Changing of Hostname after installation of Qliksense

Qliksense

Changing of Hostname after installation of Qliksense

The hostname in Qlik Sense is determined by the content of host.cfg, to change the hostname, you must change the value in this file. This will also result in all certificates being invalidated. They need to be recreated. 

In a single node site this is sufficient, in a multi-node system there are further steps that will be required.

Single Node site

Qlik Sense any version 

Single Node

1) Log in as the service account

2) Change hostname in Windows as usual.

3) Restart the server as required by Windows.

4) Stop all the Qlik Sense services, except for the Qlik Sense Repository Database

5) Use Microsoft Management Console(MMC) to delete all the Qlik Sense related certificates.

6) Delete %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Repository\Exported Certificates\.Local Certificates

7) Make a copy of %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Host.cfg and rename the copy to Host.cfg.old

8) Host.cfg contains the hostname encoded in base64. Generate this string for the new hostname using a site such as base64encode. 

9) Open Host.cfg and replace the content with the new string

10) Finalize:

• In Qlik Sense 3.2.5 or earlier, start all Qlik Sense services to regenerate certificates. 
• In Qlik Sense June 2017* or later follow the instructions below to regenerate certificates:

Instead of starting the Repository Service directly, run Windows Command Prompt as Administrator.

Execute  "C:\Program Files\Qlik\Sense\Repository\Repository.exe" -bootstrap -iscentral -restorehostname 

*This is required in order to re-create local Qlik certificates in newer versions of sense, as this is due to changes in this version that introduces the floating central node concept. 

Keep in mind: The central certificate is used to encrypt password strings being used in connectors, so changing this certificate means that you will need to recreate all connectors that include password information.

Multi-Node Site

There are two possible scenarios in a multi-node environment changing the hostname for a Rim node and for a Central node. Certificates are always generated by the central node and are based on hostname so changing hostnames here is more time consuming and will require redistribution and in some cases also the deletion and readding of node information.

Changing Rim Node Hostname

• On the Rim node:

1) Change hostname in Windows as usual.

2) Restart the server as required by Windows.

3) Stop all the Qlik Sense services

4) Use Microsoft Management Console(MMC) to delete all the Qlik Sense related certificates.

5) Delete %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Repository\Exported Certificates\.Local Certificates

6) For backup purposes, make a copy of %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Host.cfg and rename the copy to Host.cfg.old

7) Host.cfg contains the hostname encoded in base64. Generate this string for the new hostname using a site such as base64encode. 

8) Open Host.cfg and replace the content with the new string

9) Start up Qlik Sense, when it fails to find the certificates it will enter set up mode

10) Unfortunately it is not possible to adjust the hostname of a node in QMC, so a when a Rim node's hostname is changed you have to then delete and readd it to do this

• On the Central server:

1) Open Qlik Management Console (QMC)

2) Click Nodes

3) Select the node whose hostname has changed

4) Click Delete

5) Confirm your decision

6) Click Create New

7) Fill in the node details as appropriate

8) You will need to recreate and/or modify any rules that specifically named the old node

Changing Central Node Certificate

All certificates used by Qlik Sense are created and signed by the central node and are based on its hostname, changing the hostname on the central node breaks this chain of trust and thus all certificates on all nodes will need to be recreated and redistributed.

• On every rim node:

1) Stop all Qlik Sense services

2) Use Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to delete all the Qlik Sense related certificates

3) Start Qlik Sense services

4) Upon starting without certificates they will enter Setup mode, meaning they will be listening for new certificates

• On the central node:

1) Change hostname in Windows as usual.

2) Restart the server as required by Windows.

3) Stop all the Qlik Sense services, except for the Qlik Sense Repository Database

4) Use Microsoft Management Console(MMC) to delete all the Qlik Sense related certificates.

5) Delete %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Repository\Exported Certificates\.Local Certificates

6) Copy %ProgramData%\Qlik\Sense\Host.cfg to Host.cfg.old

7) Host.cfg contains the hostname encoded in base64. Generate this string for the new hostname using a site like https://www.base64decode.org/

8) Open Host.cfg and replace the content with the new string

9) Finalize:

• In Qlik Sense 3.2.5 or earlier, start all Qlik Sense services to regenerate certificates. 
• In Qlik Sense June 2017* or later follow the instructions below to regenerate certificates:

Instead of starting the Repository Service directly, run Windows Command Prompt as Administrator.

Execute  "C:\Program Files\Qlik\Sense\Repository\Repository.exe" -bootstrap -iscentral -restorehostname 

1)Confirm the new certificates are created and QMC is accessible

2) In the QMC, click Nodes

3) Select each rim node and click Redistribute

4) Follow the instructions displayed

Keep in mind: The central certificate is used to encrypt password strings being used in connectors, so changing this certificate means that you will need to recreate all connectors that include password information.

In addition to the above, the relevant tables in the repository database that contain the host name information are:

LocalConfigs ( Hostname column )

ServerNodeConfigurations ( Host Name )

Note: Please make sure that the above table hostname column should contain the correct server FQDN ( network host name and not the individual machine host name ) this should be exactly the hostname that is in the host.config file