Upgrading Arcgis Enterprise from 10.2.1 to 10.6.1

[Tarunvisvanadula1994]

Hi All,

we have an requirement for upgrading  ArcGIS Enterprise from 10.2.1 to 10.8.1 so we cant directly upgrade to 10.8.1 so we need to upgrade to 10.6.1  and then later we need to upgrade to 10.8.1

Can you please help me with below queries

  1) How to perform Full Backup including Users, Roles, Groups of 10.2.1 Enterprise  using WebGISDR Tool.

   2)Steps or documentation while upgrading from 10.2.1 to 10.6.1.

Thanks in Advance

Regards

Tarun

[Scott_Tansley]

How are you planning to upgrade, over the top or migrate to new machines?  If over the top, what operating system are you using?  And from memory, the webgisdr tool was introduced much later.

If you took a VM Snapshot of 10.2.1 you could jump to 10.6.1 as you say, over the top.  Then introduce new machines with new operating systems, install 10.6.1 and:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/10.6/administer/windows/migrate-to-new-machines.htm

Then close down the old machines and upgrade to 10.8.1 or 10.9.1.  It's possible but convoluted.  You need to consider outage windows, risk and a whole host of things.  How much content do you have, can you just rebuild to a later version and recreate content.  Given how much web maps and apps have changed in the interim it may make sense to start again?

Good luck,

Scott

www.geoworx.co.nz 

[Tarunvisvanadula1994]

Thanks for the response Scott

We are you planning to upgrade over the top of existing ArcGIS enterprise version 10.2.1.

what operating system are you using? Windows

can we take backup of 10.2.1 using WebGISDR Tool ?

Thanks in Advance

[Scott_Tansley]

ok - more specifically, which version of Windows?  My guess is that 10.2.1 will only be supported on Win Server 2008 or 2012.  If you're on 2012, then you can upgrade.  But is that a good move?  I wouldn't entertain the idea.  You've got less than 1 years support:

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/windowsserver/2021/07/14/plan-your-windows-server-2012-and-2012-r2-....

Just because esri support 2012, doesn't make it a good choice.  Sorry to be blunt, I just want to be honest!   You're going to put a lot of effort into a 10.6.1 upgrade and a 10.8.1 upgrade, and have no windows support in less than a year.  You'd honestly be faster, more secure and have a better outcome by standing up a new VM(s) and installing >=10.8.1 and migrating with a view to adopting the latest and best practice.  There's an old adage (**bleep** in = **bleep** out).  It's probably time to blow the cobwebs off and do the job properly.

[Scott_Tansley]

and to answer your specific question, I belive the webgisdr tool was introduced at 10.6.1:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/10.6/administer/windows/create-web-gis-backup.htm

I'm happy to be corrected.  So there isn't a 10.2.1 webgisdr tool to use.  It's version specific, and you can only restore to the same version.  I don't think it's going to help you.

You could look at a third-party tool like:

   https://www.civiclens.com/backups

But I'm not sure if it will go that far back.  It's a modern/new tool, and probably not designed/tested on out-of-support versions.  Speak to the civiclens  guys.

[Tarunvisvanadula1994]

Thanks Scott

[Tarunvisvanadula1994]

Sorry ,forgot to mention version it is Windows 2019 where we are planning to upgrade from 10.2.1 to higher

[Scott_Tansley]

that's not over the top then.  That's side by side.  You're going to install Windows Server 2019 on a new machine?  If that's the case then you need some extreme funkiness to deal with DNS entries and names.  10.2.1, from memory, used a lot of hostnames.  You can't have the same host twice on a network.  Even if you upgrade to 10.6.1 you're likely to still be using hostnames, and the webgisdr tool will preserve them.  So if you restore to another machine with different host/alias names, then it will fail.

10.2.1 was a very early release with a lot of limitations in how far you could migrate/push/relocate it.  The platform has come a very long way, but I honestly think you'd be better 'starting again' clean build on 2019 and republish your services.  Use tools to migrate web maps, and build new apps.  

[Tarunvisvanadula1994]

We are not going to install Any windows 2019 because we have an ArcGIS 10.2.1 installed in Windows 2019 machine.so on top of existing ArcGIS we are planning to upgrade it to 10.6.1

[Scott_Tansley]

Ah.  Got you.  You might get lucky.  10.2.1 isn't supported on 2019 so not the best of start points.  

From what you've now said, webgisdr isn't really an option.  So back the VM up, go to 10.6.1, then go to 10.x.1 from there.  You could use the webgisdr at 10.6.1.

Good luck.