ArcGIS Data Store upgrade 11.5 to 12.1 failed

Question

Portal upgrade to 12.1 completed ok

Hosting ArcGIS Server upgrade to 12.1 completed ok

But Data Store upgrade to 12.1 failed –

1 – I installed Data Store 12.1

2 – I installed the patch - https://support.esri.com/en-us/patches-updates/2026/arcgis-data-store-12-1-relational-store-upgrade-...

3 – I ran the Data Store configuration (for a Relational store) and got the following errors -

Attempt to configure data store failed.

Caused by: Database upgrade failed for relational store.

Caused by: Failed to start relational store.

Caused by: Connection timed out while waiting for relational store machine to start.

anyone else getting this?

Pam-Pritchett · Answer

I had a similar failure when upgrading our ArcGIS Enterprise deployment from 11.5 to 12.1. Portal and the hosting ArcGIS Server upgraded successfully, but the relational Data Store failed during the configuration/upgrade step.

My error was not exactly the same—it included a runtime error and “Failed to get file permission”—but permissions were checked and reapplied, and the issue remained. Support also found that the .data_store file was empty and there were some inconsistencies involving the Data Store hostname configuration.

Esri Support ultimately assisted with an out-of-place restore using a valid relational Data Store backup from 11.5. The restore was performed with the 12.1 software, and the restore process automatically upgraded the relational Data Store to 12.1 at the same time.

That successfully got our relational Data Store upgraded and working. Based on my experience, I would recommend opening a Support case before attempting further changes and confirming that you have a valid pre-upgrade relational Data Store backup available.

HazelRiordan · Answer

I know this may not help you, but I was just able to complete the upgrade when I implemented the patch. I was running into the BUG issue before. I hope you get yours figured out.

MErikReedAugusta · Answer

Disclaimer: Enterprise upgrades are largely out of my wheelhouse, and our org is still back on 10.9.1, so take my advice with a handful of salt.

But I recently encountered a user on another discussion platform I frequent who was upgrading from 11.5.x to 12.1, and it also failed on him.  He reported that after working through things with Support, they determined that the problem was that he needed to install a certain patch on 11.5 before upgrading, to fix an issue with the handoff between versions.  I don't remember which 11.5 patch it was, though.

So I would say make sure your 11.5 is all the way up to the latest patch before you load 12.x, and see if that solves the issue.