How to upgrade NAV 5.0 To 2016

boraunal

Hello,

I have a customer that wants to upgrade 2016 from 5.0
For Code Upgrade I have search msdn and web but ı couldnt find any documents anywhere.
How is the procedure for this upgrade steps?
Can someone pls help me with pointing documents or experience pls?

How is the steps?
Example:5.0 to 6.0 then 2009-2015-2016 or 5.0 to directly 2016?

Best Regards,

rsaritzky

I'd like to expand a little bit on the comments above. Your question has many "answers" based on the parts:

1. The database upgrade itself. If you have custom fields, because you have to go so many levels, the best approach, in my opinion, is to export all the custom data fields. Yes, this is a pretty big project. But if you DON'T do this, you'll have to create customized tables in a NAV2009 database, a NAV2013 database, a NAV2015 database and a NAV2016 database. If you export all the custom fields, you can just add the fields back into a 2016 database and import the data after the database upgrade.
2. After you export all the custom data, delete the fields from the NAV5.0 database.
3. Now you are back to a "vanilla" NAV database (from a data standpoint), and you can execute the upgrade:
a. Upgrade from NAV5.0 to NAV2009
b. Upgrade from NAV2009 to NAV2015
d. Upgrade from NAV2015 to NAV2016

There are alternative paths to the above (e.g. Go from 2009 to 2013 then 2013 to 2016). But each step above is necessary, and can consume quite a bit of time to execute. And, to make things more "interesting", each step uses a different set of tools. NAV5.0 to NAV2009 uses Classic Client tools, 2009 to 2015 uses RTC tools, and 2015 to 2016 uses Powershell. So get ready to learn a lot of tools.

4. After you get the database upgraded, you can add your custom fields back in and import the custom data that you exported previously. You didn't mention if your NAV5.0 database was based on SQL Server or the NAV Classic database engine. If you are on the NAV database engine, there are some data conversion steps that also have to be taken (mostly to handle some dates that aren't compatible with SQL). But if you ARE on SQL for NAV5.0, then you can do the exports via SQL scripts (much faster) and similarly all the imports.

5. Now that you have the data, you can merge any code customizations into NAV2016 (if you have any). Note that you have to have a developer license to do this.

6. The second component is any screen customizations. All screen customizations will have to be re-executed in NAV2016. There were some form-to-page conversion tools available, but my opinion is that the pages in NAV2016 are so different than forms in NAV5.0 that it is more efficient to just re-execute the customizations in NAV2016.

7. The third component is reports. Again, opinions differ, but in my opinion, the most efficient way is to either (a) re-apply any report modifications to NAV2016 (again a completely different report development environment), or, sub-contract out the report conversions. Your partner can do it or work with some companies out there that specialize in conversions. For that matter, you can sub out the entire conversion. 1Click Factory is one of the companies that do this - however, they only work through your NAV partner.

8. The next component is any dataports that you use will have to be converted to XMLports.

There are a number of documents out there that describe the upgrade process.

For NAV5.0 to NAV2009, there is a document on the NAV2009 CD - look for the "UpgradeToolkit" directory, I think (sorry I don't have it in front of me).

For 2009 to 2016, here's one place (there is a document out there that contains this info also):
https://community.dynamics.com/nav/b/navteam/archive/2013/11/22/upgrade-toolkit-for-upgrading-data-from-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2009-r2-and-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2009-sp1-to-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2013-r2

The community.dynamics.com forums and blogs.msdn.com have these documents.

This is a BIG project no matter how you slice it.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction.

Ron

postsaurav

So here are something that will help you -
1. Upgrade have two parts - Data migration and Object Merging.

From NAV 5 To NAV 2016 -
The Data Migration have following steps -
1. 6 TO 2015 (OR 2013 / 2013 R2)
2. 2015 (OR 2013 / 2013 R2) TO NAV 2016.

From 5 To 6 There is no data migration required.

So here is what need to be done -
1. Object Merging need to be done directly to NAV 2016 for all objects.
2. Other than that you need to merge table (fields) to 2015 and NAV 2009 (6).

Once Object merging is complete you can start the data migration

boraunal

How do ı add 2009 table fields when ı merge tables?I can add it via copy-paste but it will have import problems.Is there any systematic ways to do it can you lead me the way pls,

Best Regards,

kriki

[Topic moved from 'NAV Tips & Tricks' forum to 'NAV Three Tier' forum]

postsaurav

See your first task is to merge custom fields from 5 to 2009 and that will not have permission issues if you are a partner.

swpolo

boraunal,
Merge you can do by exporting in txt format all objects from customized database version 5, clear database version 5 based on customized version and target version NAV 2016.
Compare changes between clear and customized version and bring all changes to NAV2016.

Want to remind you, if database is hardly customized this process can be complicate. If you do not have experience on that it will take a lot of time.

rsaritzky

I'd like to expand a little bit on the comments above. Your question has many "answers" based on the parts:

1. The database upgrade itself. If you have custom fields, because you have to go so many levels, the best approach, in my opinion, is to export all the custom data fields. Yes, this is a pretty big project. But if you DON'T do this, you'll have to create customized tables in a NAV2009 database, a NAV2013 database, a NAV2015 database and a NAV2016 database. If you export all the custom fields, you can just add the fields back into a 2016 database and import the data after the database upgrade.
2. After you export all the custom data, delete the fields from the NAV5.0 database.
3. Now you are back to a "vanilla" NAV database (from a data standpoint), and you can execute the upgrade:
a. Upgrade from NAV5.0 to NAV2009
b. Upgrade from NAV2009 to NAV2015
d. Upgrade from NAV2015 to NAV2016

There are alternative paths to the above (e.g. Go from 2009 to 2013 then 2013 to 2016). But each step above is necessary, and can consume quite a bit of time to execute. And, to make things more "interesting", each step uses a different set of tools. NAV5.0 to NAV2009 uses Classic Client tools, 2009 to 2015 uses RTC tools, and 2015 to 2016 uses Powershell. So get ready to learn a lot of tools.

4. After you get the database upgraded, you can add your custom fields back in and import the custom data that you exported previously. You didn't mention if your NAV5.0 database was based on SQL Server or the NAV Classic database engine. If you are on the NAV database engine, there are some data conversion steps that also have to be taken (mostly to handle some dates that aren't compatible with SQL). But if you ARE on SQL for NAV5.0, then you can do the exports via SQL scripts (much faster) and similarly all the imports.

5. Now that you have the data, you can merge any code customizations into NAV2016 (if you have any). Note that you have to have a developer license to do this.

6. The second component is any screen customizations. All screen customizations will have to be re-executed in NAV2016. There were some form-to-page conversion tools available, but my opinion is that the pages in NAV2016 are so different than forms in NAV5.0 that it is more efficient to just re-execute the customizations in NAV2016.

7. The third component is reports. Again, opinions differ, but in my opinion, the most efficient way is to either (a) re-apply any report modifications to NAV2016 (again a completely different report development environment), or, sub-contract out the report conversions. Your partner can do it or work with some companies out there that specialize in conversions. For that matter, you can sub out the entire conversion. 1Click Factory is one of the companies that do this - however, they only work through your NAV partner.

8. The next component is any dataports that you use will have to be converted to XMLports.

There are a number of documents out there that describe the upgrade process.

For NAV5.0 to NAV2009, there is a document on the NAV2009 CD - look for the "UpgradeToolkit" directory, I think (sorry I don't have it in front of me).

For 2009 to 2016, here's one place (there is a document out there that contains this info also):
https://community.dynamics.com/nav/b/navteam/archive/2013/11/22/upgrade-toolkit-for-upgrading-data-from-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2009-r2-and-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2009-sp1-to-microsoft-dynamics-nav-2013-r2

The community.dynamics.com forums and blogs.msdn.com have these documents.

This is a BIG project no matter how you slice it.

I hope this helps point you in the right direction.

Ron

ievasimplanova

thanks for useful information about Dynamics Nav Upgrade from NAV 5.0 To 2016. What is Your experience about upgrading 5th version to 2017.

rsaritzky

I haven't seen anything <yet> other than Powershell scripts to upgrade from 2016 to 2017, but I haven't looked very hard. In theory, Microsoft should be able to provide scripts to go from 2015 to 2017. If you are going to 2017 directly, you should consider making your customizations in 2017 using the new Eventing model. That will make future upgrades simpler.

Good luck!

Ron