Question

Move and Upgrade - Laserfiche 8.2.1 to 9.1.1

Laserfiche Workflow

Updated July 26, 2019

asked on March 25, 2014

Hi all,

A client needs to upgrade from Laserfiche 8.2.1 to 9.1.1. At the same time they will be moving the server from a VM to a physical server. They are planning this new server to have the same IP address /host name as the old one. Some questions,

Do I need to first upgrade from 8.2.1 to 9.1.1 in the old server to upgrade the Database/Repository?
Or it is possible just to move the Repository and workflows to the new location and the new installer will take care of it?

While performing this upgrade, do i need to uninstall the old server in order to free up the activation?

In terms of re-indexing the Repository, is it recommended to perform this task while upgrading?

SQL Server is on another server.

Any suggestions/documentation will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Andres

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on March 28, 2014 • Show version history

For Laserfiche server:

1. Detach repository from current LFServer

1.5 Move/Copy volume files to new server if necessary

2. Deactivate the current LFServer

3. Install new LFServer and activate

4. Attach repository to new LFServer

At this point, the LFServer will upgrade the SQL database for you and you will be prompted to upgrade the search catalog, which will trigger reindexing of the repository's text files. See the upgrade guide for more on reindexing options.

4.5 Update the volume paths to point to the new server if they were moved

For Workflow:

1. Install Workflow 9.1.1 on the new server

2. Install the migration utility from 9.1.1 on your WF 8.0 server

3. Run the migration utility and go through the planning step to see how many running instances you have and how long their completion is projected to take

Steps 1-3 are completely independent of the LF Server migration and can be done at any time.

Workflow 8.0 relies on the LFServer name for connecting to Laserfiche, so if you still have running instances, you will have to DNS alias the new LF Server to the old LFServer's name so these instances may continue running.

4. Once the repository has been moved to the new server, run the migration utility and migrate the repository settings from Workflow 8.0 to 9.1

At this point, both Workflow 8.0 and 9.1 will be connected to your repository.

5. Migrate workflows and their starting rules from 8.0 to 9.1. This can be done for all workflows at the same time or for individual workflows.

At this point, new instances of Workflow would start on the 9.1 server, but instances that were already running on 8.0 will continue running on the 8.0 server until they are completed. (that is the default setup, you can choose to leave the starting rule active in 8.0 while you are testing a migrated workflow in 9.1. For more information, see the migration guide)

6. When all running instances have completed on 8.0, the server can be decommissioned.

Things to consider:

Step 0 for both server upgrades: check the validity of your backups before the upgrades
It's best if you stop Workflow 8.0 service while moving the repository
If you have any custom activities in Workflow 8.0, they should be tested out in 9.1 before migrating their corresponding workflows
If you have any custom references in scripts in Workflow, check how they were used and make sure that those references exist on the new server or plan for upgrading the scripts

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replied on February 16, 2015

Great post Miruna.

Thanks for that.

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Replies

replied on March 26, 2014

Is your Workflow being upgraded from 8.0 to 9.1.1 or from 8.3 or higher to 9.1.1? See this white paper for the differences.

You don't need to upgrade Laserfiche on the old server first and then move it, you can do it as a single step.

You will need to deactivate the old server in order to activate the new one.

You will need to upgrade the search catalog as part the upgrade process, which will reindex your repository.

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replied on March 27, 2014

Hi Munura,

The Workflow is version 8.0.1.

Based on your answer, what do you mean with single step? Does it mean that i don't need to migrate the repository on the old server. By installing Laserfiche 9.1 on the new server, will it automatically upgrade the Repository/Database from version 8.0 to 9.1

The steps that i would do are:

1. Install and migrate Laserfiche from 8.0 to 9.1 This would migrate the Repository, database and Workflow.

2. Deactivate the old server.

3. Move repository, workflows to the new server.

4. Install Laserfiche 9.1.

5. Attach and activate updated Repository. and point Laserfiche to current (updated) database.

6. Re-configure Wokflows.

In terms of the Workflow utility. I would need to use the migration utility on the old server, migrate the workflows and then move them to the new server. Is this correct?

Thanks for your help!

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replied on March 30, 2014

Thanks for your answer!

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replied on May 31, 2016 • Show version history

Question regarding moving the entire server to a different location. Can I change the IP address once I have it racked in new location to the Network here and then point the AD to new location. Any help would be appreciated. I am running 9.2 version of laserfiche

Will the Repository still be available to all users

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replied on May 31, 2016

I'm assuming you're moving it within the domain. Yes, you can physically move the server and as long as the client applications can still resolve the location of the server either by name or by IP, they'll still work. I'd recommend stopping any services that are connected to it that may be on different machines during the time LFS is being moved (like Workflow or Forms or Import Agent).

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replied on May 31, 2016 • Show version history

Thank you for your answer yes it is still in the same domain just a different building.

Do you have any documentation on this to make my life easy for this move

Sorry forgot to add the IP address will be different to.

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replied on May 31, 2016

I expect that the clients attached the repository by name, not by IP. The name would be the default way, though IP is supported as well (but not really common). So as long as DNS lookup finds the machine by name, it shouldn't matter if the IP changed.

Most of our documentation deals with moving between machines. If your records with us are correct, you only have the Server, Web Access and Quick Fields. So for the Server, it really is as easy as moving a workstation if the name doesn't change.

Though, you should double-check the volume paths in the Admin Console and make sure they're not network drives that are no longer available on the new network.

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Move and Upgrade - Laserfiche 8.2.1 to 9.1.1

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