UCCE 7.2.3 Tech Refresh Upgrade to 8.5(3)

[robb.allred]

As the title states - upgrade from 7.2.3 to 8.5.3.  The existing 7.2.3 platform will remain in place on physical servers.  The new 8.5.3 environment will be on UCS C series VM.

Has anyone tried anything similar.  PDI suggests first going to 8.0(1a) for Windows 2008 R2 support, and then upgrading to 8.5(x).  We already have 8.5(3) installed on the VM and ready to migrate data on cut night - however, this will take us back a step as we'll need to uninstall 8.5(3) and re-install with 8.0(1a). I'm not doubting the suggestion from PDI - just curious as to if anyone has seen/tried this approach.

Also - any tips on data migrating using this approach.

Current versions          Upgrade Versions

ICM: 7.2(3)                    8.5(3)

CTIOS: 7.2(3)                8.5(3)

CAD: 7.2(1)                   8.5(2a)

IP/IVR: 4.5(2)                 8.5(3)

i'm aware of the issues with IP IVR upgrade, and the fact that webview will no longer be available.

Thanks!

Robb                 

[Amer rajai Sha'er]

Hello Robb,

Just one question before giving you the procedure , are using the same domain and the same instance name in both systems ?

Amer

[robb.allred]

Hi Amer - thanks for the response.

It will be the same domain, new facility.  New instance as well.

Robb

[Amer rajai Sha'er]

Hello,

When PDI suggested to upgrade to 8.0(1a) i think it is becasue of the EDMT tool, there is no tool for the 8.5 , you have 7, 7.5, 8 and 9

usually when you need to upgrade a system and change the facility or the instance you need first to upgrade then change the instance.

Since you already installed the 8.5 with the new facility and instance , i would suggest the following:

Install a new VM (windows 2008 and SQL only) backup the production logger_SideA database and restore into this server, use the edmt tool to upgrade the DB first to 7.5 then to 8 (same new VM machine).

in this case the DB is upgraded to 8.0

you need to install two new VM's (RoggerA and AW-HDS) under Version 8.0 , restore the DB into the logger and start the services , use the AW to rename the instance then upgrade to 8.5 , backup the DB and restore it into the new system.

Amer

[jbennett]

Just some feedback...

Changing the instance name is not supported in any fashion.  I have customer's with the instance name of multiple aquisitions ago and this being a sore point - and the direct answer back is that the instance name is not to be changed.

I *believe* there was some documentation out there about EDMT supporting an upgrade from 7.2(x) to 8.0.1(a) but would suggest just validating that.  Since 8.5 is simply a Maintenance Release patch on top of the 8.0(1)a release this by itself should not cause any heartache - but ICM will have to be re-installed basically for the instance name concerns.

And last thing just because - the only difference thats been passed along between 8.0(1) and 8.0(1)a is if you use 2008 server you must use 8.0(1)a.  It will require you to install 8.5(2) or higher as part of the install - but I have not tried upgrading with EDMT directly to 8.5(2)+ - only to 8.0(1).  You can always use a staging server to do this as well - install another VM temporarily with 2003 server and 8.0(1) - then do an in-place upgrade to migrate the schema and then move it into the 8.5(3) system.  More steps but takes the process step by step...

Skippy

[robb.allred]

Hi Amer - thanks for the response.

Based on information from yourself and PDI, I think our best bet is the following:

1. Uninstall 8.5(3) - leaving us on windows 2008 R2

2. Install 8.0(1a) on the logger and HDS

3. Migrate the data from the 7.2(x) environment onto the 8.0(1a) environment using EDMT.

4. Upgrade from 8.0(1a) to 8.5(3)

5. use config mgr to change instance and change facility

6. validate data

7. Turn up PG's

8. cross fingers

I think there will be some degree of risk mainly because there are so many changes going in simultaneously, i.e. OS change, version change, instance change, hardware change.

It could be an interesting cutover... 

Cut is scheduled for early August, so I will update and let you know how it goes.

Thanks!

Robb

[robb.allred]

Just an update to this upgrade.........

We were able to upgrade from 7.2 to 8.5(3) by going straight to the 8.5(3).  In other words we didn't need to go through incremental upgrade by stopping at UCCE 8.0(1a).

The latest version of EDMT is 8.0 - but it works on 8.5(3).  This is an interesting point as I was previously under the impression that it would not work on 8.5(x).

Data migration worked.

Registry import/export worked fine - just remember to edit the registry settings and remove webview references.

We decided against the instance change as there was no compelling reason to do so - and no benefit.  As Skippy mentioned, this is not supported and not recommended - unless you plan to rebuild the environment (and not import your config data)

The IP IVR upgrade was not really an upgrade.  PDI let us know that upgrading IP IVR from 4.5 to 8.5 is not supported if you're changing the hostname (which we were).  So we installed from scratch and rebuilt the environment.  It's worth mentioning that we were able to copy the 4.5 ip ivr scripts into the 8.5 environment with no issues.  The most time consuming task was in replicating the workflows in IPIVR for CAD.

Bottom line - everything worked and the upgrade was a success.

[jpsweeney77]

Robb, just curious but was your Tech Refresh upgrade to new servers with both a new Hostname and IP address? I suspect so but just curious.

[robb.allred]

Hi JP - yes, we had to change both hostname and IP addresses.  And we went from physical servers to VM's.  Double the fun.

Robb

[AshG]

Hi Robb,

Just wondering , was the upgrade done during a change window or you guys built the parallel VM platform in advance and then just did the switch over?

if later then how did you manage to point the parallel platform to same AD facility?

can you share the process as we are going through the same upgrade