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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2026.1

# Move the server

You can move P4 Server onto a different machine. You can also Change the location of server components on the same machine.

## Onto a different machine

### Versioned files and the database

To move a P4 Server to a new machine, both the versioned files Source files stored in the depot, including one or more revisions to each file. Also known as archive files, archives, and depot files. Versioned files typically use the naming convention 'filename,v' or '1.changelist.gz'. and the server's database The set of db.* files in the P4ROOT directory that contain metadata that the P4 Server uses to operate on versioned files, users, protections, streams, changelists, and more. must be successfully migrated from the old machine to the new machine.

The P4 Server stores two types of data under the P4 Server root directory (see P4ROOT):

Versioned Files | The Server's Database
--- | ---
Created and maintained by your users | A set of binary files with the `.db` prefix that contain metadata about the history and present state of the versioned files

For more information about the distinction between versioned files and database, as well as for an overview of backup and restore procedures in general, see Backup and recovery.

### Factors that affect how you move to a new machine

How you move an existing P4 Server from one machine to another depends on the following factors:

Do both machines deal with case-sensitivity the same way? | Do both machines store text files with the same line-ending format? | Do both machines store numbers the same way? | See
--- | --- | --- | ---
Yes | Yes | Yes | Move between machines of the same byte order
Yes | Yes | No | Move between different byte orders that use the same text format

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