Upgrade SC5 to SC6

[susie]

Hi All,

I hope everyone is doing well.

We are looking into the process of upgrading SC5 to SC6. I know some of you probably already have done this, so I'm asking for some pointers so that I can be moving in the right directions quickly and smoothly.

Over the last few years, we have customized SC5 greatly. There are just enormous amount of custom logic in our system, including changes in forms, macros, scripts, events, etc. In order to make the smoothest transition possible, I would like hear about some of your experience with the upgrades.

Thanks in advance!

- Susie

[susie]

Missed this information from the above thread: we have SQL as the backend. Currently running on SQL Server 2000, hopefully upgrade to 2005 in 4Q this year.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[glg]

we're currently going through a reimplementation (4 to 6.1). We're redoing all the work rather than upgrading and then using connectit to move the data between systems.

[outlance]

I'm a fan of upgrade utility - (I've done about 10 upgrades from SC 2.x ->SC3.x->SC4.x->SC5.x->SC6.x) .... but in most cases it's better to re-implement your customizing in new version.

You get to know new features and so called "conflict resolution" is much easier. As well result of upgrade will be an updated version of system documentation...

A very experienced customer of mine did it and only needed a small amount of external assistance.

If you have further questions, feel free to contact me directly.

Greets,

Lars

[daurkin]

I'm doing a re-implementation from version 5.1 to 6.1 as well. We have too much ver 3.1 code left over in our current system to upgrade and stay stable.

I'm curious how I'm going to pull my ticket data over with clock files and other depenencies.

[outlance]

I'm curious how I'm going to pull my ticket data over with clock files and other depenencies.

There's a friendly SC application that can help you

copy.file

copies data from one table to another table -
SC only copies data from one field to another field, if
field names are same.

So you can use SC6.1 dbdict and you can add your custom
fields to SC6.1 dbdict. By using this application you can
migrate your data to SC6.1




Example: migrate your probsummary to new SC6.1 system

SC5.1 System: (use a backup of this system)

rename probsummary dbdict to: probsummarySC51

go to forms designer and create a new format: probsummarySC51 by using forms wizard

go to database manager and use new format probsummarySC51 and search all records and unload all records to probsummarySC51.unl



SC6.1 System:
Load probsummarySC51.unl in database manager

add all custom fields to origin probsummary dbdict (only those fields you need in your new implementation)

go to commandline and enter: copy.file

press button "test"

press button "proceed"

enter following values:

source filename: probsummarySC51
target filename: probsummary

Press button "Go!"

(Please don't forget to remove all test ticket data before doing this)

Now all records are moved to new dbdict - you cannot do this by simply loading old probsummary data in database manager - ServiceCenter puts data into tables by checking field order in dbdict (not field name).



Hope this helps!

Lars

[eisefr]

Hi All,

I hope everyone is doing well.

We are looking into the process of upgrading SC5 to SC6. I know some of you probably already have done this, so I'm asking for some pointers so that I can be moving in the right directions quickly and smoothly.

Over the last few years, we have customized SC5 greatly. There are just enormous amount of custom logic in our system, including changes in forms, macros, scripts, events, etc. In order to make the smoothest transition possible, I would like hear about some of your experience with the upgrades.

Thanks in advance!

- Susie

Hi.
Just curious.
Can I ask why you are thinking about updating to SC6 when you have such a stable SC5...? Is there anything you want to have what's only available in SC 6?

Frank

[glg]

Can I ask why you are thinking about updating to SC6 when you have such a stable SC5...? Is there anything you want to have what's only available in SC 6?

A few things I'm looking at (though I'm coming from SC4):
Web client is so far proving to be much better than Java client
SOAP interface looks like it'll make a lot of interfacing easier. SCAuto interfaces are a pain in the behind
Change Calendar looks pretty cool. we haven't moved change into SC yet, but probably will by end of the year.

Obviously, coming from 4, not 5, we're gaining lots of other stuff that is in 5

[jackchar]

I'm trying to use copy.file in converting from SC 5 to SC 6.2.2. copy.file is an Unrecognized command in SC 6.2.2. Any ideas or help on this?

[outlance]

Hi,
my description of how to use was wrong:

(go to commandline and enter: copy.file)
go to commandline and enter: rad
enter: copy.file
search
press button "test"
etc....

HTH

Lars

[jackchar]

Is there any documentation on copy.file anywhere? I've looked in the RAD Guide for SC 6.2, and there's nothing there. We're trying to copy data from our current SC 5 version (on Server A) to SC 6.2.2 (on Server B). What parameters should be used? Source.file / Target.file? How do we define those across servers?

[outlance]

Hi,

you can copy from one file (dbdict - Source.file) to another file (dbdict - Target.file)
in the same database. If you want to move for ex. probsummary to an SC6.2 system,
then you could rename dbdict probsummary to probsummarySC5 in your SC5 system.
Then you create a format for probsummarySC5 --> then you can use database manager to unload the data. Then load it into the SC6.2 system. After this you use copy.file application to copy data from probsummarySC5 to probsummary ...

HTH

Lars

[jackchar]

Thanks, Lars

[Sandi]

Hi Susie, I have been an Admin of ServiceCenter for 8 years or so now. The best upgrade I did was to engage consultants to work with. I don't know the size of your organization. Can you tell me how many users you have? What modules you are using?