How long should it take to upgrade Enterprise Server from 10.8.0 to 10.9.1?

[BobNoyes]

I am currently upgrading our single machine deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise from 10.8.0 to 10.9.1. I was able to get through Portal, which took about 6 hours, and the portal web adaptor. Currently I am upgrading the Server and it is still validating the install 17 hours later. This seems excessive. Anyone else have it take this long? Ideas, suggestions?

[Brian_Wilson]

Ours took a long Sunday -- probably about 10 hours for the complete process including Portal and Server. We don't have a fast server, but we have are a small county so the amount of data is relatively small.

[ReeseFacendini]

I would look into temporarily disabling any antivirus / server security software until the upgrade is complete. Portal for ArcGIS can easily take a couple hours, or more depending on the amount of content (maps, apps, layers, etc.). ArcGIS Server can also take a while depending on published services, but 17 hours seems quite long.

If disabling AV / security software doesn't work, you may need to restore the machine back to a previous backup and try the upgrade again. Not ideal but stopping an installer in the middle of its work can result in a loss of data.

[BobNoyes]

The Portal component took about 6 hours to complete. I am currently working with ESRI and we canceled the Server upgrade and restarted it after doing a second snapshot and reloading the .exe. I hear rumor that having a snapshot burns up RAM memory. Not sure if that is an issue since the server has dynamic memory. Antivirus is not an issue on this machine. Restoring back to the snapshot is not what I want to do but may be what needs to happen. The last upgrade went so much smoother....

[Scott_Tansley]

Typically, the server is half the portal, and the datastore is a little more than half the server.  But it all depends on the volume of content etc.  Therefore, I normally allow 2-3 hours to upgrade an ArcGIS Server.  17 hours is way too long. 

Check your event viewer and see if there are any windows logs?

[BobNoyes]

Update on the upgrade. So, what I ended up doing is using the snapshot taken right before the failed upgrade then, on Saturday, I uninstalled a couple of unused programs on the server machine. Once that was done, I rebooted the server then started the upgrade process. Portal took about 4.5 hours total, then maybe a half hour for the portal web adaptor uninstall and the reinstall. Server was up next and that took a bit over 2 hours total. Same for the server web adaptor as the portal web adaptor. The data store took around 1.5 hours. And walla, success. Not totally sure what the issue was with the first attempt, perhaps the Illuminati were causing solar flares or some such thing.... Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. 

[YuriWorkTech]

I know this is old, but for anyone reading I have some tips to speed up the upgrade process.

1. After taking your backups, stop all ArcGIS services in the task manager service tab: ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Data store, ArcGIS License Manager, & Portal for ArcGIS.
2. Install/upgrade Portal. Import your portal licenses where necessary, then stop the Portal for ArcGIS service since it restarted.
3. Start the Web Adaptor for Portal. When you get to the browser portion restart the Portal for ArcGIS service and wait for the portal to start working again (usually 2-3 min) before finishing the installation.
4. Stop the Portal service again, then start the Server installation process. When the browser portion starts restart the Portal service since it will be needed to finish the server upgrade (again wait for the portal to spin up).
5. Stop the portal and server services, then start the Web Adaptor for Server process. Again when the browser portion starts, restart the services then proceed.
6. Do the same thing for the Datastore, stopping services before installing and restarting the services when the browser portion appears.

I know its a lot of extra steps, but by doing this I cut down the installation from 12+ hours just for the server to about an hour.  I only wish I had thought about trying it before the portal portion, waisted so much time waiting around clicking 'retry'.  I noticed the main issue is the services running during the "setup.exe" installation process.

[Brian_Wilson]

What gave you the idea to do this?

[YuriWorkTech]

I read somewhere that some services running could cause issues, like anti-virus software. So I decided to try the installation with the arcgis services stopped to see if it helped and it did.