Moving Open Dental to a New Server in a NYC Practice

The vendor publishes a step list for moving Open Dental to a new server and opens it with a warning: the information is for advanced IT users, and anyone who needs help with the steps should contact support. The move is a weekend job: a hard rule at the front, a copy in the middle, services and workstations at the end. This page is what each part involves for a New York City practice.

Last updated: October 2026

What has to be true before anything is copied?

The new server must run the same MariaDB or MySQL version as the old one. Installs after July 14, 2021 normally use MariaDB; older ones use MySQL, and a practice still on MySQL 5.6 has an extra step before it can move. The vendor recommends MariaDB 10.5, supports MySQL 5.5, and says MySQL 8.0 is not compatible, so a new server built with a current MySQL download will not work. The storage engine matters too: the steps differ for InnoDB, which the Diagnostics window reports.

Then the backup. The vendor's list is specific: the OpenDentImages folder, the database folder under the MySQL data directory, and a copy of the my.ini configuration file. That copy is the migration; everything after it is an empty shell on the new box with the copy dropped in.

What happens to the old server?

It is switched off in a particular order, not just unplugged. The MySQL, OpenDentalService, OpenDentalEConnector and OpenDentalAPIService services are stopped and set to Disabled so no workstation can quietly keep pointing at the old machine; the OpenDentImages folder is renamed so nobody saves a new image to the old share; and port 3306 is closed in its firewall. In an office that added workstations over ten years, one still has the old server name typed in, and this step makes it fail loudly instead of writing to the wrong database.

What happens to the old machine after that is a New York question. The state's data-security law requires a business to dispose of private information within a reasonable time by erasing electronic media so that the information cannot be read or reconstructed. A retired server holding every chart the practice ever made is that media. Its drives are wiped with a documented tool or destroyed, and the certificate goes in the practice's file, not the building's e-waste bin.

How is the new server built?

With the vendor's trial installer, ticking only the database server, its grant tables, my.ini and OpenDentImages, and deliberately not the program or the empty database, because both of those come from the old machine. The service is stopped, the copied database folder and the saved my.ini are put in place, and the service is started. The new OpenDentImages folder is shared with full access and the old one merged into it, which on fifteen years of radiographs is the slow part of the weekend.

Then setup.exe is run from the images folder and three things are pointed at the new machine: the server name in Choose Database, the data paths, and the Update Server in Preferences. Port 3306 is opened, and the three vendor services (Open Dental Service, eConnector, API Service) are installed so eServices come back.

Last, every workstation: the program is started as administrator and the new server name is entered in Choose Database. That is done one chair at a time, remotely, before Monday's first patient.

Why does the timing matter in New York?

A New York provider must give a patient the opportunity to inspect their record within ten days of a written request. A migration that leaves the practice restoring for a week has used most of that clock, so the old server is kept untouched until the new one passes its Monday test. The records themselves must be kept for at least six years, and a minor's record until a year after the patient turns 21, so the images merged into the new share are not a nice-to-have. The merge is verified by file count and by opening the oldest chart.

Questions practices ask

Can the vendor do the migration for us?

The vendor's page says to contact support if a step does not go as expected, and HL7 users schedule the migration with support directly. The server build, network, firewall and the wipe of the old machine are the IT side, which is this service.

Can we move to a newer database version at the same time?

Not in the same step. Same version on both machines is the vendor's rule; a version change is its own project afterwards.

Does the office have to close?

For the copy and cutover, yes; the database cannot be in use while its folder is copied. Friday evening, with Saturday as the fallback.

Where does the new server go?

Usually the same closet, so the move is the moment to label the circuit, add a battery and record what is where. A server that cannot be reached is the not connecting page; skipping the closet is the cloud or server page.