Upgrade procedure for TMS 15.3 --> 15.6

[marco_81]

Hi all,

i need to upgrade Windows Server 2012 R2 to 2016 to renew licensing of Windows machine. On this WS i have TMS 15.3 installed, on a different machine i also have SQL server 2012 running on WS 2012 R2.

From compatibility reason i have retrieved these information about upgrading application, S.O. and DB:

Application	from	to
TMS	15.3.0	15.6
Conductor	4.2	4.3.2
S.O.	from	to
Windows	2012 R2 64bit	2016 64bit
db	from	to
SQL	MS SQL Server 2012	MS SQL Server 2016

Therefore i need to upgrade to TMS version 15.6.

In the install and upgrade guide i found some topics that i could not understand:

1) virtual directories: When upgrading from any version of Cisco TMS, all virtual directories are deleted and recreated when installing a new version. Beware that this also removes any custom settings on virtual directories --> What is the concern about it?

2) during TMS upgrade do i need to provide new option keys to wizard? The old TMS has option key already installed on it, do i need to provider newer?

Finally i need confirmation about high level upgrade steps:

1) upgrading SQL Server 2012 to 2016 first, backuping it before upgrading.

2) upgrading MS server 2012 R2 to 2016 first, backuping it before upgrading.

3) upgrading TMS by executing the executable on the upgraded WS server.

thanks for help

regards

[Patrick Sparkman]

If you've changed anything with the TMS website files or IIS itself, those changes will not be present after the upgrade.
All data within TMS is stored in the tmsng SQL database, during the upgrade process, the installer will pre-populate the fields with the information stored in the database.
The upgrade process you have will work, though I'd recommend simply deploying new Windows Servers for both TMS and SQL instead of inplace upgrades, see TMS Server Migration Procedures.

[marco_81]

If you've changed anything with the TMS website files or IIS itself --> yes i have web.conf customized i'll backup it also.

In summary according to the guide you provided i have to follow these steps:

- Installing new SQL server 2016, and restoring bckup file taken from old SQL server 2012 (Management Studio in my case will help). This will save tmsng and tmspe contents.

- Installing new MS server 2016

Then i'll perform post database restoration actions:

- Installing TMS software version 15.6 on the new MS server 2016

- Select custom install in order to point to the new SQL server location. Inside this step, enter the encryption key that is copied from the original TMS server --> to have all stuff working i need the encryption key from the original installation isn't it? Without this key i cannot go on, right?

Finally what about otion key alreadys installed on old TMS? Are they carried within backup file of sql?

thaks for help

regards

[Patrick Sparkman · Accepted solution]

Correct, and I always forget out the encryption key for the database, you can get it from TMS Tools that is installed on the TMS server.
Release key, option keys, all data pertaining to TMS is stored within the tmsng database.