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  • 1.  Upgrade

    Posted 04-18-2019 09:22

    We are running 2016 R3 P12 and are about to upgrade.  Years ago we used to upgrade to the newest release and found that when doing so, we were the guinea pigs that got to find all the new bugs that hadn't been discovered.  So I want to reach out to this community to see what versions people are running and get a better idea of what release we should upgrade to.  I appreciate everyone's help with this.

    Thanks,
    Andrew


    #Implementation

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    Andrew Wooster
    Genesco Inc.
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  • 2.  RE: Upgrade
    Best Answer

    Posted 04-18-2019 09:28
    Hi Andrew,

    I would like to believe the release that you select would depend on why you are upgrading. If it is simply because your current version is getting our-of-support or are there new functionalities that you want to start using.

    We moved to 2018-R3 last year even though we wanted to move to 2018-R4 but due to certain requirements around windows-10, we settled for a lesser version.
    Our driver to upgrade is usually new functionality and also bug fixes and we tend to be a max of around 4-releases behind what is currently available from Genesys.

    The upgrade process in itself was smooth.

    Regards

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    Vineet Kakroo
    FIL Investment Management Ltd
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 04-18-2019 09:56
    Yea, features are nice but OS support/testing is more important.  Thanks for pointing out the Windows-10 requirements, we will be upgrading to 2018 R3.

    Thanks,
    Andrew

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    Andrew Wooster
    Genesco Inc.
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 04-18-2019 10:12
    Another thing to keep in mind is OS Server version. If you still have 2008 R2 running your pureconnect system,  2018 R2 is the last version that is supported. We have most of our servers on 2008 and didn't realize this prior to the upgrading to 2018 R3. Thankfully we haven't experienced any issues, but we are at risk if something major happens. 

    Windows Server 2008 R2 Support Reminder
    (last updated 27-April-2018) 
    PureConnect 2018 R2 and later supports Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit) in addition to Windows Server 2012 R2. PureConnect 2018 R2​ is the last release that was validated against and supports Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. No further validation testing will be done against Windows Server 2008 R2. 
    For more information see the Release Notes posted in November 2017. 

    PureConnect support will not fix code issues related to Windows Server 2008 R2 as Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Server 2008 R2​ in January 2015 and plans for the product end-of-life in January 2020. If issues arise in systems running on Windows Server 2008 R2, customers will be instructed to upgrade to a supported version of Microsoft Windows Server.

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    Scott Williams
    Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 04-19-2019 07:46
    Hope no one minds me asking an associated questions around upgrade in general:  How seamless is the process these days to upgrade?  Let's say it's a jump from 2018 R1 to 2019 R1 or similar 4 release jump.   I've only ever had upgrades handled by a VAR in the 3.0 days and then we migrated off 3.0 SU20 to 2018 R1.  I'm now looking at what's involved in doing upgrades and if it's something I will need to require my VAR to handle. 

    My VAR scopes these out very similarly to a migration, so they are pricey, but I would be looking at an in-place upgrade as I am on Server 2012 R2 and don't have a need to upgrade server OS at this time.  My setup is pretty simple, 2 IC server VM's in switchover, 2 media server appliance, a few customer handlers, and no other products/add-ons.  Wondering if this is something I may be able to get into doing myself as an end user.

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    Evan
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 04-19-2019 09:06

    There are some nuances to upgrading, such as the order you upgrade the servers, but over all is pretty easy.

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    Scott Williams
    Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 04-19-2019 10:14
    An OS migration involves significantly more effort and time, but I agree that a standard update from one release to another these days is pretty simple. For a basic switchover pair without a bunch of other components, I usually run in the 6-8 hour neighborhood plus any additional pre-update planning or post-update troubleshooting that may occur. This assumes that the organization handles desktop software deployment using Interactive Update or a 3rd-party deployment tool. When crossing certain release thresholds, there may also be scenarios that increase the update time.

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    David Currier
    cpi.solutions
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 04-23-2019 10:32
    Andrew,

    You will always want to look to make sure the server and client OS levels are supported in the version of CIC you are looking to deploy. From here I would suggest you don't deploy any version which has not been through the first 5 to 10 patches but more importantly you will want to look through the release notes to see what sort of SCRs have been resolved in the version. If there are a bunch of big time issues being fixed you may want to hold off for a few more patches to come out. Worst case you can always go back one R release if the current one looks like it is still a tad unstable.

    Lastly leverage your VAR and ask them their thoughts on the different available versions of CIC as they should have an idea from the other customers they support what versions are better than others.

    Thanks,

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    Mark Tatera
    ConvergeOne

    Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer. Any suggestions or programming changes I suggest come with no warranty and should be tried at your own risk.
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 06-05-2019 10:43
    Evan, it's actually not that bad. My server admin and I have done the last two upgrades on our own and kept our VAR on call for support if needed. It takes about a 12 hours total to get through the process. We switchover our DEV servers during the day at around 7am since I work at an FI. Then, file downloads at around 3pm, then after hours 5pm ct we begin the process of moving the prod servers. We end up ending between 8pm -9pm ct. This also included testing. Hope this helps. First time we were on 2017 R2 and now we are 2018R4. We are looking to complete our next upgrade sometime in Q3.

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    Elyse Gritsonis
    Johnson Financial Group
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Upgrade

    Posted 06-05-2019 10:55
    Unless you are very comfortable with every aspect of your system and the nuances of applying updates, I would not recommend attempting it yourself without first practicing it in a development environment several times.

    I did one yesterday from a 2018 release to 2019 R1 and it took 5 hours with no outage, just a switchover. Granted, it was a really simple one. The longest I have spent on an update that did not involve a server migration was about 10 hours and included a bunch of handler stuff and a number of off-server components.

    Also, with any update, there could be additional time incurred troubleshooting issues that show up in testing.

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    David Currier
    cpi.solutions
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    Original Message


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