Autodesk Vault Migration Planning

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Welcome to Autodesk Vault Migration Planning.

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My name is Traci Peurasaari, and I'm a designated support

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specialist.

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I currently support the Vault Planner

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because I have over 25 years as a Microsoft Certified

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Professional in SQL server database administration.

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And what we're going to cover today

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is going to be how to do a vault migration,

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and hopefully, by the end, you will

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understand and be ready to plan your next migration.

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So the objective today is to cover

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planning an in-place upgrade or a new server migration.

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What we're going to include is how

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to handle both multi and single site environments.

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And additionally, I'm going to go through the basic how-tos

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for actually upgrading your vault.

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So what we're looking to do is set the expectations

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during the process so you know exactly what to expect.

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That you can be prepared for all the steps

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that are involved in vault migration,

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make sure you know where to get the requirements,

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know how to perform a successful migration, that you understand

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how to best plan if you are doing replication, or using

01:14

a multi-site environment.

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And also, at the end, there are several links

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on how you can get help and the resources

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that you need to go forward.

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Please take a look at the safe harbor statement.

01:24

This is just basically to let you

01:25

know that I may discuss forward-facing ideas

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and that they do not constitute a promise.

01:32

So vault Migration-- what is a migration.

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The word migration has many, many definitions.

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For the purpose of this presentation,

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we are talking about upgrading your vault from one release

01:45

to another, such as moving from 2019 to 2020 or 2021.

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This can also include upgrading vault edition

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if you're using vault work-group and you

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want to move to professional.

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And then lastly, it can include moving your vault

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to a different server, whether that's on the same version

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or on a new version.

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So when you plan your migration, there are key areas

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that you need to plan for.

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You need to look at your hardware

02:10

requirements, your software requirements, your network

02:13

environment, and what you might need to manage and support.

02:16

This could be passwords, access to servers.

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The hardware requirements could be CPU, memory,

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software requirements, and what version of SQL,

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and what version of Windows the software itself network

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permissions and SSL.

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So at a high-level overview, the very first step

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of doing a migration is to create a test environment

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so that you can validate.

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In order to create a test environment,

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you want to use a machine that's got a similar CPU memory.

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You're going to install and test the system

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with the same version of vault. You're

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going to backup the production server

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and put the data onto the tester so that you're

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using the same data, and you're going

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to want to verify that the file storing everything is complete.

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Pictorially, what this looks like,

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then you should take a backup in order

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to take a backup on your production environment.

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You're going to create a test environment by restoring

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that backup to the new server.

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Then you're going to validate.

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What a validation could mean is checking in, checking out,

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do you have access to your files?

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Does it perform in the way that you

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are expecting it to perform?

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And then, you can also keep this environment

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available for future minor and major upgrades

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once you've got it set up.

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The next step is looking at your SQL server vault

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has very specific SQL server requirements

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based on the version.

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So before you do an upgrade, you need

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to make sure that the version of SQL server

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you are planning to use is supported

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by the version of vault that you are planning to install.

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The following chart here will tell you.

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If it's got a green, it means it's supported

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in production for that version.

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If it's got a yellow, it means that it's

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supported during migration.

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And what that can mean is if you've

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got multiple versions to upgrade through,

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you can go ahead and install further additional SQL server

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so that you don't have to stop in the middle,

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install a new edition or a new version of SQL server

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and then do it again.

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Once you've got your SQL server ready,

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the next step is to install the current vault server.

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So you're going to install the version that you're

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going to upgrade to.

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You're going to apply any hotfixes.

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And then you're going to migrate your vaults and libraries.

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We'll go into that and a little bit more

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in the further sections.

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But basically, once you do an instalment and upgrade,

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vault's going to ask you if you want to migrate your databases.

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This is in order to account for any SQL server sequences,

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so that the databases and working

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levels for the current version.

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When you're migrating vaults, unlike other products,

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there is a limitation because it is database-based.

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That it can handle more than two versions upgrade at a time.

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So if you take a look at the flowchart here,

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it follows through the steps.

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But basically, if you're currently running 2018,

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you can go to 2019 and 2020.

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So if you're running 2018 and you want to install vault 2021,

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you would actually have to go through two upgrades.

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One from '18 to '20 and one from '20 to '21.

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Or '18 to '19 and '19 to 21.

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However, you prefer.

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If you are planning on going to a new server,

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the easiest way to do this is to go over

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the new server for the very first one

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and then to do it in place for the remaining

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ones on that server.

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Additionally, beyond being able to only upgrade

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two versions at a time, the vault client only

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supports two versions back.

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This is again in order to allow you to upgrade your vault

05:58

server, and maybe you haven't upgraded your CAD tools yet

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or your vault client.

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If you are within two versions, so if you are at 2019,

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and you are going to 2021, new users

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can still use the 2019 clients while you are taking the time

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to go through the upgrade process for both the CAD

06:17

and vault tools your system.

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To look at this pictorially-- so if you're running vault server

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or 2021.

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This is also true-- this is just the vault client.

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This is also true for the CAD tools.

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Each of the CAD tools has a vault add on,

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and those also have to match.

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So if you take a look back, what you'll see

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is, here's the inventor, or the AutoCAD add-in vault 2019,

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with the vault 2019 client, connect to a vault

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It's really important to know that your CAD

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client and your client have to be the same.

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As long as you're within of both,

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but those two do have to match.

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And you have to install that from the client.

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So basically, when you're setting up CAD,

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if your CAD tool is already installed,

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if you've installed inventor in 2021 or AutoCAD 2021,

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and then install vault, it will automatically

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install the add-in.

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If vault is installed first, and then install your CAD add-in

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you will have to go back into vault

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and have the Add-on for the product.

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So If you're doing it all at once,

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it's best to do CAD tools first.

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So now you've gone through the client,

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and you've through the server.

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You've done the SQL server.

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You've done the validation.

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And everything is functioning.

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A Really critical point here.

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Once that happens, make sure you make a backup.

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When you're all done, it's ready to go.

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You don't want to have to start again.

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Make sure you have a backup.

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You're ready to go forward.

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People are going to start processing.

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If you do find any issues, once processing starts,

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you have a valid place to go back

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to as opposed to having to go back

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all the way to the begining.

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So there are two options involved.

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There's a single-site environment,

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which means you have one vault server

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or is a replicated environment which

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is a multi-site environment.

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If you're doing a single site environment,

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you can be doing an in-place upgrade,

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or you can be going to a new server.

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If you're doing an in-place upgrade, what

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you need to make sure is that your computer that you're

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going to be upgrading, has a mix of minimum system requirements.

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You're going to need to make sure that you have all the IDs

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and passwords.

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This would be the vault administrator ID.

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This would be SQL server, SA or system admin, user ID

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and password.

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This would be the impersonation account in the vault user ID

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and password for that.

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You're going to need to make sure that you have all vault

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software, and all the updates.

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And then the serial number, product key and all that fun

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stuff whenever you're installing vault or any product itself.

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When you look at testing.

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How are you planning on creating--

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or do you have a test server?

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As I said in the beginning, Autodesk always

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recommends that you test for backup or upgrade

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prior to doing it live.

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And that you have a backup server to do this on.

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This allows you not only to test the upgrade,

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see how long it's going to take.

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And moving forward, it also allows

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you to validate the data, and see that there's not any issues

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with any of your work phones.

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And then make sure you have a rollback plan.

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If you're doing an in-place upgrade,

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you're not going to have another server to go back to.

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So what you're going to need to do

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is you're going to need to make sure

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that you have the exact version that you started with.

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This includes [INAUDIBLE],, updates upgrades.

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You're going to want to take a backup,

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and then you're going to need your rollback plan mapped out.

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So there's a couple of options, if you're doing a snapshot.

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You need make sure you get a snapshot of both the vault

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server and the SQL server, if they're not

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on the same machine.

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And you need to plan for how long you can be down.

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So if there is a problem and then you're

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doing an in-place upgrade, how much time

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do you have before you have to get those service up

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and running again, and how much time is it going to take.

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Because basically at that point, you're

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going to have to reinstall on the existing

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server, unless you've done a snapshot, in which case,

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you will be restoring a snapshot.

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We should have an idea of about how long that will take.

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And so looking at the individual steps of an in-place upgrade

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as far as how to do it.

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So you're going to make sure that the vault is not

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being used when ready to go.

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You're going to run a backup, then

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you're going to install the software.

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Once you install the software, you're

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going to actually start the ADMS console.

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And it's going to come up the very first time only

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that you started it, and it's going

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to ask you if you want to migrate your databases.

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And would say yes.

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This will migrate them to the current version.

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If by chance you start your ADMS console and close it

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and start it again.

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Or someone says no, then you will

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have to migrate the databases, one

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at a time inside the client.

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Once you've got your server already,

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your next step would be to set up your clients.

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And again, as I said, once you're done,

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make sure you make a backup of vault

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in the vault working state.

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Easier than an in-place migration

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as far as the rollback goes, is if you're

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migrating to new server.

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If You're migrating to the server,

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and something doesn't work, you could just go right back

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to the server you started with.

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And you still got a working vault.

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So in order to go to the server migration, same as before,

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you're going to want to verify that the existing ADMS and SQL

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server meets the minimum requirements for Windows

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and SQL.

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You're going to need all those IDs, just like before,

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and the serial number.

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Apart from a step standpoint, you're

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going to need to build the new servers, which

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means verifying that the SQL server meets requirements.

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And there's a link both here and at the end that you

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can get those requirements.

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You're going to want to check on the SQL.

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Use the vault release that you're upgrading to,

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to start with, so that you have two identical servers.

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So if you are installing from

12:07

thing you're going to do on a new server vault

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If you're just wanting to test the version,

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you can go ahead and start with 2021.

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Then you're going to set up your SQL server, you're ADMS.

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So there's two options for that.

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You can have the ADMS and the SQL on the same server,

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or you can have them on separate servers.

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If you're going to have your SQL server on a separate server,

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you're going to have to create a shared folder,

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and you will need to decide whether you're going to put

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that on the ADMS or on SQL.

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And if you're installing version 2021 or higher,

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you can choose an instance name.

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For those of you that have been using vault

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for any length of time, currently SQL server

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is forced to use Autodesk vault as the name of the instance.

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Starting with version 2021, you can select a different instance

13:02

name for your server.

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So if you've already installed the software,

13:07

and tested installation migration,

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and then you know that the server is set up correctly.

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And then you check the backup completed

13:14

and you take a new backup of the old server.

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So that when you restore the backup again and test,

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you can do this as many times as you need to on the server,

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it will give you an idea of how long it's

13:24

going to actually take.

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However, if you are unable to get the server functioning,

13:29

or there's any problems, the current server is available.

13:32

And you just point your users back to it.

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So the steps on the how to for a new server migration,

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you build the new servers, backup your existing vault.

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You're going to restore that backup in the new server.

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You're going to take a new backup

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and restore, so that you can test to make sure the backup

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and restore works.

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And to start ADMS console, you're

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going to enable your vault, and migrate your databases,

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set up your client and backup your vault.

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A little bit more complicated is a multi-site environment,

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or a replicated environment.

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There are multiple types of replication.

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There is a vault server or publisher

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with multiple subscribers that also include their own SQL

14:10

server, or there's file store replication,

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which is just by a neighbor or a file store that just contains

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file store and other locations.

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When you're doing multi-site migration,

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the planning is slightly different.

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The publisher always has to be completed first

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as soon as you start the upgrade on the publisher,

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it will disable the subscribers, and the publisher

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will be available once the operation finished.

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So while the subscribers are being built and upgraded,

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people can do that to the publishers,

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and new users will still be able to work.

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You can now do the upgrade on subscriber

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until you know the publisher is completed and ready to go.

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Subscribers will be unavailable until they're not

14:50

only upgraded, but once you do an upgrade,

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the SQL server will create a snapshot,

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and that snapshot has to be completely applied

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before the subscriber is available.

15:02

Currently, and in the system by default,

15:05

snapshot retention to 14 days.

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So if there's something that is going to go wrong

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or something happens during this process,

15:13

you may want to increase those days so that you have some time

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so it doesn't give you an error snapshot attention

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And then subscribers have to be online during the upgrade you

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can't take them offline but you do start

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to see a replication jobs.

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Preparation for a multi-server multi-site upgrade

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is again very similar.

15:33

You're going to want to make sure

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that you're using the right versions that you've

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got the ID and passwords and that you've got the license

15:41

application.

15:42

Additionally, from there you want

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to make sure that the publisher and subscribers are saying

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you can do this by looking and see server at the replication

15:50

monitor and make sure that there are no pending changes.

15:53

If you have a high latency connection between two

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of your locations, there are options

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for copy in the snapshot.

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And there's a link at the end of this presentation on how to do

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an alternate snapshot method.

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And then you need to make sure that you know where the shared

16:09

folders are in the accounts and you have access to those.

16:13

Testing is very similar.

16:14

You're going to want to set up a test server to do validation.

16:18

The question that you need to ask

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is, do you have the time to set up both

16:21

a publisher and a subscriber?

16:23

And do you want to test replication as well as

16:26

testing the upgrade.

16:28

And that will be a decision that you'll

16:29

have to make when you're going through the upgrade.

16:32

If you do, it will give you an idea

16:34

of the general timing that is going

16:36

to take to get to a subscriber.

16:38

And only one subscriber will be brought up at a time.

16:40

But it is not necessary.

16:41

What they want is to make sure that you have a publisher.

16:44

While you're doing this, you're going

16:46

to want to document all the steps

16:47

and take screenshots if you are going

16:49

to do it with a subscriber and publisher.

16:52

And then make sure again, the resulting document

16:55

comes before you go forward.

16:57

Once you're done, your rollback that plan again--

16:59

this is in same place--

17:01

is to use your snapshot or your backup

17:04

and restore, reinstall and go back to where you were.

17:08

And as subscribers are offline or unavailable

17:11

to the publisher during the upgrade, the upgrade does that.

17:14

And you will not have upgraded your subscribers yet.

17:17

So once you go back, you should be

17:20

able to connect to the subscribers

17:22

and go forward until you figure out

17:24

what the plan is to continue.

17:27

When you are upgrading the publisher,

17:28

the steps that you will follow then

17:30

are to validate the replication status.

17:33

Make sure that vault isn't being used.

17:35

Backup your vault. Install vault software.

17:39

Start the console.

17:41

Migrate your databases.

17:43

Make sure you catch a snapshot or a backup,

17:47

or however you are going to do that.

17:49

And then again, backup, use a vault backup

17:51

to have your copy of it in new working state.

17:56

When you go to upgrade the subscribers,

17:58

now the publishers working.

18:00

The publishers are ready to go.

18:02

You've tested it.

18:03

You can connect.

18:04

Your users can work on the publisher,

18:06

then you're going to want to make sure

18:08

that there's no users logged in to the subscribers.

18:11

You should have already checked that

18:12

and they should still not be.

18:14

You're going to run the actual software

18:16

installation on subscriber.

18:18

And so, you're going to start the ADMS console

18:21

on the subscriber.

18:22

And the subscriber is going to give you a message,

18:25

the database is not available, while it consumes the snapshot

18:29

that is a picture of the database

18:32

as it exists on the publisher.

18:35

Once the snapshot is fully consumed,

18:37

you can enable your vaults, and you'll

18:39

repeat the step for each subscriber, one at a time.

18:43

So you've got stored documents in vault.

18:46

And this includes content center libraries, or libraries.

18:52

Where once you've done an upgrade,

18:54

if you are using older versions or you

18:57

have older versions of software, you're

18:59

going to need library files that match those versions.

19:03

So you would make a new partition in the new version,

19:05

and upgrade any custom content center libraries, custom

19:10

partitions, and you would migrate them

19:13

to the new version, just like you did your vaults.

19:16

The standard libraries are available for install

19:20

for each version.

19:21

And you would need to install or migrate the standard libraries

19:24

as well.

19:25

If you're not going to be editing any documents

19:28

in earlier versions, then you could just

19:31

create the new partition, and you don't

19:33

need to keep the old ones.

19:35

When you're ready to start working,

19:37

there's a decision that you can make on how you're

19:40

going to do your CAD files.

19:43

Do you want to upgrade them as you go,

19:45

or do you want to upgrade them all to the new version?

19:48

There is no right answer.

19:50

It's what works for you.

19:51

You can-- the link here goes to the steps

19:54

on using task scheduler.

19:56

So you can update the Inventor files using the inventor SQL

20:00

task scheduler.

20:01

And it will basically, in the background do a check out

20:05

and, then check it back in the new version.

20:09

And it's a time you can set batches.

20:11

One of the reasons to upgrade them,

20:13

is you do then get access to the new features

20:16

and the CAD involved.

20:19

And then you also get access to the new contact center files.

20:23

However, there is no backward compatibility.

20:26

So if there is any group that's using an older

20:29

version of Inventor or AutoCAD, once they've

20:32

been upgraded to 2021, then you will need 2021 to open them.

20:37

So if you may need to open them in 2019,

20:39

you would want to wait until they were

20:43

upgraded in the later version.

20:45

At the bottom, there is a link to an AutoCAD compatibility

20:47

chart, which ones you can see, which

20:49

what, and which files are available,

20:52

and which version to open.

20:55

So you've completed your upgrade.

20:56

You've made your decision on how you're going to do your files,

20:59

and it is Upgrade Go Live Day.

21:01

Three key points-- planning, follow your plan and everything

21:06

that we've laid out here.

21:08

If there's issues, contact support.

21:10

And when you're done, make sure you do a backup.

21:14

It's really helpful if you can let your designated support

21:16

specialist know your plan date for the migration.

21:20

That way, they can make sure that the appropriate people

21:22

are available and can hear, should you have a problem.

21:25

If you have an issue that you cannot get resolved,

21:28

you would want to create a severity one ticket.

21:31

And these must be done over the phone.

21:34

It's available 24/7 to work with support to resolve.

21:38

And you would be contacted within an hour

21:41

to connect you with a support representative.

21:43

And then again, backup, backup, backup.

21:47

You want to make sure that you are

21:49

able to go back to the upgraded state

21:51

if anything happens once this is done.

21:54

Autodesk offers a lot of helpful resources.

21:56

The very first one will be the Customer Success Learning Hub.

22:00

This will give you access to articles, product updates, tips

22:04

and tricks.

22:05

There's webcasts.

22:07

There are recordings.

22:09

There's events, and there's also forums where

22:13

you can share your expertise.

22:14

The link is on screen, and it has a lot

22:18

of very, very good information.

22:20

And then lastly, I've compiled a list of some links

22:24

for your benefit while you're doing the upgrade.

22:26

A B2B migration is when I was referring to if you

22:30

need to upgrade your vaults.

22:32

And it doesn't ask you, or you'd say no,

22:35

and you then have to migrate through vaults

22:37

to a later version.

22:39

The next link is actually instructions--

22:41

if you wish to install your SQL server out of time,

22:43

now you install and set up a SQL server.

22:46

There are the vault requirements.

22:49

So what Windows and SQL versions you need to be at?

22:53

There's actual instructions-- step by step instructions--

22:56

on installing vault,

23:02

The vault server has to have internet information

23:05

services running.

23:06

So there's instructions on how to set up internet information

23:09

services, as I mentioned earlier.

23:11

And if you're doing a replicated environment,

23:13

the alternate Snapshot method, should you

23:15

have a slow connection.

23:17

And then again, upgrading your vaults

23:19

server, so additional instructions on how to do that.

23:23

Thank you for watching this video today.

23:27

And I hope it's helped you get ready for any vault

23:29

migrations you will do in the future.

23:31

If you have a more complicated set-up than what

23:34

I've discussed here.

23:35

If you are getting new servers across an entire multi-site,

23:38

or if you have any additional issues,

23:41

make sure that you reach out to me,

23:43

or your value-added reseller or your Autodesk designated

23:46

support specialist.

23:48

And I hope I've helped you, and have a good day.