XP Wingate 6 -> W7 Wingate 7 migration

[Mumia76]

Hi

I have a computer running Wingate 6, it worked for 6 years with no major problems, it manages network, ics, and email for a small network.
But now the time has come to upgrade the whole system.
I built a brand new server with windows 7 Pro 64Bit
I want to make the upgrade as seamless and as clean as possible, so I don't want to touch the current computer at all, until I get the new one configured and working properly.
I've installed every device driver on the new computer, and hooked it up to the network as a client for now, through the network connector that will be used to connect to the internet when it goes live, so the transfer should be no problem.

I see wingate 7 for the first time, but its already obvious that there aren't any tools built into it, to import wingate 6 settings and/or user databases manually. I have to admit I'm baffled by that discovery. I thought after this long in development migration from a previous version should be a non-issue.

I don't even know how to start, the transfer. I'm sure as hell don't want to set up everything manually.
Here are the things I need to somehow transfer to the new machine in order of importance:

Email accounts, with all mail messages, and delivery settings
Wingate users
Extended networking settings (port forwarding and blocks)

The rest can be set up easily, but these three things are not so.

So what is the trick?

[adrien]

Hi

Actually we did a lot of work to migrate settings, but you don't use "tools" to do it. WinGate 7 recognises most of the old settings, and migrates a lot of those settings as well to the new system.

The general procedure if you're not just installing over the top of WinGate 6, is to

NB: 64 bit oses: for all these steps make sure you use the 32 bit version of regedit which is c:\windows\sysWOW64\regedit.exe

1. Export your WinGate settings from the source machine, using regedit.exe, export the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Qbik Software\WinGate
2. Import those settings onto the target computer (open the .reg file from regedit, don't double-click it on 64 bit systems or it will put the registry settings in the wrong place - thanks to MS).
3. Install WinGate on the target computer

Regards

Adrien

[Mumia76]

Will this work if I have already installed wingate, and reinstall it?

[adrien]

Hi

If you've already installed WinGate 7 on the target, it's a bit more complex, since importing WG6 settings will be a merge between the 2.

I'd recommend uninstalling WinGate 7, then copy in your WinGate 6 registry, then install WinGate 7.

Regards

Adrien

[bztips]

I am almost in the same boat as OP, although I posted on this awhile back.

I have Wingate 7 on XP, want to move it to a new box running Windows 2008 Server R2. I tried the following:

1) Export Wingate registry key from XP box
2) Deactivate Kaspersky and Wingate licenses on XP box
3) Install Wingate 7 (same version) and Kaspersky (same version) on new box
4) Activate Wingate and Kaspersky licenses on new box -- at this point the Wingate engine starts up fine, albeit with no settings
5) Import Wingate registry key from 1) on new box

This does not work. After Step 5, the Wingate engine will not start up (Wingate icon in the task bar first turns yellow, then reverts back to red); and I cannot get into the Management Console.

Should I try importing the registry key BEFORE installing Wingate and Kaspersky? Or is there something else I'm missing?

[adrien]

Hi

The problem is most likely due to Microsoft Registry Redirection they implemented in 64 bit windows. This means basically that a normal registry file is not compatible with the 64 bit version of regedit.exe.

You'll need to use the 32 bit version, and open the file from that.

In 64 bit windows, a 32 bit app (which WinGate is) that tries to open a key called say

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Bob

will actually be given a handle to a redirected key that actually lives at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Bob

Since 32 bit windows didn't have this, when you export from a 32 bit machine, and import to a 64 bit machine, it still ends up in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Bob, but the app won't be able to see it there, so the import is effectively broken. Why MS decided to break this I have no idea, but it is an endless source of pain.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 32(v=vs.85).aspx

The 32 bit version of regedit is redirected as well like any other 32 bit app, so when you use that to do the import, the settings end up in the right place.

Adrien

[bztips]

If I understand what you're saying, I should be using \windows\syswow64\regedit.exe on my new box.

That's exactly what I did, with the results I described -- Wingate engine will not start.

[adrien]

Hi

I would try running the WinGate 7 installer again. If the service doesn't start, it could be due to some packages not loading (e.g. if packages registry is bad).

Also look in the windows event viewer to see if there is anything interesting in there for WinGateEngine, it logs issues loading packages.

Adrien