Using joinSite Operation to upgrade from 10.9.1 to 11.3

[MonicaBeaton]

Hello,

I want to test out Enterprise 11.3 on a separate machine using a newer OS. Our production environment is Enterprise 10.9.1 and so the only option I have to migrate all the core datasets it seems is by using the joinSite operation. Upon researching this, I found the documentation says "you cannot have created your new Portal Site yet". How crucial is this? Of course I created the new Portal Site with the install as none of the documentation talks about possibly waiting for migration reasons. Is it still worth trying the joinSite to move all my data over to the new server or am I looking at having to do this manually or possibly recreating the new Portal? I am not sure which would take longer at this point. 

[RyanUthoff]

I can't tell from your post, but I just want to call out that the version of Portal on both servers need to be the same. You can't join a 10.9.1 Portal to a 11.3 Portal. I'm not sure if you installed 10.9.1 on your second server and then planned on upgrading it, or just went straight to installing 11.3. But both servers need to be the same version if you plan on joining the two sites together.

Also, waiting to create the site on your second machine is pretty important. I won't go as far and say that it won't work (because I don't 100% know for sure), but that goes against Esri's documentation.

This Esri documentation states how to configure a highly available Portal. Specifically, under the "Install and configure the second portal machine" section, it says to install Portal on the second machine and to join an existing site, not create a new one.

[MonicaBeaton]

Thank you Ryan,

I did NOT pick up on the fact that both servers must have the same version of Portal (you're right, mine are not). I suppose this renders my question moot. I think I received some bad advice from the get-go; I certainly appreciate your prompt response!