Migrating To New MacPro Without Downtime

[rogercollege]

I'm migrating from an older MacPro to a MacPro 7,1 running the latest Catalina. The older machine is running PT 2019.12. Avid tells me I need to upgrade to PT 2020.12 to use with Catalina.

I'm using the monthly subscription for Pro Tools (not Ultimate)

What's the best way to migrate to the new machine while mitigating downtime?

I can install 2020.12 on the new machine but it will need an iLok authorization to work. Can I simply use iLok cloud to run the new computer without affecting the older computer using an older version of PT? I haven't used iLok cloud yet so not sure if using my account to authorize one version of Pro Tools will disrupt the previous authorization.

I don't intend to you use both versions of PT simultaneously. I'm also fine physically moving the iLok between machines but don't want to authorize version 2020.12 yet if it melts the existing 2019.12 version.

Can the iLok hold two versions of PT? Would I need to pay for an additional PT subscription to achieve this? Could I simply purchase an additional 2020.12 for a month, authorizing to my existing iLok, get things up and running on the new machine via the iLok cloud, then cancel the subscription attached to the older machine when things run clean?

I would love thoughts on the best way to make this move without the hard commit? I just need to keep working and can't afford the downtime

Thanks!

[Southsidemusic]

Hey

If you are on a PT plan subskription or yearly just install 2020.12 on the new Mac and use the ilok to use the different versions on the different Macs.

If your ilok license allow you to use all the latest PT versions you can have as many versions you want on as many Macs you want but the ilok need to be connected to the Mac you wanna use as you can’t use 2 macs with one ilok license at the same time and not with cloud authorization either, only one Mac at a time with ilok connected. The license for PT will open all PT versions you are talking abiut as long as you are on an active subskription or yearly support plan.

[Darryl Ramm]

The iLok license? That's a minor issue. If you are using an iLok today just move the iLok between systems. Why would you want to futz with iLok's cloud licensing. If you enable cloud licensing the license is removed from the iLok.

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Much more to important stuff to focus on... and your best way to do this is not to focus on minimizing time but to focus on doing stuff well with some reasonable amount of testing as you go.

Make a plan, something like...

Install the macOS version if needed. Full clean install. Apply suitable updates.

Setup your user account(s), ideally with the same uid and gid as your existing system to make file permissions easy. Get networking and basic stuff set up. Do *not* share home drives to iCloud.

Do *not* use Apple's Migration Assassin (Assistant) to move stuff. Certainly not apps and drivers. If you don't understand how to more a user files over, and set uid gui etc. for an account you really should work that out... otherwise use Migration Assassin to move user accounts *only*... but you risk bringing over old crap, specially old preference settings for lots of apps. I'd just never use Assassin.

Install the correct Pro Tools and the latest ILM and test (Build-In Output or wherever it's called)

Install interface drivers and test. Pay attention to security/permissions settings for drivers that you may not have had to deal with before.

Optimize the system.

Install plugins and test as you go. Checking you have the latest/correct plugin versions compatible with your setup.

Install other apps you need.

Move over working sessions etc. however you are planning to do that.

Install CCC etc. and run backups, test they work. Use new backup drives and make multiple copies (don't immediately burn all you backups of the other system). Ideally the boot/system drive is cloned with CCC to a fast bootable SSD.

Don't do *anything* to risk the old system (I'd not move disk drives off it for example) so you can revert back quickly any time.

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Start by making your own plan listing all the software you need to install. Download all the installers for everything ready to go.

Set up the new mac and work through the list when you have time. Things go fastest by not screwing up and doing some reasonable testing.