IP address ?

[Beth]

I hadn't tried that out, but I would expect it to be fine as long as it's routed correctly. Just in case, I might even be tempted to add an entry to the hosts file.

[kha]

I tested out on my test server, i did not have to uninstall and reinstall the VaultServer. Here is how i did:

1) Installed vault 4.1.4 on test server, which is not in the domain
2) Did NOT assign IP address to the Vault Server IIS page, the test server did not have static IP either. So basically, the IP of VaultServer is 'randomly' assigned
3) I tested the binding & check in & get latest on Visual Studio ok. Check in/out from Vault Client ok. I tried one project using Vault Server IP, another one using Vault Server name.
4) I changed the IP address of the test server to different network. DID NOT UNINSTALL OR REINSTALL VAULT SERVER after that.
5) Repeat step 3, for project I used vault Server name for binding, i did not have to do anything. For project that I used Vault server IP for binding, I need to unbind, and bind it again.

My questions:

1) It seems like I don't have to do uninstall/reinstall the vault server in order for it to connect to the Vault Server after the IP is changed. Is it because VaultServer does not have static IP assigned to it? (My production server, Vault server page has static IP assigned to it).

2) In the Vault.config file, the last line is
<ServerURL>http://204.x.x.57/VaultService</ServerURL> <-- IP of Vault server. If I need to change the IP to name, do I have to change anything else (e.g. uninstall/reinstall), or just edit the vault.config file? When was the URL written in this file?

[Beth]

I had suggested the reinstall because it saves on going to each item that would have the potential to be affected and checking it. It will depend on the setup you have going. I don't think the IP being static or dynamic would have made a difference, though I still wouldn't recommend a dynamic IP on a server, but that's because the likelihood of something not working right with changing IPs is higher than if it's static.

On item 2, you will want to check your web.config as well. In your case, you probably just have Local for your SQL server, but users should check their web.config anyway.

Check your shadow folders. The call to the shadow folders is hard coded I think, so that could be affected.