Pointing to a new database server

Question

Our QA team cloned the VM we are using to test our sharepoint mods.

Their cloned version now needs to point to the database on the new box (rather than the developer test sharepoint db). I disconnected from the farm using the Sharepoint configuration wizard and created a new server farm pointing to the correct database. To do this we had to delete the sharepoint_config db as well as the Central admin website. Once we did these two items we were able to get through the configuration wizard successfully.

Now we can't seem to get the Sharepoint Services setup properly. In the central admin there is no longer a link to manage services on the server. does anyone have any idea what I should do next to recover the services properly?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

One alternative would have been to use a SQL alias on the SharePoint servers, since I assume the database was cloned as well. This would have just pointed the servers to the new SQL servers without them ever knowing it was a different database server.