Basic knowledge about Dynamics NAV Upgrade

asdasty

Hello guys,
I have just one simple question - what is the difference between converting a database during upgrade and data upgrade? From technical point of view - what does converting a database mean, and upgrading data?

Please don't reply with "it converts your database to new version"

postsaurav

Hi,

I hope below details should answer your question -

1. ISSUE A - Suppose you have a customer which is using NAV 4.03 as of Today. Due to Company Policy Company Decides to Upgrade the Windows Operating System to Windows 7 Or Windows 8.

Now NAV 4.03 Support Till Windows XP (with a Exe Fix from Microsoft) and now your customer is unable to start NAV Client. You Suggest customer to Upgrade to the Latest Version. But Customer says we will do it later but as of now do a quick fix...

The Quick Fix in this case is open Customer Database with Exe of NAV 2009 R2. (This is called Exe Upgrade, No Data / Object Upgrade)

2. ISSUE B - When customer Plan to Upgrade to Latest Version, you Compare customer object with Standard 4.03 Objects to identify customization and then merge them in Latest NAV Version. (This is called Object Upgrade)

Once the Object Merging is completed we need to take data from NAV 4.03 to Latest Version using Microsoft Standard Data Migration Toolkit. (This is called Data Upgrade)

** Special Case -- In Some Cases we need to convert the EXE within same version due to some fix in the executable (exe).
Example - Some Major issue was resolved in NAV 2013 R2 CU 6, so Microsoft suggest to Convert the database at this step. This means the fix in the CU Require to Upgrade the Objects w.r.t Exe.

Hope it clears your doubts.

asdasty

Ok thanks for your answer, but what does this data upgrade mean step-by-step? What is it doing? I've started it with debugger turned on and I have error on some pages, so pages are used in this process? Weird.

jglathe

Data Upgrade appears to be a special context that allows parallel execution of all companies (of a tenant?) and can be invoked by PowerShell Cmdlet. It is in the same area as the Schema Synchronization functionality. As far as I found out it mostly works like a headless C/Side context, but can't handle locking errors. These always lead to runtime errors (and head scratching). Also, debugging it appears to be out.
What you do in this context: make changes to the table data to move them from the old structure to the new one.
Why a new functionality for this one? Dunno. Seems to have something to do with multi tenancy. It is cumbersome to use. The only possible advantage seens to be the parallel execution by company. Doesn't work out of the box, though.

with best regards

Jens