How to upgrade from ENT Server version 1.x to the latest release

Last updated: Tuesday, November 01, 2005

TOC :: Up

This article describes the steps that will need to be performed in order to upgrade from previous versions of ENT Server to the latest release (1.3.12 at the time of writing).

Article Details

The upgrade process will depend on which edition of ENT Server you are using. The following summarizes the basic steps for each edition, followed by detailed instructions on how to perform each step.

If you are using the Desktop Edition of ENT Server then you will need to:

Backup your existing ENT Server databases
Uninstall your current version of ENT Server
Install the new version of ENT Server Desktop Edition
Upgrade your databases to the latest database format
Install the latest reports

If you are using the Corporate Edition of ENT Server then you will need to:

Backup your existing ENT Server databases
Unload ENT Server from IIS using the IIS Manager
Uninstall your current version of ENT Server
Install the new version of ENT Server Corporate Edition
Upgrade your databases to the latest database format
Verify that you can connect to your ENT Server via the web client
Upgrade any clients that you have (such as ENT NetCenter and ENT Report Forge) to the latest version
Install the latest reports

Backing up your ENT Server databases

As you are probably aware, ENT Server stores most of the information that it manages in some databases on either an MSDE Server or an MS SQL Server. Upgrading to the latest version of ENT Server will almost invariably require some modification to these databases and so before proceeding you should make a backup of these databases. If you are using MS SQL Server, you can backup these databases from with SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Alternatively (and if you are using MSDE) please refer to http://www.microforge.net/kb/135 for information on how to use oSQL to backup your ENT Server databases.

Unloading ENT Server in IIS Manager (Corporate Edition)

ENT Server runs as a web site under IIS. That means IIS manages the loading and unloading of two files called EntServer.dll and EntISAPI.dll for you - so you don't control when these are running or not. If you want to install the new version of ENT Server, the install set will need to be able to overwrite these two files, which it won't be able to do if they are loaded by IIS. As such, before installing the latest version of ENT Server you will need unload ENT Server from the properties pane of the ENT Server virtual directory in IIS Manager, which you can access from the Administrative Tools folder in the Control Panel.

Uninnstall your current version of ENT Server

Having made sure that EntServer.dll and EntISAPI.dll are not loaded by IIS, you should now uninstall your existing installation of ENT Server. This should delete most of the files from: [Program Files]\Microforge.net\Enterprise Server\. It won't delete any files in the Working folder, since that folder stores the settings for your ENT Server as well as any attachments to messages sent/received by your helpdesk - so basically the stuff in that directory constitutes data and we didn't want our install set to delete client's data under any circumstances. If the uninstall does not delete the EntServer.dll and EntISAPI.dll files in [Program Files]\Microforge.net\Enterprise Server\ISAPI\ then it's likely that IIS tried to load these again and so our uninstaller couldn't delete them. In this case, you'll need to stop the web site (or if it's not running other web sites, you could stop the web publishing service entirely) and delete those files manually... you can then start the web site again.

Install the new version of ENT Server

You can now run the install for the new version ENT Server - this process is already documented in some detail in the installer for ENT Server so we won't say anything more here.

Upgrade your databases to the latest database format

Once ENT Server is installed, you will need to upgrade your databases to the latest 1.3.12 database format. For this you can use the patch_db.sql script located in [Program Files]\Microforge.net\Enterprise Server\Tools\patch_db.sql. If you don't know how to run this script, you can find further instructions in our knowledge base at:
http://www.microforge.net/kb/124

Verify that you can connect to ENT Server using the web client (Corporate Edition only)

You should now be able to connect to the web client for ENT Server by entering the address for your ENT Server into the address bar for Internet Explorer.

Upgrade any instances of the windows clients that you have installed (Corporate Edition only)

Having successfully installed the latest version of ENT Server, you will need to upgrade any instances of ENT NetCenter, ENT Report Forge and/or ENT Network Monitor that you have to the latest version, using the installers for these that are included in the entsuite.exe installer for the Corporate Edition of ENT Server.

Install the latest reports

Finally, We've changed quite a few of the reports in ENT Report Forge (we had to basically, since we made some major changes to the underlying databases). If you haven't customized any of the reports in the software then you could simply delete all the existing report folders and then install the new report pack (Select "Tools | Install Report" from the menu in ENT Report Forge and then chose the usa.rpk file that is in the ENT Report Forge program installation directory).

If you have customized some of the reports in ENT Report Forge then please let us know and we can advise you further.

Finished

Phew! That's it. Of course, if you have any questions, concerns or difficulties with any of the above then please contact us - we're here to help.