Whether you know the program as Merant, Serena or PVCS, the setup is difficult, and despite the sales department insistence that you don't need a full-time person to run their servers, I am starting to doubt it. Here are the instructions to setup a new project using the file server model with split archives.
I am using Version 8.0.2.3, so be aware what stuff applies to you, and what does not. For example, I am using the new File Server model, where the archive files are not copied 3 times for every operation.
My company doesn't use any security/access control, but you still need to set things up as if you do, otherwise you will have weird problems every once in a while, where users don't have permission to import an archive, or checkout it out, etc. The quick solution is to make the problem user a superuser. To avoid the problem in the future, follow these instructions:
These instructions have specific server names for my company, but you should be able to make them generic for your use.

Use Remote Desktop/MS Terminal Server to connect to dvoxpitparnd1

Open up my computer and navigate to D:development
Create a folder with the project name.
Please don't use funny characters or spaces in your name.
Create "proj" and "rev" directories under the newly created directory.

Open Internet Explorer and go to: http://localhost:8080/merantfs/Admin

Admin login:
Username: Admin
Password: Admin

Go to Path Maps.
Hit the + sign.
Check "Enabled" and "Publish PDBs".
Uncheck "case-sensitive user id".

In the "Client name" field, type:
\\PVCS\PROJECT_NAME
Please don't use spaces or other funny characters.

In the "Project DB path", type:
D:\development\PROJECT_NAME\proj

In the "Revision path", type:
D:\development\PROJECT_NAME\rev

Hit OK.

Go to the Log panel.
Scroll to the bottom, and make sure that there aren't any
errors related to your newly created project.


Open up a Version Manager client on your own machine.
From the Admin Menu, pick "Create Project Database".
Type in PROJECT_NAME
Click the "..." button for the location.
Navigate to the top of the list and pick File Servers.
You should see a long list of projects, starting with PVCS...
Find PVCS\PROJECT_NAME (the icon should be only a yellow
folder, instead of a blue dot inside the yellow folder)
Hit OK.
Click the "Advanced" tab, and
Click the "Use an existing Access Control Database"
Click the "..." button, and pick
"File Servers->PVCS\Global_data\archives\ami5f3b10.db"
Hit OK.
Hit OK.
The project should now be created.
Now, highlight your new project, and choose Admin->Configure Project.
Choose Security->Access Control Database
Uncheck "Enable access control database security"
Choose Security->Login Sources
Check "Host ID" and uncheck "Login Dialog"
Highlight "Host ID"
Check "Auto create users"
Click the "..." button and pick "Superuser" instead of "Unlimited".
(This is due to a bug in Version manager where unlimited users, even with
the access control database unchecked, still do not have privileges to do
everything, so until Serena fixes this, all users have to be superusers.
This bug has existed from at least 6.x through 8.0.2, and Serena has
refused to believe this bug exists, though I have gotten support to
duplicate it)
Uncheck "Case-sensitive user ID".

Hit OK.
Now you can import your archives, or add Workfiles.
whew.
Posted by Jon Daley on December 1, 2004, 1:14 pm | Read 34689 times
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Comments
I give up. My boss just spent an hour trying to get version manager up and running on a new system for one of our hardware guys.
It was sporadically making connections to the server, where it would sometimes open a project, but then he would click on it again, and it would say, "login denied", "account invalid", or "unable to obtain a license", depending on what it felt like. Other client system are fine. The software was restarted, client machine rebooted, license server restarted, user erased from the license server, nothing changed its behavior.
So, I turned off the licensing server, and set it back to SERVER=EVAL in the windowsislv.ini file. We had to do that for a while when we first started since Serena took a month and a half to get us the license numbers. Fortunately, their evaluation expirer isn't all that hard to work around, so we were able to continue our work by searching for "sfhBob" in the registry, and deleting that key. You just have to do that once a month, but then you don't have to worry about the license server.
Note to Serena, you probably don't want me publishing that information, but if your software worked, I wouldn't have to. We have wasted so many hours trouble-shooting, on and off the phone, and I am tired of it. We are paying a lot of money to you guys for software that is even worse than my company's software, if you can believe that.
Posted by jondaley on December 16, 2004, 11:50 am

I had to restart the File Server service today, as it was taking up 50% of the CPU power (presumably one thread was going crazy, so could only take up 100% of one of the CPUs), and about 500 megs of RAM.
I haven't gone back to see if restarting it fixed the licensing issues it was having the other day, but it has stopped complaining about randomly not being able to find the access control database file.
Posted by jondaley on December 16, 2004, 2:02 pm

When I attempt to create another project database.. I get error message "unable to create project database" and that a project database already exists above this location. How do I get around this issue.
Posted by Darlene on January 26, 2005, 3:44 pm

I will email you, because I need more information, such as what version are you using, and if you are using file server or not, and if you have direct access to the archives.
Posted by jondaley on January 26, 2005, 4:16 pm

The problem was solved!
It turns out she had a project database created in the root of f:/
This PDB was created after creating another project in f:/blahblah, which is legal. However, PVCS doesn't let you create a database within another database, and so when she went to create another database in f:/blahblah2, PVCS refused.
The database in f:/ wasn't used, but had been created as a test at one point. She was able to move the lib and pvcs* files and folders to an "old" directory, effectively deleting the database. PVCS then allowed her to make f:/blahblah2 like she wanted to.
Posted by jondaley on January 27, 2005, 10:36 am

I am using Merant version manager 8.0.0.2. I am trying to create a new project and I consistently get "Access to this project has been denied because your login account was unable to obtain a license". I have contacted the administrator and he too is unable to figure out how to resolve this problem. I have ensured that no project is already existing on the path specified. How do I solve this problem ?
Posted by Pawan on February 15, 2005, 4:53 am

I am assuming you are using a license server. Can other people get a license? There is a known bug in 8.0.2 that was fixed in 8.0.2.3 where you can only login to one project at a time, I don't know if the bug existed in previous versions.
Check the windowsislv.ini file, and see if the:
[Licensing]
SERVER=@DVOXPITPARND1
lines look right, there should be an '@' sign, followed by your license server's name. You can try changing it to "SERVER=EVAL" to not connect up to the license server at all.
Posted by jondaley on February 15, 2005, 10:05 am

BTW, in response to my own comment about the fileserver taking up tons of RAM, it turns out there is a known issue in 8.0.2, but for some reason, they don't post the patch, but wait for you to call and say that your fileserver has leaked a couple gigs of RAM, is that alright, and then they provide you with 8.0.2.1, which mostly fixes the problem, now it only leaks a couple megabytes a day.
Posted by jondaley on February 15, 2005, 10:15 am

I finally got word from customer support today, saying that yes, the couple of megs a day memory leak is a known issue, but there isn't a fix, other than to restart the tomcat service whenever it bogs down.
Posted by jondaley on February 25, 2005, 12:48 pm

Do you have experience moving a Serena project/db to another server?

Posted by Ellen on October 31, 2008, 2:23 pm

Yes. It was a lot of pain. Serena sent a contractor to help us, and thought it would take an hour or so. I forced the guy to stay until the end of the day. He quit a couple days after that. I did feel a little badly, but I assume he was planning on quitting before he met me.

Posted by jondaley on October 31, 2008, 2:34 pm

Though, to be fair, I think the primary reason it was so hard was that we also upgraded the software version at the same time. I don't think only migrating to a new server would be too hard (is the server name staying the same? If not, you'll have to go through each project one by one via the web gui to modify the URL.

If you have fancy permissions, I could imagine that would require some work. We had everyone as "unlimited" privileges, as that made the software run easier, where easier is defined as "I got less emails asking for help to fix something".

Posted by jondaley on October 31, 2008, 2:36 pm
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