How do I upgrade annotation for use in Pro?

[JoshWhite]

I looked up in the help how to upgrade my annotation to be editable in Pro.  I saw I should run the Upgrade Dataset tool (which by the way is not named correctly as I am attempting to upgrade a annotation feature class not a dataset).  So far this is good until I run the tool and get a warning that says the dataset cannot be versioned.  Ok, so I unregistered the dataset that the annotation feature class resides in and ran the tool again.  I get the same error.  The error is here: 000100: The dataset cannot be versioned.—Help | ArcGIS Desktop   and is not very helpful.  I understand why it would need to be unversioned but I don't know how to get rid of this error since I've already unregistered it as versioned.  I'm using 2.2.1.

[Robert_LeClair]

Just out of curiosity, if you close AGP and open ArcMap to manage your Enterprise connections, do you see the same locks in play here?  If so, is it possible to disconnect those locks (without impacting other users certainly), then close ArcMap.  Start AGP and attempt the upgrade again.

[JoshWhite]

I've have tried it in both software suites with the same results. 

[Robert_LeClair]

In reviewing the Esri Support Services logs, it could be an orphaned lock in your Enterprise GDB.  One workflow that fixed this for another customer is as follows:

The only possible workaround for now is to manually delete the orphan locks. To do so:
1.  Make a full back up of the database
2.  Make sure there are no active connections to the database of concern.  (open AGP/AM sessions, Services running, etc.)
3.  Run a  query for the SDE_table_locks, SDE_layer_locks, SDE_object_locks, SDE_state_locks and SDE_process_information and notice if there are orphan lock entries.  Or open your Enterprise Manager (Oracle) or SQL Server Management Studio (SQL Server) and open the tables referenced above to see what locks are open.
4.  Delete the entries from SDE_table_locks, SDE_layer_locks, SDE_object_locks and SDE_state_locks
5.  You should be able to access the geodatabase administration, locks tab on relaunching ArcGIS Pro

[JoshWhite]

I may have missed a step somewhere but I tried all of that, deleting the entries in SQL but I open Pro and the connections are all still there, and deleting them doesn't help still have the error.  I guess there is some setting wrong and I'll have to resort to a tech support call.  

[Robert_LeClair]

Okay - so you created the backup, open SSMS, went to the correct database and view the repository tables for the 4 lock tables.  Then deleted any locks in one or more of those repository tables and the issue remains?  If so, then I would encourage a tech support call to get this figured out.

[JoshWhite · Accepted solution]

After several different calls to Tech Support I finally got my geodatabase to upgrade and now I can also upgrade my annotation.  It had something to do with the sde user in SQL Management Studio.  Its sad these days that you have to be an IT guru to do some things in GIS.  

Specifically here is how my Support Analyst wrote it up:

we were able to resolve the issue after resyncing the "sde" login to the database and granting it db_owner role and then running upgrade geodatabase tool on the database. This behavior is due to an existing defect. 

Here are the details of the defect:
BUG-000100778 : Upgrade geodatabase tool at 10.5 fails with error [sde_branches : Error (-96)  DBMS error code: 0]

We had to also first upgrade to a 10.5 database before upgrading to 10.6.  

[MichaelVolz]

So if your SDE database is already upgraded to 10.5.1, the upgrade to 10.6 should run smoothly as it would bypass this bug that exists with the upgrade to SDE 10.5.1?

Also from another GeoNet thread:

"Annotation storage

If you have annotation feature classes created in ArcMap, you can view and query them. However, to edit them or modify their properties, you must upgrade them.

Learn more about the Upgrade Dataset tool

This is important to note that once you upgrade your ArcMap annotation to Pro annotation, it's no longer usable in ArcMap.  Thus you may wish to make a copy of it in your gdb - one for ArcMap and one for ArcGIS Pro."

Have all the annotation editors at your org been migrated to Pro so they are able to update annotation, because if the annotation editors are still using ArcMap they can no longer update annotation?

[JoshWhite]

Michael Volz wrote:

So if your SDE database is already upgraded to 10.5.1, the upgrade to 10.6 should run smoothly as it would bypass this bug that exists with the upgrade to SDE 10.5.1?

Have all the annotation editors at your org been migrated to Pro so they are able to update annotation, because if the annotation editors are still using ArcMap they can no longer update annotation?

The hope is that yes, if you have already upgraded to 10.5, the transition to 10.6 should run smoothly.  

We are a small organization, I am the only person that will ever mess with annotation.  I do have other editors of data in the organization but they shouldn't ever be messing with annotation.  If they for whatever reason needed to edit annotation I would have them download Pro.  I do find this troubling though, Esri typically makes things backwards compatible but unfortunately this is not one of those things.  One thing I am very happy about is how easy it is to upgrade Pro compared to the hour long process of updating ArcMap and ArcCatalog.  And ArcGIS Server is even worse when it comes to this upgrade process.

[Robert_LeClair]

This is interesting certainly.  By chance are you using an application server connection vs. a direct connection to your Enterprise Geodatabase?  (i.e. gsrvr.exe and giomgr.exe)  If so, create a direct connection and attempt the upgrade again.

[JoshWhite]

I think I am looking in the right place, when in the Geodatabase Administration window in Pro, the connections all have a connection type of Direct Connect.