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Best practices for upgrading SQL Server 2017 to SQL Server 2022 for Laserfiche 11 Production Environment (Forms & Workflow running with active processes)

Laserfiche Version 11 Forms Workflow Administration
Updated 8 hours ago
asked one day ago

Hi everyone,

We are planning to upgrade our production database server from Microsoft SQL Server 2017 to SQL Server 2022 for our on-prem Laserfiche environment and would like to understand the recommended approach and best practices to ensure a smooth transition without impacting Laserfiche functionality.

Our environment details:

  • Laserfiche Version: Laserfiche 11

  • Components in use:

    • Laserfiche Server

    • Laserfiche Forms (with multiple running processes)

    • Laserfiche Workflow (with long-running workflows and waiting activities)

    • Laserfiche Web Client

  • Database: SQL Server 2017 (to be upgraded to SQL Server 2022)

  • Integrations:

    • Multiple external system integrations running 24/7

    • Automated workflows and Forms submissions continuously interacting with the database

  • Production environment with business-critical processes

We understand that downtime will be required, but our main concern is performing the upgrade safely without breaking existing Forms instances, Workflow instances (especially waiting activities), or integrations.

We are looking for guidance on the following:

1. Pre-upgrade preparation

  • Recommended backups (full DB, transaction logs, repository, configuration files, etc.)

  • Laserfiche services/modules to be stopped — and in what order

  • Detaching LF repositories if required

  • Handling active Forms and Workflow instances before downtime

2. Upgrade approach

  • Our DB team is going to do all compatibility checks of databases from MSSQL V2017 to MSSQL V2022, take backups and move them to new instance

  • Any known considerations specific to Laserfiche 11 with SQL Server 2022

3. Post-upgrade activities

  • Steps to reconnect Laserfiche components to the upgraded SQL instance

  • Order of starting services (SQL → Laserfiche Server → Workflow → Forms → Web, etc.)

  • Attaching repositories if detached.

  • Any required configuration updates or reindexing

If anyone has performed a similar upgrade (especially with active processes and integrations), your experience and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

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Replies

replied 10 hours ago

It is more of a migration than an upgrade since the task is to move the databases to a pre-configured SQL 2022 Server. If you were upgrading the existing SQL server there is not much to do with the services other than stop and start them.

You can shut off the Laserfiche services in any order or shut down the whole OS if you like.

You can also reconnect each service in any order since WF will wait for the repository to come back online and Forms will temporarily suspend tasks that can be re-run with a quick search. The most ideal order to re-connect the services is Repository - WF - Forms. (Web does not use a DB)

The only part that takes some time is the Repository, since when you open the config to change the database it spends about 5 minutes trying to connect to the offline server before finally allowing you to enter new information. WF and Forms do not have this problem and you can quickly update the connection info.

So the downtime for this move is around 15-30 minutes total.

The repository does not get detached, no configurations get lost, the connection info for the DB just changes. Most important thing is just that the services (or server) is offline before you begin the backup to move the databases, so that nothing new is getting written to the old server.

 

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replied 8 hours ago

You'll want to inventory your data sources in both Forms and Workflows. They would also need to be updated if the databases they point to are part of this migration. 

You will want to make sure you are on the latest version of Laserfiche 11, then detach the repository prior to moving SQL and reattach it afterwards in order to use the latest SQL driver. Older versions of Laserfiche 11 use an older version of the driver that is not compatible with SQL 2022 and higher.

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