How to upgrade Insight ST1 on SP2 to ST3 on SP3? 1

[taros]

hi,

I have a scenario where Windows 2003 Sharepoint 2.0 based Insight ST1 installation needs to be upgraded into Windows 2008 Sharepoint 3.0 based Insight ST3. Looking through documentation there is only mentioned and described SP2 to SP3 upgrade.

Have anyone any ideas how to proceed?

tia
ttapsa the newbe

 

[toffeet]

Upgrading Insight Server is the easy part. Whether you are upgrading from ST1 directly to ST3 or from ST2 to ST3, you simply uninstall the old version and install the new version. Upgrading Windows Server, SQL Server and SharePoint is the difficult part.
We have just been through the process of upgrading from Windows 2003, SQL 2005 and SharePoint 2.0 (all 32 bit) to Small Business Server 2011, SQL 2008 and SharePoint 3.0 (all 64 bit). My day is too short to take you through the whole process but I can give you the following advice.

1. Seriously consider to invest in new hardware. 64 bit is the way to go and to fully utilize its capabilities you will need decent hardware. Also, if something goes wrong with the upgrade process you still have the current server to work from.
2. Get good IT support. Windows Server is a lot more user friendly than what it used to be but with a big upgrade like this there is always a little surprise or two.
3. From experience I will suggest the following steps. Setup a new server (Windows 2008 64 bit), install SQL 2008 64 bit, copy your current SharePoint content database, attached it to SQL 2008 (SQL 2008 with automatically upgrade the database), install SharePoint 3.0 and add the upgraded content database to one of your SharePoint web applications. Install Insight Server to the same web application.

Regards,
Theodore

Solid Edge ST3 MP3 on WinXP x64
Insight Server on Win2008 R2 & SQL 2008 R2 x64
SharePoint 3.0 x64

 

[taros]

Thanx toffet,

this was a lot like what I was anticipating. I’m going to do a poc using virtual machine so all the fine prints will be covered without getting hands dirty.

Regards,
ttapsa

 

[beachcomber]

***** WARNING ********
Don't install MP4 on ST3 - there are issues with that service pack that have been reported in a previous post.
The company I have just started work at have had to do an uninstall and re-install of Solid Edge on all their computers then load MP3.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.

Where would we be without sat-nav?

 

[davemerritt]

If you set up a new Insight server with a new server name that is different from your existing serve name then there are some additional steps you will need to take to fix the server name change between the old and new server. Furthermore if you are going to go through all of that work you should consider upgrading from WSS 2 to SPF 2010 as WSS 3 even though supported with Insight ST3 is dead MS software.

As for not installing MP4, there is no reason not to install MP4, especially when running Insight. See this thread:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=297145&page=1

 

[taros]

Hi davemerritt,

Could you tell me what additional steps do I need to take in order to have different server name ? Because this will be the case in my case.

Unfortunately WSS3 was not my choise, so maybe there will a second conversion in few years time.

tia
ttapsa

 

[davemerritt]

Two things. The first is that the server name is hardcoded into several values within the Insight data in the database so this will need to be addressed and fixed. GTAC support can provide you with a SQL script to accomplish this if you are not able to figure it out for yourself. The second is that you will need to redefine a new Insight cache location for all the users because if the user that last saved the file into Insight before migrating servers attempts to open that file from the new server Edge will get its knickers in a twist trying to open from the old server. Setting the cache to a new location resolves this.

 

[smitsch]

We developed a tool to migrate from WSS 2.0/WSS 3.0 to Foundation directly.

If you use the common way of updating you have to this step by step.
WSS2.0 -> WSS3.0 -> Foundation
At the end you will have a Foundation server but with the old structure and the old fashon look and feel.

With our tool you can rename the server and all Insight attributes will be updated. You can setup a new structure e.g. a subsite in WSS 2.0 is should be a doc lib in Foundation.

We have already released the software therefore we have not setup a website for this but you can get in touch with me under this site

http://www.unitec.de/company/contact.html

smitsch

 

[davemerritt]

Or if implementing new server hardware along with facing multiple SharePoint upgrades another option would be to create an unmanaged dump of all your Insight files, then set up your new server fresh with the latest SharePoint version and no upgrades in the mix, then do an Add to Library of the unmanaged file dump.

This methodology allows you to basically start over with a fresh clean server install and provides you with a way to reconfigure and redesign your Insight structure if it was not optimum before.

 

[smitsch]

Good suggestion!

But with this method you will lose all the versions. Because creating an unmanaged copy of the files will only dump the latest version.

I don't know if you can do a dump of a complete site!?

What happend with other documents that are stored in this lib e.g. PDFs , DOCs,... that do not have a link to a Solid Edge Part?
AFAIK the Revisionmanager considers only SE-Files and linked documents.

With Add to Library all informations will be updated e.g User, creation date,...This informations are somtimes important for the useres!

 

[davemerritt]

Versions? Technically Insight does not support versions. But if you do use versions those should only be temporary any way and should not be part of a permanent historical workflow of the part. Revisions not versions are how you track historical changes to the files and parts. But even if you do have versions enabled there are still ways to dump the versions also.

Not sure what you are asking about other documents stored in the doc libs such as PDFs, DOCs etc. If you can dump SE files, then you can dump other file types as well and reimport.

Agreed that the file information is important but in all reality you should *never* rely on the operating system to track these things as they can easily be modified by any number of means. If things such as created by, created date, etc are important then you should consider ways to embed those values into the physical files using properties, etc. Add to Library is simply a quick easy way to facilitate a dump and import. If these file system values are critical for you then there are ways to still dump this information from the file system, tie it back to the unmanaged file dump and reimport altogether again into a fresh SharePoint install.

So yes there are ways to dump a complete site and programmatically you can make just about anything happen if you do decide to dump and start fresh.

You can discuss why each method has apparent flaws in it but at the end of the day every install is unique. For some sites a dump and fresh start is a much more viable option than attempting multiple SharePoint upgrades and for others it is not. Without throwing this option out there for consideration too many sites may believe their only option is to be stuck with dealing with SharePoint upgrade hell.

 

[toffeet]

I have used the following program in the past to export and import document libraries. All the metadata was maintained. On a big database it can take a while.

http://spdeploymentwizard.codeplex.com/

Solid Edge ST3 MP6 on WinXP x64
Insight Server on Win2008 R2 & SQL 2008 R2 x64
SharePoint 3.0 x64