Upgrade 3.6 to 3.7 executables only

bonehead

Hi all,

This is my first time posting on this form - just wanted to start with an "hello" - it's nice to be nice

Anyway I am upgrading a Navision Native 3.60 to Navision Native 3.70 and was told it's as easy as a backup and restore to the new client (we are not re developing the DB so there should be no object changes) - on a side point I was told that we can do this for Navision 4.0 also (has anybody done this?)

Is there any good documentation on this or have any of you done this before? I have tested this and we got errors on the restored DB - I am a bit lost on this one.

Thanks in Advance.

Dave

Marije_Brummel

Welcome to this forum

Restoring a 3.x database in 4.0 can be done but beware of the menusuite's. When opening the database for the first time this appears. If you hide this, it should not bother you.

bonehead

Thanks Mark I will Watch for that when I do the 4.0 testing. Currently I am restoring a DB into the 3.7 client to test ( it's quite large 150GB or so ) so it takes a bit of time.

PS we are moving to SQL soon so size won't be an issue !!

Kowa

We have done 2.60 to 3.60, 2.60 to 3.70,2.60 to 4.00, 3.60 to 3.70, 3.70 to 4.00 executable upgrades without any major problems, sometimes other programs like Internet Explorer had to be upgraded too (2.60 to 3.60 on an older workstation)

It is best to restore a backup into a newly created database but you can also convert the database directly by opening the old database with the new client if there is not enough time for restoring the backup (on large databases, this will take from several hours to some days ). After this install the new server.
The only compiler errors that usually show up afterwards come from missing automation servers ( external programs which have not been installed).

bonehead

Thanks Kai,

We did that here (restore to a fresh 3.7 DB) and we got loads of errors.

I'm doing it again in case the backup was corrupt or something like that. Hopefully it will all be good.

Thanks

kine

If you post some of the error, we can help you more...

One tip: if you are opening DB 3.60 with client 3.70, you do not need to convert the database. Database version of 3.70 and 3.60 is same. You can open database 3.70 with 3.60 client without problems. But if you use client 3.70A or B, you need to convert the database and going back is not possible without using backup-restore process.

In some versions, there is different behavior of some part of Navision. For example in Navision 4.00 if you create dataport with Item dataitem without default filters, and you run this dataport, you will have dialog about counting entries in Integer table (and it takes some time to count the integers :-)) It is not problem on 3.70. 3.70B is using another format of Printers names in Printer selection table than earlier versions (the SE issue solved for terminal servers). Etc. etc.

bonehead

Thanks Kine,

Whats the difference between 3.70 , 3.70A and 3.70B ? How do I tell which one I have ? This might be the reason we were getting erroros ?

I will post the errors as I get them again - I am currently restoring the DB to the 3.70 client. It's building keys at the min so only another 20 or so hours to go !!! (it's a big DB)

kine

You can see the version in Help - About Microsoft... menu item, the number in parentheses... (3.70) or (3.70.A) or (3.70.B) etc... that is something like minor versions or hotfixes... 3.70B is newest 3.70 client and 3.70B database includes many errors solved...

But it is not answer to your question if it is why you have the errors. I am not able to say more about this without more info about the errors. There can be errors because you do not have enough free space, or you have corrupted backup, etc. Which server you are using? Native or MS SQL server? Or you have single-user database (database file opened directly in client)?

Ok, I will wait for more details about the errors you got.

bonehead

Hi Kine,

your right I should explane this better:

We we are doing here is testing the move from Native to Sql.

Currently we are on a Native DB but we are 148483816Kb in size ( we have an extended licence) - we expect to be 230 GB by the end of hte year (It was a bad decision to go with Native - nobody expected the growth we have)

Now we are on 3.60 Native our testing plan is to upgrade to 3.70 executibales then from 3.70 Native to 3.70 SQL. (I've never done this before but this plan makes sence to me)

So I am in the first stage of testing - 3.60 to 3.70 - this is ment to be trouble free but it appears we have some bother.

Now I am currently restoring a new backup of live in case the last one was corrupt - the errors are stuff like (table data xyz does not exist ) its not free space or any normal operational error. They are looking for forms and formats that are not there !!!! I will have more info after the backup restores.

kine

1) Be sure that you are restoring into clean database. Without objects etc...
2) Be sure, that the backup you are restoring includes objects and that this option is turned on (checked).

Going from 3.60 to 3.70 is only opening the database with the new client. That is all. You do not need to spend time with backup/restore procedure in this step. You will spend time with this when going on SQL...

In second step - going to SQL - do not forget to use Migration toolkit objects. It will check for wrong date fields with wrong values (for example 9.11.0005). This is the biggest part of the migration. After that, you can only create backup, create new DB on MS SQL through client, and restore the backup (do not forget to create all DB users on MS SQL before you restore the backup).

bonehead

Hi,

I've checked - we're running version 3.70A

the first thing we tried is to point the new client to the existing DB - we got the following error

"The server and client do not have the same version number"

This is why we are trying the restore. Do you know what this error means ? I am assuming that it is beacuse the server (DB server ) is 3.60 and the client is 3.70 but this is going aginst everything the experts tell me ?? Help ](*,)

kine

Of course, you need:

1) Stop the old server
2) Open the file directly with new client to covnert the database to new version
3) Install new server version
4) Start the new server
5) Connect new clients on this server

You are not able to connect new client to old server. Server must be of same version as client...

Of course, you can skip point 3..5 if you will go to MS SQL server... in this case you can only do the migration step on the database without using server (in single-user mode) and after that create backup and restore it on MS SQL...

bonehead

Thanks Kine - I'll try that after it finished restoring - probable tomorrow.

kriki

When you make a backup for an upgrade, you better make a fob of all objects.
Then you first import all the objects. Find the secondary indexes (of the big tables) you don't need for the upgrade-process and disable those.
Then you can restore the data (check that you are also restoring the "Data common to all companies").
Without those unneccesary indexes, the restore and the upgrade process goes faster.
Also when importing the new objects, let the secondary indexes you don't need disabled and import the fob WITH all the secondary indexes only at the end.
This way you can save a lot of time.

For SQL : there are a lot of indexes that are not used on SQL, but are needed for Navision (=SETCURRENTKEY). But SQL decides for itself wich index to use. So a lot of indexes/SIFT-fields you don't need to maintain in SQL. Saving a lot of diskspace and performance

bonehead

I've finished the restore we are getting a fields different type error.

Here is the Error:
"The two fields below must have the same type:


Field: No. of Transactions <-- Counting
Table: Store <-- Transaction
Type: Integer <--Decimal

"

Does anybody know what this is - I can't change these field types as there is data in them.
But my worry is now where else will the DB break in regard to fields not the same and why did it change in the first place .

???? ](*,)

Thanks,

Dave

kine

It seems, that you have connected one field to another but it is not the same datatype. Check No. of Transactions field in table Store and his table relation...

bonehead

I had a closer look at this problem.

Now the fields are different in the 3.60 db so why is the error only occuring in the 3.70A db??

The store is field is a flowfield calculated from the Transaction table - any ideas anybody?

kine

Because it seems for me that the tables Store and Transaction is you new tables or tables from some add-on, I am not able to help you till you post definition of the tables (or at least of the two fields)...

bonehead

Hi I just got word that the 3.70A exe checks for this sort of thing where as the 3.60 exec did not

That is why it is workng on 3.60 exe and not 3.70A

can anybody confirm this???