Upgrade Process

This section walks you through applying the Aras Innovator 33 Patch to Aras Innovator Releases 14 or newer. Aras recommends you do a test run of this upgrade on a non-production instance, before attempting this upgrade on your production system.

Upgrading the production instance of Aras Innovator should be done with planning of a short timetable, and an ability to back out the upgrade if something in the process unexpectedly fails.

The following sections are a rough outline of the steps used when upgrading the Aras Innovator production instance.

1. Notify users that the system will be down at a scheduled time, and that they should log out of the system prior to the start of the process.
Note
It is best to give at least 24 hours of notice, as well as a reminder 15 minutes prior to the upgrade.
2. Back up the code tree:

The ‘Code Tree’ refers to files and folders installed to the disk when Aras Innovator was first installed. The default path for the Code Tree installation would be something similar to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Aras\Innovator With the following contents:



You can confirm the installation folder with the following steps:

1. From the Start Menu, select Start --> Control Panel.
2. From the Control Panel, select Programs and Features.
3. Right-click on the ‘Name’ column header and select More…

Select the Comments header if it is not checked Click OK.

4. Search for the Aras Innovator entry in the Programs and Features window.
5. View the value set in the Comments column for the Aras Innovator entry:



Once you have determined where the code tree is installed, you would want to back up the folder and all of its contents.

3. Disconnect all users from the database.

The easiest way to prevent client sessions from committing any further changes to the database is to change the database connection string in the InnovatorServerConfig.xml from <DB-Connection… to <xDB-Connection and restart the w3svc service (IIS). This expires all session and prevents all new connections to the Aras Innovator database through the existing instance.

4. Backup the database.

Place this file in a safe location, as it is necessary when you restore from it, if the upgrade fails.

5. Enable database connections.

After your database backup has completed, you can enable the database connection string in the InnovatorServerConfig.xml by simply changing it from <xDB-Connection… to <DB-Connection and restarting the w3svc service (IIS).

The Upgrade Process is handled by the Aras Update tool. But it has to be run locally on each server where an Aras Innovator component is installed.

1. Copy and unzip the Aras Innovator 33 Patch.zip file on the server.
2. Launch Aras Update tool as administrator.
3. Click on the Local button.



4. Add reference to the unzipped Aras Innovator 33 Patch folder.
1. Click on + Add package reference.
2. Select the top-level folder containing the patch and click OK.

Aras Upgrade Package should be added as shown.



5. Click on the Install button.
6. Select appropriate installation components from the listed modules and click the Next button.



Note
The code tree upgrades will only work correctly if the components are installed locally. Database can be upgraded from any machine that can make a successful http connection to Aras Innovator application.
7. Select the Detailed Logging option and then click Next.



8. If updating a code tree components, specify the path to the top-level Innovator folder as shown in example below and click Install.



The installation process should run and complete successfully.

9. If updating the database, specify the following information:
1. Server URL: URL address for Aras Innovator.
2. Database: Name of the database that should be updated.
3. Username: Must be root.
4. Password: Password for root user.
5. SQL Instance: The name of the SQL Server instance where the database of the upgrading Aras Innovator instance is installed.
6. SQL Database Name: Name of the database that should be updated.
7. DBA Login Name: DB admin user with ALTER DATABASE permissions. Default is sa.
8. DBA Password: Password for DB admin user. Default is sa user.



The import process should run and complete successfully.

Note
Remember to disable the root user after the import is complete.

10. Repeat steps above for all modules as needed until all components of Aras Innovator are upgraded successfully.

If your previous version of Aras Innovator had Aras Visual Collaboration enabled, you must update it to include the Aras2DPdfViewer package. Use the following procedure to upgrade Visual Collaboration:

1. Confirm that a current version of the Aras.PDFViewer Feature license is activated in the database:
1. Log into Aras Innovator as an administrator.
2. Go to Administration\FeatureLicenses in the TOC and do a search for “Aras.PDFViewer” license.
3. If the license is not found, subscribers can request a license from licenses@aras.com.
2. Unzip the ArasPDFViewer.zip file found in CD Image\Utilities\ folder.
3. Import the database package with the Package Import Export Utilities. For more information on using this tool, refer to the Aras Innovator 33 - Package Import Export Utilities documentation.
1. You need to enable the “Super User” login to perform this step.
2. Browse to the \PackageImportExportUtilities\Import\ folder and run the Import.exe file



4. Figure 10.
5. Enter a connection URL for a given Aras Innovator instance in the Server field. By default, it is http://localhost/InnovatorServer/.
6. Click the Login button. The Login to Aras Innovator dialog box appears.



7. Figure 11.
8. Specify the connection information for the given Aras Innovator instance:
1. Database: a name of a target Aras Innovator database. By default, it is InnovatorSolutions.
2. Username: root.
3. Password: a password for the root User. By default, it is innovator.
9. Click the Login button. Aras Package Import should have successfully connected to the given Aras Innovator instance.
10. Specify the connection information for the PDF Viewer installation modules:
1. Target Release = 33
2. Description = PDF Viewer
3. Manifest File Path = The manifest is found in the folder CD Image\Utilities\ArasPDFViewer\Imports
4. Available for Import = Check PDFViewer
5. Type = Merge
6. Mode = Thorough Mode
11. Click Import to start the utility.
12. After the import has been completed, disable the SuperUser user.

If your previous version of Aras Innovator had HTML to PDF Converter enabled, you must upgrade it as well.

1. Copy the Aras HTML to PDF Converter package to a local drive on the Conversion Server.

This Aras HTML to PDF Converter folder is in the Utilities directory of the Aras Innovator CD Image on the Aras MFT website (https://mft.aras.com/InnovatorLatestRelease/)

2. Copy the ‘ConversionServer’ folder to the root directory where the Conversion Server was installed, overwriting the existing ‘ConversionServer’ folder and its contents.
3. Restart IIS.

Use the following steps to check if your code tree and database have applied the upgrade to Aras Innovator 33.

1. Log in to Aras Innovator as an administrator.
2. From the Main Menu select Help --> About.
3. Confirm that the dialog shows the following:
• Aras Innovator Release 33 Build 14.30.0.42172



Figure 13.

4. Click OK.
5. From the TOC, select Administration --> Variables.
6. Confirm that following variables are listed:

If any part of this test fails, revert to your backups and contact Aras Support at Support@aras.com.

Aras recommends you test any critical functionality before going live with any upgrade

• Test critical functionality
• Test the vault
• Add a new file, view that file, and finally delete that file.
• View existing file from prior to the upgrade.

If all tests are satisfactory, notify users the system is running again.