Exporting Projects

You can export a project including all the project data as a .zip file to your local computer. This is especially useful if you want to archive the data outside of Silk Central.

To export a project:

  1. In the menu, click Projects > Project List . The Projects page displays, listing all existing projects and project baselines.
  2. Click (Export project) in the Actions column.
  3. Specify if you want to include the users that are related to the project in the exported package:
    • include all users related to the project
    • do not include users
  4. Click OK on the confirmation dialog box.
  5. Specify a location on your computer.
    • Silk Central saves the project data in a .zip file.
    • The .zip file contains a .log file with detailed information about the export process. The .log file is also used on import to determine if the package is a valid archive.
    • You are notified by email when the export is completed.
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.
Parent topic: Working with Projects