Upgrading Axapta ...

Data *

The Data upgrade is handled by the upgrade wizard within Axapta. All changes done in the data dictionary and related data that needs to be converted is initiated from the wizard. Data conversion will likewise be initiated if you use the data export/import to import data from a previous version. However if you have created new tables and/or fields that depends on data that is removed or moved you may have to update this data.

Modifications

Once again, there are two kinds of upgrade is possible. One upgrading between service packs and the other version upgrade.

Service Pack Upgrade

After finishing applying the service pack and completing the upgrade wizard Axapta is now running on the new service pack with your modifications still based on the previous SP. When applying a service pack, the old application files are stored in the applold folder. This enables comparison between the old and current elements.

. The recommended procedure when doing service pack upgrade is -

 a. Apply the new service pack and complete all steps in the upgrade wizard.

 b. During the upgrade wizard one can choose to create an upgrade project. Otherwise manually a new project can be created. While creating a project manually, please apply a filter so that it brings all elements in the VAR and USR layer into the project.

 c. Consider the following (make sure that tools/options/development/show all layers is checked).
    - Elements that only exists in the USR/VAR and SYS layer will in most cases work because the service pack have not introduced any changes to the element.
    - Elements that exists in the SYS, SYP and/or VAR/USR will have to be examined. Start by comparing the SYP with the old SYP. If they are the same the element will in most cases work because the service pack not not introduced any changes compared to the previous SP. If the SYP and old SYP are NOT the same, you will ahve to compare the SYP with the VAR and/or USR and recreate modifications.

Version Upgrade

In general version upgrades are very similar to upgrading between service packs. However one important thing to remember is. that one can NEVER SKIP a version. For instance -

If you want to apply SP4 on top of a Axapta 2.5 with Option pack -
    a. first SP2 and Market Pack has to be applied from the Market Pack CD released on the 22nd of October.
    b. Run the Upgrade for this version
   c. Install SP4 and SP4 Market Pack
   d. Run the Upgrade for this version

The reason for this is, that data needs to be upgraded and that fields in special cases can be deleted between versions.

If you want to Upgrade Axapta 2.5 SP2 to Axapta Version 3.0 -

    a. Install Axapta 3.0 and start it so the Upgrade wizard will upgrade data from 2.5 SP2 to 3.0
    b. Install SP2 and start again so data can be upgraded to SP1
    c. In this way, the old 2.5 layers as well as 3.0 layers would be there. If required (for example, if you had done any customization) then the old layers can be manually copied to the new layers.

I also came across another upgradation procedure from MBS. It goes like this -

It is possible to upgrade directly from 2.5 to 3.0. The procedure is -

   a. Install 3.0 on top of 2.5
   b. Install 3.0 SP1 on top of 3.0. If the installation program prompts whether the install is a part of a larger upgrade, choose 'YES'. This is to enable the old directory to contain 2.5 application.
   c. Start Axapta. The upgrade checklist will guide through.

IMPORTANT - The reason for needing 2.5 in "old" is that the version number is not stored anywhere in the database. Version 3.0 stores the version number in the SysSetupLog table.

The one time that I tried to do Upgrade, I followed the above method. And it worked fine for me :)

* While upgrading data from Axapta 2.5 SP2/SP4 to Axapta 3.0 SP1 there seems to be lots of bugs in Export/Import 3.0. To overcome this problem, a short cut would be -

   a. Connect Axapta 3.0 application to a copy of Axapta 2.5 database.
   b. Copy files of Axapta 2.5 application directory to Axapta 3.0 application directory.

This seems to ensure Axapta 3.0 runs all necessary update jobs.