Before upgrading the software

Review the prerequisites

Before starting the upgrade, review the Plan chapter in this guide and confirm that your system meets all the relevant prerequisites. In particular, review the upgrade planning, computer hardware, operating environment, network connectivity, and licensing requirements including Upgrade licenses. Also review the PME 2024 Upgrade notes, which provide information regarding upgrades that is specific to the latest version of the software.

Backup the databases

Backup the ION_Data, ION_Network, ION_SystemLog, and ApplicationModules databases before starting the upgrade. Keep the backups in a secure and safe location. Use these backups to restore the original databases in case data is deleted or lost, accidentally, during the upgrade.

 

Cybersecurity

Review the cybersecurity information. See Cybersecurity for details.

Upgrade Path

An upgrade path describes from which older system to which newer system PME is upgraded. There are many possible upgrade paths, but only some are supported by the In-Place and Side-by-Side upgrade tools and procedures. See Determine your upgrade path for information on how to determine your upgrade path.

Upgrade Type

There are two different upgrade types, In-Place Upgrade and Side-by-Side (SBS) Upgrade. Each type uses different tools and has different prerequisites. See Determine the upgrade type for information on upgrade types.

Service Packs

The In-Place and SBS upgrade tools require the latest service pack versions of the older PME systems to be installed before the upgrade. For example, PME 2024 can upgrade a PME 7.2.2 system, but it cannot upgrade a PME 7.2.0 system. If you have PME 7.2.0, you must apply the service pack first to get the system to PME 7.2.2 before you can do an upgrade.

Your upgrade path determines if your old system requires a service pack installation before the upgrade. See Determine your upgrade path for more information. See Upgrade tools and resources for information on where to get the latest service packs for older versions of PME.

Operating Environment

A requirement for in-place upgrades is that the Operating System and Database Server versions are supported by the new PME system. The Upgrade Map tool, in Determine your upgrade path, identifies any Operating Environment perquisites for your upgrade path.

Licensing

Product licensing might have changed between the old version of PME and the new version. Review Licensing and in particular Important notes on licensing for more information, and make sure you have the correct licenses for the new system before starting the upgrade.

Windows Integrated Authentication for SQL Server

If you are planning to upgrade PME to use Windows Integrated Authentication, then complete the following before starting the upgrade:

NOTE: Windows Integrated Authentication is not supported for PME systems with Secondary Servers.

Standalone architecture

On the PME application server:

• Add the Windows account for the user who is upgrading the software to the local Administrator group.
• Add the Windows account for the upgrade user to the SQL database logins with a sysadmin Server Role.

  NOTE: You can remove this account from the SQL database logins after PME is upgraded.

• Add the Windows account that is used by PME to access the databases to the local Administrator group.
• Set the 'Logon As A Service' privilege for the database access account.

Distributed Database architecture

On the Windows Domain, in the Active Directory:

• Add an account for the user who is upgrading PME. This only needs to be a domain user account, not a domain admin account.
• Add an account that PME will use to access the databases. This only needs to be a domain user account, not a domain admin account.

On the PME application server:

• Add the account for the upgrade user to the local Administrator group.
• Add the database access account for PME to the local Administrator group.
• Set the 'Logon As A Service' privileges for the database access account.

On the database server:

• Add the account for the upgrade user to the local Administrator group.
• Add the account for the upgrade user to the SQL database logins with a sysadmin Server Role.

  NOTE: You can remove this account from the SQL database logins after PME is upgraded.

NOTE: When PME is installed with Windows Integrated Authentication, the Windows account that is used to access the database is also used to run the PME services and the IIS Application Pools.

Upgrade troubleshooting

Rolling back an unsuccessful PME in-place upgrade

Under certain circumstances the database upgrades, which are part of the system upgrade, might not be successful. Use the following steps to rollback an upgrade where the database upgrades were not successful. After completing these steps, your system should be back in the state it was in before the upgrade.

To rollback an in-place upgrade with unsuccessful database upgrades:

1. Close the PME installer.
2. Restore the PME databases from backup, using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.

   NOTE: Backing up the databases was an optional, recommended step in the in-place upgrade workflow of the software installer.

3. Open the Windows Service panel and start all ION services. Also, re-enable and start the Application Modules services as follows:

   NOTE: The installer stopped the ION services and disabled the Application Module services during the upgrade.

   • ION Application Modules Alarm Service Host (Startup Type = Manual)
   • ION Application Modules Core Services Host (Startup Type = Automatic)
   • ION Applications Modules Data Services Host (Startup Type = Automatic)
   • ION Applications Modules Provider Engine Host (Startup Type = Automatic)
4. Open Internet Information Services Manager (IIS Manager) and start the PME application pools:
   • Application Modules AppPool
   • ION AppPool
   • WebReporterAppPool
5. Verify that the system is operating as expected.