Inconsistent ArcGIS Enterprise Upgrade Order in Esri's Documenation

[RyanUthoff]

I've been reviewing Esri's documentation in preparation for an ArcGIS Enterprise upgrade and noticed a slight inconsistency with all of the documentation and videos I have been reviewing. 

Per Esri's documentation here (https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/10.9.1/install/windows/upgrade-portal-for-arcgis.htm), it says uninstall the Portal web adaptor before upgrading Portal, then installing the new web adaptor after the Portal upgrade is complete. The same goes for Server.

However, in every other documentation and demo upgrade video I've seen (including this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ4PL1dvm3k&ab_channel=EsriEvents), it says to upgrade Portal first, then uninstall and reinstall the web adaptor.

So, my question is why is the documentation inconsistent, and which is the correct order? I've done previous upgrades before and always did portal/server upgrade first, then upgrade (including uninstalling and reinstalling) the corresponding web adaptor afterwards. But, this is the first time I've seen the documentation change the order of upgrade operations.

I'm under the impression that the order doesn't actually matter, as long as the new version of web adaptor is installed after Portal/Server has been upgraded. But, it's still confusing and leaves me doubting what order is "correct" when I see inconsistencies in the documentation.

[George_Thompson]

I noticed that for 11.1 upgrade you do the web adaptor after Portal & Server. Not sure why 10.9.1 is different.

11.1: https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/install/windows/upgrade-portal-for-arcgis.htm

I usually follow the order for the best experience in the upgrade process.

[RyanUthoff]

No, it looks like 10.9.1 and 11.1 is the same. It's inconsistent within the same documentation page you listed.

If you look under the "ArcGIS Enterprise upgrade order" section, it says upgrade Portal/Server first, then web adaptor. 

However, below it under the "Perform an upgrade of your portal deployment" section, step 3 is to uninstall the Portal web adaptor, then step 4-9 is to upgrade Portal, and step 10 is installing the new Portal web adaptor.

So it leaves me wondering which order is "correct" (even though I'm assuming both orders are technically correct).

[George_Thompson]

Yeah, I can see the confusion.... I looked here: https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/get-started/latest/windows/upgrade-arcgis-enterprise.htm 

And it shows Portal then WA, Server then WA.

I would create a support case to have them review the documentation and see how it could be improved.

[JalesM]

At the very bottom of the documentation page, there's an option to submit feedback. That is probably the best way to notify the team that wrote the document. 

I've always done my upgrades as you have... Portal > Portal WA > Server > Server WA > Data Store. In fact, after upgrading Portal, the instruction in the browser tells you to upgrade the Portal WA next. 

[RyanUthoff]

Great idea, thank you!

[dhochhal]

It seems they haven't changed anything in the documentation for 11.1 where in the upgrade procedure there uninstall WA is #3 before running setup. However, in the 11.2 documentation it is step #9 after setup of portal and creating the site. I did find an article from technical support that outlines the steps for 11.1 as shown now for 11.2, so that you would upgrade portal completely before uninstalling and reinstalling WA. 

https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/upgrade-arcgis-enterprise-000029452

Another bit of information, when I did a clean install of 11.0, I made a note reminding myself to set the machine name for portal to the alias for DNS before actually completing and creating the site after setup finishes. I suspect that without the WA, the setup sets the machine name without DNS from the local machine info?? So if you do uninstall WA before running setup, you may want to check that before completing the final creation of the site after setup finishes and the web page opens.

[MingLee]

I have a specific order in which I conduct upgrades.

I start with the Portal, move on to Portal WA, then upgrade the Server followed by Server WA, and finally, the Data Store. This order is important because during the upgrade process, the new WA needs to register with the appropriate Portal/Server component.