Upgrade ePO 5.3.3 to 5.10 in place vs migrate to new server?

[web1b]

We are using 5.3.3 with SQL Express 2012 on Server 2012 R2

We want to migrate to the latest ePO 5.10 and lastest supported version of SQL Express.

We can either upgrade in place from ePO 5.3.3 to 5.10 or we can build an all new server with Server 2016 and SQL Express 2017 and then migrate our configuration, policies and clients to the new server.

Which method is recommended?

[HugsNotDrugs]

If you can afford a second server this method will probably be better. My main argument would be this way you can save yourself some stress shouold the upgrade go wrong, as you old server will be unaffected by it. Also, I believe the 5.10 version is still being considered to be less stable then the 5.9.1, so better be ready for surprises 🙂

[cdinet · Accepted solution]

You can also use the migrate option to move your existing server to a new one.  PD25506 (install guide for epo), starting on page 46 has instructions for that.  The section heading says "migrating from a 32-bit to a 64-bit platform", but any reason to migrate is valid, such as new os, etc.  The advantage of using the migrate utility is that you retain all your systems, settings, etc.  You just have to keep either IP or servername the same and ensure dns resolves to the new server with either so that clients will still be able to find the server.  Also, if the migration would happen to fail, you still have your existing server to bring back online.

As for 5.10 being unsable, I wouldn't classify it as that.  It has a lot of benefits over other versions due to additional features it offers.  As long as you have the latest update 2 and hotfixes, you should be fine with it.

Upgrading in place also has its advantages, such as reduced cost of another server and retaining all clients, settings, etc.  The disadvantages would be if it fails, you have more down time restoring it if a recovery is needed.  Also, you don't have the advantage of a newer OS and sql version.  It is not recommended to upgrade the OS on an existing server.  If you do, we recommend backing everything up, remove epo, upgrade the os, then restore epo. 

So ultimately the choice is yours, weighing all the pros and cons.

[web1b]

Is it also possible to migrate from 5.33 to ePO 5.10 in AWS?

If we move ePO to AWS, we will not be able to keep the same IP address or server name since AWS has a different IP range and our servers are name based on their location.

[cdinet · Accepted solution]

I am not sure about the migration process on AWS.  In that case, your best bet would be to set up a new server, then transfer systems to the new server. 

If you do that, I would also suggest upgrading your existing server.  The reason being is that if you want to import policies and tasks, we recommend the version of epo is the same, as well as the extension versions.  Importing policies to different versions of epo can possibly cause some corruption with the different schema versions of epo server.

[User16096767]

How was your Migration or Upgrade ?

We are about to Upgrade from 5.3.3 to 5.9.1. But after reading these threads, we have a second thought on how we need to deal with this.

was upgrading or Migrating to a new server better or Installing 5.9.1 to a different server and migrate settings, Policies tasks e.t.c?

[cdinet]

If your 5.3.3 server has been upgraded many times from older 4.6 versions, you might want to consider migrating systems to a new server. Otherwise, there should be no reason to not upgrade your existing. You might just need to consider supported operating systems and sql versions that you are currently on, as you may have to migrate to new server due to non-supported os. See KB51569 for supported environments for epo.

[User16096767]

Thanks for the response.

We only upgraded from 5.3.2 to 5.3.3.

I am trying to avoid any issues during the upgrade.

[cdinet]

As long as you go through kb71825 and run the pre-installation auditor tool, you should be ok. Those mitigate most issues that cause an upgrade to fail. Try to be thorough in going through the kb.