Importing Projects

Silk Central projects can be exported to archive the project data outside of Silk Central. To view the data, all results, reports, and so on, you have to reimport the project.

When you import project data, you must use the same Silk Central version and the same database version that were used to export the data. However, you can import project data to the same or to a different database server with the same version that was used to export the data.

To import a project:

In the menu, click Projects > Project List . The Projects page displays, listing all existing projects and project baselines.
Click Import Project on the top. The Import Project dialog box appears.
Browse for an appropriate .zip file on your computer and click OK. Silk Central uploads the data.
Note: The .zip file has to be a file that was exported from Silk Central beforehand.

Note: The .zip file is uploaded to the front-end server before it is imported into the database. Therefore, the front-end server needs to provide appropriate free disk space to store the .zip file.
Click Yes to start the import. Note the following:
- Silk Central processes only one import at a time.
- Silk Central writes audit logs when an import starts, finishes or fails.
- The import is processed in the background. You are notified by email when the import is complete. Make sure that you have an email address and an email server configured before you start the import. Otherwise you will not be notified. For more information, see Configuring Email Servers and User Settings Page.
- The project appears in the project list when the import is complete.

Attention: Before you start to export or import projects, carefully read the recommendations below.

When you export/import large projects with a huge amount of project data, the export/import process can take a long time (up to some hours).
The file size can vary tremendously from project to project and depends on many factors, for example: On the amount of assets, the run count, the attachments, the code coverage statistics, and most importantly on the result files.
We recommend to minimize the size of a project before you export it. Therefore, you should remove unneeded data and especially unused result files. If your project exceeds the size of 1.2 GB, you will receive the error Request entity is too large when attempting to import it. If you cannot reduce the size of the project anymore, you can increase the upload limit in the file nginx.conf.template in C:\ProgramData\SilkCentral\InstanceAdministration\nginx\conf by modifying the value of the client_max_body_size property.
Especially if large projects are written to the database, this can significantly slow down performance of the database. We strongly recommend to do a full index rebuild for the Silk Central database schema within your next maintenance window.
Some browsers have file upload limitations, like for example Internet Explorer. If the project that you want to import exceeds that size, the import will fail. Use another browser to avoid this issue.
Be aware that the export/import process puts considerable load on Silk Central and on the database server. Export/import actions should be done during off-hours (for example over night or on the weekend) or at least when the Silk Central usage is low and no users are logged in.
Exporting and importing data is tightly bound to and relying on the database and its content. If the database already contains any inconsistency in data, importing a project might fail. Hence, we strongly recommend - as good practice for every backup process - to try a reimport immediately after an export to ensure validity, data consistence and recoverability.
If you want to reimport project data, use the exact same .zip file that you have exported. Other file formats will not be accepted. You can import the data only into the same Silk Central and database version that you have used to export the data.
If you have any questions concerning the export/import process, do not hesitate to contact customer support.