When your upgrading to a better version, you want it to go as smooth as possible? Right? What can you do to make it better? Well, I am about to tell you. Here is a list of "stuff and things" that you can do before you Data Extract your endpoints and migrate to the best version.
- Read the migration instructions
- Know that there might be new steps in this migration. You don’t want to end up having to do it again because you missed a step.
- Having a Backup
- Before you begin you should have a backup. Of what you say? Everything. It’s the 21st century, backups are common, cheap, and safe. There is no reason to not have a backup. Also, make sure you can actually access and use your backup. No point of having backups if you have no idea how to access or use it.
- Another good practice is truncating and shrinking the database (MS SQL) when possible. Having less data to extract is always better, especially when you have large datasets. Every megabyte counts!
- Post everything and close out periods/years
- Be as current as possible to minimize time/effort on updates and table changes
- Run Agings, trial balances and any other reports you usually run at period end so you can reconcile as soon as you are up and running on the new version in test. Better to identify differences now than later.
- Remove any NA Add-ons installed
- It’s recommended to remove any and all NA Add-ons from the folder before you migrate. Why? Because most NA Add-ons, as you see in higher versions, get added to the core or get updated to match the version you’re going to. When NA Add-ons are added in, they gain updated codes, new activity or access code, and/or more. Some NA Add-ons can also be deprecated or replaced by a customization or Partner ISV service.
- If an NA Add-ons exists in the version you are going to there is usually, packed with the add-on files, a migration utility that helps the migration process. Read the instructions and run that too.
- Remove any custom activity codes
- Applying a custom Activity Code to a function, screen, window, object, etc.. Can protect that change from users messing it up. It also prevents the import process from updates as well. If the Activity code is not removed prior to the importing process and supervisor update it can cause code mismatch and possible function loss. Just remember, its ok to remove because you can always put it back.
- Run the pre-migration utilities
- The online help has a slew of resources, so much so that you could spend the rest of your natural life reading it. There is a section on pre-migration utilities. These are often overlooked, and most people do not run them at all (sometimes me too). If you go to the online help in any version and search for “List of Migration Procedures by Module” you will find a plethora of utilities that you can run; anything from table checks to pre-loading data for migration *hint hint*. The pre-migration utilities help streamline the migration process and help clear up any known issues that may cause delays or problems with importing or supervisor update.
- Clean up the directories
- Its good maintenance practice to keep directories clean and organized. If you are making copies of directories like TRA or ATT don’t keep them in the same endpoint directories as the rest of the folders. You don’t need TRA_001, TRA_old, etc... in the directory when your data extracting, this is going to add space and time to the zipping process to move the folder over to the new location. Get rid of those.
- If you do lots of printing, its good to clean up the TRA and TMP folders to get rid of any log files. The more you have, the longer it takes to load. The Log reading function reads those and must process for the function. If you don’t need it, delete it.
- Remove any custom files from the TRT
- This ties back to custom anything. If you have customizations. They need to go. The newer version you going to could have updated customizations, changed fields, added tables, and more. Sometimes, if a function gets too overwhelming, they may split the code in to two files, or three like analytical dimensions. Removing and documenting any customizations you have and want to keep, will help in speeding up the migration process. Who knows, maybe the newer version now does what a customization used to.
- Make sure you have enough Hard Drive space
- Before migration you want to assess how big everything is. Why? Because you don’t want to run out of Drive Space trying to data extract all your 1300+ tables, you may just do that. Its not a common issue, but it has been an issue. If you run out of drive space on the “C” Drive, you may have complications with the machine in general. Like I said, it’s not usually an issue but its something to keep in mind. The folder will roughly double in size depending on the size of the Database.
- Document everything
- You wouldn’t believe how many people do not keep track of what they have, what they implement, what they change, and what they own. If you ever want to get off that clunky version and on a sweet powerhouse ride like Version 12, you must know what you have and what you need to re-implement when you get to that better version.
- As mentioned above in another bullet; removing customizations helps in the speed of the migration process. Having a change log of the customizations you added will help tremendously. Keeping a change log also gives you the ability to compare what you have changed to the updated versions changes. Sometimes people have customizations to do a specific task, which they find was added into the core system and now they don’t need it.
- You can keep a log for anything, NA Add-ons you have, how often users request stuff, tweaks you make to the system, etc. Possibilities are endless!
- On the plus side to a change log; if someone new comes along and messes it up, you have it documented to put it back. Easy-Peasy!
- Lastly, Check out Sage University
- May sure your users have taken the What’s New classes offered by Learning Services on Sage University (www.sageu.com). Users will be more comfortable with the new version and hopefully they will have less questions for you.