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Customer Upgrade Pre/Post Check List

  • 11 August 2022
  • 6 replies
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Userlevel 1

Hi All,

I am just wondering if there is a resource/check-list out there for customers pre and post upgrade?

For example, release all existing purchase returns, purchase receipts, related accounts payable bills and debit adjustments.

I was unable to find something on the Acumatica forums regarding this, but we are trying to streamline our Client processes surrounding upgrades.

Sincerely,

Sid

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Best answer by Laura02 11 August 2022, 16:51

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6 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Hi @suppal19 

Usually purchase returns, purchase receipts, related accounts payable bills and debit adjustments have no effect on the upgrade. There is no standard of how those should be released nor does it have an effect on the upgrade. 

Are you thinking maybe a new Go-Live?

Here is an older community article on Upgrades:

https://community.acumatica.com/everything-else-119/acumatica-upgrades-sandbox-and-post-upgrade-support-6252

Badge +16

Hello,

I think I understand your question. I have not found an  all-inclusive ‘cut-over’ check-list from Acumatica.  I collected my own list from years of experience and I step through my list with every “Go Live”.

Releasing documents isn’t part of my checklist, per se. When I take a customer live, I migrate all their open documents to match the status of the same documents in the prior system. Once ACM is reconciled to old system, I don’t move forward to release anything into Acumatica that was on hold in the prior system… post-Go Live transaction activity is the responsibility of my client. My responsibility is to train them to handle their transactions in Acumatica.

My suggestion to you is to create your own checklist from your experience and your co-workers’ experience, perhaps with guidelines from Google search, etc.

To get you started, I’ve listed a few items I do include in my ‘go-live checklist’ are:

  • Revise numbering schemas: many times these are set to ‘manual’ to match batch numbers and document numbers from a prior system but should auto-number after go live.
  • Enable all users in production tenant
  • Activate email processing in production tenant
  • Last minute update of customer/vendor addresses from prior system
  • Synch preferences screens to UAT tenant
  • Close Periods to match the prior system.

Edit: I see now, you asked about Version Upgrade, not cut-over … As Kbeatty21 said, it is not necessary to release documents before an upgrade. It is necessary to perform Sandbox testing of all processes and every custom screen. Creating your own checklists is also a good idea. Good luck!

 

 

Badge +16

Additionally, there is a lot of good advice in this recent Post, about how to prepare for upgrade.

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +5

This is for on-prem/self-hosted only; you will need administrative access to the server and be able to RDP to the Windows layer, as well as admin-level access to your Sql Server database. The steps are generally this:

  1. Find the exact version of Acumatica you are running. You can go to the “Apply Updates” section of your site and it will tell you your exact version (SM203510)
  2. Download the release notes for the version you want to upgrade to. In that document, you will find information about the valid upgrade paths for the product. One of the “gotchas” in Acumatica is that you can get ahead of the currently available upgrade path. So, for example, if you upgrade to the latest minor release of the version you are currently on, that may be ahead of the valid versions to upgrade to the next major release. So sometimes you may want to hold off on minor updates if you know you will do a major upgrade soon.
  3. Backup both your server and database and store the backups off the server
  4. Testing should be done on a cloned server/database first. In some cases, you can choose to use a cloned server as the new production server to maintain integrity of previous system in a failover scenario.
  5. Prior to making any changes to the current production server, you want to put the server into Lockout mode to make sure there isn’t activity on the system during the update. In the Apply Updates screen, click the “Schedule Lockout” button to put the system into lockout mode (there is an option to do it immediately). Obviously plan this around your user’s needs as they will be frozen out of the system once you do this.
  6. Unpublish any customization packages that are on your instance
  7. Copy the installer package for the version you want to upgrade to onto the Windows server. Install the new Acumatica framework package.
  8. Run “Acumatica ERP Configuration” Program in Windows. It should be in the Acumatica folder in the Start menu.
  9. Run “Perform Database Maintenance”. Connect to the database with database server url and admin credentials. Acumatica will identify that your database is behind the current framework version of Acumatica you installed in step 6, and there will be a dropdown with an option to upgrade the database. Run that option.
  10. After database upgrade is complete, run the “Perform Application Maintenance” program from the ERP Configuration Wizard screen. This will walk you through upgrading the Acumatica software itself to the latest version.
  11. You can now republish customization projects. In some cases, there will be new versions of the customization project specific to your new Acumatica version, so check for that and install the new version as appropriate.
  12. Test, test, test. Upgrades can cause problems. Don’t just upgrade and go live. Stress test the system in test mode first, trying to touch all areas of the system, before signing off on the upgrade.

 

Maybe others can add best practices from their own experiences. This is by no means an official guide...so use at your own risk.

P.S. On second read I realized that this is more about the in-system steps for preparing for upgrade. Oh well...maybe this will be helpful to someone at some point.

Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Hi Suppal19,

The recommendations above nicely the pre and post checking, as well as the upgrade procedure.

I would just add something that I do as a caution: I usually go through the list of known issues of the build I am upgrading to. I do that for two reasons:

  1. Often an upgrade is about installing fixes detected in previous builds/versions. Sometimes fixes require an extra step that you should perform. Or even a change of actions/preferences,etc. I do that for the modules installed for a customer. 
  2. I want to be aware of the issues revealed in the new build, and again for the modules used in the instance only. Sometimes you may decide to skip one build and wait a little longer.

I hope this helps. 

Userlevel 1

Hi everybody,

Thank you for the great responses, they were very helpful. I will definitely be including the suggestions along with some items we decide to test internally in a check-list to streamline our process.

Thank you for the prompt replies again!!

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