Hello there,

Where I work, two separated teams decided it would be best if each of them had their own LimeSurvey server, each with a specific configuration and their own database. It turns out that separation may not be needed anymore, but is there a feasible way to merge those two servers into one?

For example, does LimeSurvey support multiple data sources? Would you advise against merging the databases?

Many thanks!

This depends very much on how you use Limesurvey.

Are there many surveys that need to be merged? Are there many users to be merged?

You can't use two databases, of course. So you would have to move everything from one of the installations to the other installation.

If you don't have many users and surveys to move, I personally would rather move manually by creating the users manually and also export the surveys that really are required in the future via LSS or if you also need the old data via LSA.

If you have a lot of users and a lot of surveys, this might be a lot of work.

Thank you for the answer.

I've researched for a bit, and it seems that LSS files do not collect the survey's responses, and LSA files are intended for archival purposes. What then would be the best option for transferring active surveys with their responses to the new server, so as to not lose the surveys being done at the moment?

The LSA files contain all the information. You can use them to transport the survey structure AND the responses to another server.

Sometimes you don't need the old responses on the server and you can just download them as CSV to have them, then use LSS files.

If you need the old responses also, then I would move them via LSA.

However, I would NOT move currently active surveys. Move all surveys that are currently not actively used and wait for the users to come out of field.

If these surveys are continous, then you will have to find a good timing when you expect very low traffic or you need to communicate clearly to your respondents that they might not be able to use the survey during the moving time (and that the link might change).

However, watch out, if you deactivate surveys the old responses are archived. So you might not be able to include the responses when exporting the LSA. So probably better to set an expiration date, which will also prevent people from answering and then you create your LSA and import it into the other installation and you can check if everything is alright.

However, without knowing how your surveys are accessed by respondents, etc. it is difficult to give more tips.