Do Solutions upgrade automatically with Enterprise upgrade?

[dsinha]

Hello,

We have been trying for the last one month to upgrade our Enterprise install from 11.2 to 11.4 to take advantage of the latest versions of the Solutions. However, we have been unable to complete the upgrade because of issues for which we can't find solutions. As Plan B, we are thinking of postponing our upgrade and install the 11.2 versions of solutions and come back to the Enterprise upgrade next year.

My question: When we upgrade to 11.4/11.5 next year, would the installed Solutions automatically update to their 11.4/11.5 versions?

Thanks!

Deb.

[Laura]

Yes you will get the upgraded solutions when you upgrade your Enterprise. 

See also:https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-solutions-questions/how-to-deploy-latest-version-of-a-solution/...

[ChrisFox · Accepted solution]

I want to add some additional clarity in the response. When you upgrade to a newer version of Enterprise the solutions that are available to deploy from the ArcGIS Solutions app in Enterprise will be the latest versions for that release of Enterprise.

However, the solutions that you have already deployed on your Enterprise will not automatically update to the latest version when you update to a newer version of Enterprise. You would need to deploy the latest version to get the updated items. In addition, deploying the update will not update your existing items, it will create new items. This is by design as it is not possible for us to reliably update existing items, because once the items are deployed you can make any modifications you want to them.

If you are curious which versions of a particular solution are available at a given Enterprise release you can view this from the help for the solution. Select the version of Enterprise under the 'Other versions' dropdown and review the release notes at the bottom of the help topic.

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-solutions/11.4/reference/introduction-to-citizen-problem-reporter.h...

[dsinha]

Thanks @Laura & @ChrisFox for your answers! 

@ChrisFox, thanks for confirming my hunch that the Solutions would not automatically upgrade to the latest version. This certainly complicates our ability to move forward with Solutions deployment without Enterprise upgrade.

Would replacing the underlying data feature layers of the new version with those of the old version work? I understand that we would lose customizations made to the Solutions interface, but could we at least import the data to the new version?

Thanks!

Deb

[ChrisFox]

@dsinha, could you provide a little more information on the issue you are running into, what solution(s) you are using, and what you are hoping to accomplish? 

[dsinha]

@ChrisFox, we were hoping to deploy several ArcGIS Solutions (see list below) on our Enterprise platform after upgrading our Enterprise from 11.2 to 11.4. However, we have been unable to complete our Enterprise upgrade despite 1.5 months of effort. 

I was hoping to postpone the Enterprise upgrade if the Solutions updated automatically on upgrade later on, but, as per your reply, that would not work.

I hope I answered your question.

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Proposed Solution deployments: Stormwater Data Management, Public Parking, Combined Sewer Data Management, Water Distribution Data Management, My Trash Services, Code Enforcement Operations, Community Health Outreach, Special Event Permitting and Operations, Tax Parcel Data Management, Plans and Drawings, Lead Service Line Inventory, Roadway Management, Fire Hydrant Inspections, Parks and Grounds Management, Citizen Problem Reporter

[ChrisFox]

@dsinha, I think I understand now. You would like to know if you can deploy the solutions now at 11.2 and minimize the amount of work you need to do at 11.4 to get the updated versions. I will say it will depend on the solution. The best way is to refer to the documentation and compare the version and release notes between 11.2 and 11.4.

For example, the Plans and Drawings and Lead Service Line Inventory solution have not changed between 11.2 and 11.4. So you can deploy it now and won't need to do anything at 11.4.

For other solutions like Public Parking, or Stormwater Data Management there was just a minor version change between 11.2 and 11.4 (ex. 1.0 -> 1.1). In this case we just updated the apps and made no changes to the feature layers. So if you deploy it now and load your data into the layers, you can deploy the update at 11.4 and it will just create new apps on top of the existing layers. There will be no need to move data to new layers.

For other solutions like Special Event Operations there was a major version change between 11.2 and 11.4 (ex. 2.2 -> 3.0). In this case the 11.4 version will deploy new feature layers in addition maps and apps. You can't just swap out the new layers for the old layers because we introduced schema changes that are required for the solution to function as expected.

So my recommendation would be to start with the solutions that don't change between the versions first. Then you can move to the solutions that have just a minor version change, because the work you do now to load and create your data will continue to work when you deploy the update at 11.4. Finally you can deploy the solutions that had a major version change now, but understand that migration will be a little more involved once you deploy the update at 11.4. It will evolve loading data from the old layers into the new layers and potentially populating additional attributes as needed for the solution.

[dsinha]

@ChrisFox Thanks for the detailed reply. I think I will start by making a comparative table of the different Solutions and the changes between 11.2 and 11.4. Hopefully, this would help us guide our implementation process going ahead.

Thanks again!