WIndchill 12.1 in-place Upgrade

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
July 22, 2022
4 replies
8900 views

I am planning for a windchill upgrade from 11.0 to 12.1 on the same server. I have gone through the Upgrade Guide but it is little confusing.

My Question is: Should I do the Import and export of LDAP and Database for this in-place upgrade also OR

I would just follow the same steps to install 12.1 on the same server as I did for 11.0?( such as LDAP connection and Database user?) and run the upgrade Manager.

After Running the upgrade Manager, Will I see both versions available on my server C drive --ptc folder?

OR it would just overwrites on older version?

Bus_System Administration

Best answer by TomU

I'm going to chime in with a few comments.

1.) There's really no such thing as an 'in place upgrade'. The Windchill application has to be installed in it's own new folder. This new installation will be completely separate from the previous installation, even if located on the same physical server. It's not possible to update the files in the existing Windchill folder during an 'upgrade'. The only times the existing installation (in the same folder) can be updated is during a critical patch install or during a maintenance release install.

2.) 'Upgrading' Windchill really means to install a brand new clean Windchill system (and empty database), then overwrite that new database with the one from your old system, and finally run the 'upgrade manager' process to update this old database to work with the new Windchill system.

3.) It is possible to install many different versions of Windchill, or even multiple copies of the same Windchill version, on the same server at the same time, but only one of them can actually be running at a time. If you configure Windchill to run as a Windows service, you will need to reconfigure which installation gets started by by the service. (I find it easier to not configure Windchill as a service until I'm done jumping back and forth between the different versions.)

4.) Windchill needs to talk to a database. You can configure each of these separate Windchill installations to talk to the same database instance, or you can configure each one to talk to its own separate instance. If they are all talking to the same database and same instance, you will need to back up and restore the database depending on which Windchill installation (version) you want to run at that moment.

5.) Windchill 11 stores a bunch of stuff in the local LDAP (Windchill DS). During the upgrade process, a bunch of information is going to get moved from Windchill DS into JSON files and the database. Since you will probably be running this upgrade process multiple times for practice, it's important that you have backup of the LDAP before you attempt the upgrade so you can roll it back to the starting condition for subsequent upgrade tests.

6.) You can continue to use the existing Windchill DS installation for the Windchill 12 LDAP connection. You don't need a separate LDAP installation. Just make sure you back up everything.

B

BenLoosli

23-Emerald III

I hope you have a set of test servers to practice the upgrade on before doing a production server.

We always use a different set of servers for our upgrades. I have 2 sets, one for testing the upgrade procedure with and then the production one. When it is upgrade time, I have a third set of virtual servers built. 1 server set is my current production set, 1 server set is for test/development of the upgrade and then I have the actual new version production servers set.

What is your LDAP? 11.0 used WindchillDS, 12.1 uses your corporate LDAP or WindchillDS 11.2.

You may see both versions, depending on the folder you install Windchill to, but only the latest version may run.

Always do a test upgrade and create your own upgrade guide. Mine is 8 pages long of the steps to get the process to the point of running UpgradeManager. My UpgradeManager documentation is about 22 pages. My build a new system guide is about 28 pages.

S

SrikanthM

Author

8-Gravel

Thanks for the update.

my server is archived server that no one uses and I would like to use my corporate LDAP but with 11.0 we have used both Windchill DS and corporate LDAP.

T

TomU

Answer

23-Emerald IV

I'm going to chime in with a few comments.

1.) There's really no such thing as an 'in place upgrade'. The Windchill application has to be installed in it's own new folder. This new installation will be completely separate from the previous installation, even if located on the same physical server. It's not possible to update the files in the existing Windchill folder during an 'upgrade'. The only times the existing installation (in the same folder) can be updated is during a critical patch install or during a maintenance release install.

2.) 'Upgrading' Windchill really means to install a brand new clean Windchill system (and empty database), then overwrite that new database with the one from your old system, and finally run the 'upgrade manager' process to update this old database to work with the new Windchill system.

3.) It is possible to install many different versions of Windchill, or even multiple copies of the same Windchill version, on the same server at the same time, but only one of them can actually be running at a time. If you configure Windchill to run as a Windows service, you will need to reconfigure which installation gets started by by the service. (I find it easier to not configure Windchill as a service until I'm done jumping back and forth between the different versions.)

4.) Windchill needs to talk to a database. You can configure each of these separate Windchill installations to talk to the same database instance, or you can configure each one to talk to its own separate instance. If they are all talking to the same database and same instance, you will need to back up and restore the database depending on which Windchill installation (version) you want to run at that moment.

5.) Windchill 11 stores a bunch of stuff in the local LDAP (Windchill DS). During the upgrade process, a bunch of information is going to get moved from Windchill DS into JSON files and the database. Since you will probably be running this upgrade process multiple times for practice, it's important that you have backup of the LDAP before you attempt the upgrade so you can roll it back to the starting condition for subsequent upgrade tests.

6.) You can continue to use the existing Windchill DS installation for the Windchill 12 LDAP connection. You don't need a separate LDAP installation. Just make sure you back up everything.