The company I was recently hired at was in the process of upgrading from Vantage 8.04310 to version Epicor version 10.x. They were able to get upgraded the 9.05x on an SQL server, however the ODBC connection to the database, I am not able to get into and I’m trying to back track and find where they left off. Following the instructions from Epicor, I’m not sure what the instructions state when it mentions the upgrade process. It states in the instructions for SQL installations, we are currently on a Progress database, but want to upgrade it to SQL.
I would really like to have a consultant help, but my company thinks it’s not needed. It also looks like we have the DMT tool.
Another thing I would like to mention is this is a newer separate server that is copying or replicating the database over once monthly. Am I OK to do anything with this database that is running on the new server and not touch the live working 8.x production database. I would think so, but need to verify this as not to corrupt anything on the live system.
I do have the documentation from Epicor on the upgrading from 8.x to 9.x and 9.x to 10.x
Any suggestions would really be appreciated.
Thank you,
Kelly
If you are on progress then you should stay on progress for the 8 to 9 migration.
Then the 10 migration will automatically move you to SQL
You should start over. Make sure you have an Epicor 9.05.702A installed on its own server then follow the migration guide to migrate from 8. Prepare for the pain of UOM migration (yikes).
Once that is done have your epicor 10 server and do the migration to that box from 9
Another option is to do a DMT re implementation. The jump from 8 to 10 is big enough that it may be a great time to re-implement. In that case you can use DMT to being in only your seed data (much easier migration, but of course you’d be starting from scratch)
Hello, I certainly appreciate your response, I will give this a try today. Upgrading a “copy” of the live database, shouldn’t’ touch the actual live version 8.x that’s located on a different server, correct?
Can you tell me the name of the DMT tool for the version 8x to 9x vantage upgrade? I do see there is a an EpicorDBUgrade.exe, but I’m not sure if this is the DMT tool. It has I see a copy of the database file in the folder, so possibly I’m correct on this.
There is no DMT Tool for Version 8 to 9 Upgrade. There is a DMT for each version of Epicor. DMT is for loading data into an existing Epicor DB. If you want to use DMT you’ll have to have a working and configured DB first.
I have been working most of the day on this and now it looks like I need to re-install the Epicor 9.05.702A back on the server. When I do this, do I just skip over the 9.04 references and just pay attention to the 9.05.702A. If not, where do I get the 9.04 version from? It was installed on the server, but I only have the CD’s for that are labeled 9.05.702A.
Hello Jose, I have a question on your response for going straight to version 10 installation and using the DMT tool. You say “The jump from 8 to 10 is big enough that it may be a great time to re-implement. In that case you can use DMT to being in only your seed data (much easier migration, but of course you’d be starting from scratch)” When you mention “seed data” what exactly would come through going this route? Are you meaning that access to previous transactions would be available somewhat, or would the history be somewhat available from using the DMT import tool?
Jose, you can disregard my message on the seed data. I see it relates to the basic company setup such as organization, division, etc., just the basics.
When generating the UOM conversion program from the Vantage 8.03 utility, there’s not a chance that it could do anything to the current live database if following the steps precisely.
All the 8->9.x was done on Progress installs with the final shift to E10 doing the Prog-> SQL migration
Took 3~days to get through a 80~GB database. We set up a Virtual machines at each of the critical upgrade points so we could keep doing the upgrade process until we had it nailed down. There is a file in one of the progress directories that tells it it has done the upgrade so you need to find these and keep a copy. When you do another upgrade practice restore the files and the server is good to go.
Check you accounts after too as E10 originally had a bug in it that would move change fiscal periods on G/L data from Vantage it didn’t like.
Yes we did the UOM. The good thing about that is we could keep going on and making tweaks when needed from recollection then just have it ready way before we did the actual upgrade. We do have a few weird UOMs in E10 because of it but most of those have been set as inactive now.
For your size database, how long did it take you to create the UOM file? We only have a 6gb database, not nearly as large as yours. Also, did anything happen to your 8.0.x environment, or did you do the UOM during this 3 day conversion.
Cannot remember of the top of my head how long it took to process the UOM conversion but it wasn’t quick. We did the process weeks before so we just had to plug it in while doing the live migration. We ran the process again a week before upgrade week to see if anything new had popped up and warned the business that if anything did we will just take a guess at what they meant by using !"%^£&^"£$ as UOMs in Vantage.
It seems like it went really well for you, and you had a couple extra hands helping you out on this. I will be doing this completely on my own, so I’m trying to prepare myself a little on this. I did go through the install upgrade to 9.04.x and then to 9.05.x, without the UOM, a few times and that seems OK. I really appreciate your answers to my questions!
I still have my job so yeah it went well but it did take a lot of planning and prep. Always good to talk about experiences and help! FYI I had one member of my staff do the upgrade and become my expert, many cooks spoil the broth and all that. The biggest ball ache in all this isn’t the E9->E10 conversion it’s the V8->E9.
Edit: Once you have done this any Epicor upgrade is going to seem like a non event. We just moved from E10.0.700 -> E10.1.500 and it seemed like a non event.
Couple of tips that may (not) be helpful:
I graded all my external reports, database and program into 3 categories to mange workload and get rid of cruft
1 -> Must be done before the upgrade as the are business critical (IE Invoice form, Sales order reports, shipping integration)
2-> Important things that people will need on or post go live but wont impeded the business if not available straight away
3-> Things that probably are not used and will ONLY get upgraded/fixed post go-live if someone asks
Run the Trial balance on V8 and on E10 (after G/L verification) on the same data. If it doesn’t match the upgrade didn’t work
As prev discussed the UOM process can be ran and dealt with weeks in advance. Think of it as an incremental thing that you will keep adding to
Plan to have you E10 on a different server and migrate to that with separate virtual instances with E9. That way if the upgrade fails you still have an intact V8 install.
(assuming the above) Deploy the E10 client via group policy in advanced so they can test things in E10, plus you don’t have to add it to go live day
Rebase all your crystal E10 reports on the E9 standard (Epicor don’t have e10 ones technically). Trying to convert a report from V8 to E10 was slower than recreating them from scratch.
We had very few BAQs. (Lets face it creating one in V8 was so buggy, slow and complex I guess most people don’t either)
Just a few thought from the top of my head but in essence new server with e10 that is setup for live and use that for pre e10 testing so that the upgrade weekend all you need to do is upgrade a fresh copy of your v8 db.