Upgrading Raiser's Edge 7.92

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Ray Berthelette
Ray Berthelette
Seventh Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hi All:


So after being thrown into Raiser's Edge, with no training and lots of requests coming in for reports, I've gotten to the point where I was able to get out many lists successfully. Now that things have quieted down a little, I'm looking to upgrade the version of Raiser's Edge that we currently have installed.


We have our own server on site that is running 7.92.5508.0 SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.


Based on my research it appears the current version is 7.96. Is that correct?


I'm also guessing that the following document is what I need for the system requirements?

https://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/guides/re7/re796sqlreqs.pdf


Can anyone tell me if you have done this upgrade, how long did it take you, and are there any caveats of which I need to be aware?


Thanks,

Ray

 
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  • John Heizer
    John Heizer
    Ancient Membership 500 Likes 500 Comments Photogenic
    There are MAJOR changes in how phone numbers and handled and lots of threads here already discuss this at great length.  You'll want to reserach this and do test conversions before converting your production database.
  • Joanne Felci 2
    Joanne Felci 2
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Likes 1000 Comments Photogenic
    Ray...I'm in the same boat and am working with my IT department to set up a test database for me 


    But here is a link to a Knowledgebase article on how to prepare, the webinar recording is worth watching as well
  • Ray Berthelette
    Ray Berthelette
    Seventh Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes

    John Heizer:

    There are MAJOR changes in how phone numbers and handled and lots of threads here already discuss this at great length.  You'll want to reserach this and do test conversions before converting your production database.

    Thanks for the quick reply John! Yes, I've been reading about the differences in phone numbers and am finding a lot of infor here in the community. What do you mean by doing a test conversion?


    Thanks,

    Ray

  • Ray Berthelette
    Ray Berthelette
    Seventh Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic 5 Likes

    Joanne Felci:

    Ray...I'm in the same boat and am working with my IT department to set up a test database for me 


    But here is a link to a Knowledgebase article on how to prepare, the webinar recording is worth watching as well

    Thanks Joanne! I'll be sure to check that article and webinar recording out!


    Ray

  • John Heizer
    John Heizer
    Ancient Membership 500 Likes 500 Comments Photogenic

    Ray Berthelette:

     

    John Heizer:

    There are MAJOR changes in how phone numbers and handled and lots of threads here already discuss this at great length.  You'll want to reserach this and do test conversions before converting your production database.

    Thanks for the quick reply John! Yes, I've been reading about the differences in phone numbers and am finding a lot of infor here in the community. What do you mean by doing a test conversion?


    Thanks,

    Ray

     

    Have an offline temporary copy of your database and perform the conversion on that database.  Look at the results and see what's "broken."  Tweak your live data as necessary.  Get a fresh offline temporary copy of your data and perform the conversion again.  Repeat this until you feel you've minimized the amount of post-conversion cleanup you'll need to do before you do a final conversion on your live data.

  • Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Comments 250 Likes Name Dropper
    Quite apart from the RE version differences, coming at this from an infrastructure POV, personally I'd be inclined to upgrade the server itself. SQL Server 2005 Express ... pretty long in the tooth and limited to a single CPU (among other things). Depending on your users, performance needs, etc I think you'd do well to move to a new server build, run it alongside the live server for testing then take the new box (or VM) live.


    We've done a few audits/rebuilds/tunes and starting with a good foundation makes a big difference.

    Steve Cinquegrana | CEO and Principal Developer | Protégé Solutions

     
  • Joanne Felci 2
    Joanne Felci 2
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Likes 1000 Comments Photogenic

    John Heizer:

    Ray Berthelette:

     

    John Heizer:

    There are MAJOR changes in how phone numbers and handled and lots of threads here already discuss this at great length.  You'll want to reserach this and do test conversions before converting your production database.

    Thanks for the quick reply John! Yes, I've been reading about the differences in phone numbers and am finding a lot of infor here in the community. What do you mean by doing a test conversion?


    Thanks,

    Ray

     

    Have an offline temporary copy of your database and perform the conversion on that database.  Look at the results and see what's "broken."  Tweak your live data as necessary.  Get a fresh offline temporary copy of your data and perform the conversion again.  Repeat this until you feel you've minimized the amount of post-conversion cleanup you'll need to do before you do a final conversion on your live data.

     

    John - thanks for the advice...after the first test database do you remove that from the server and install a fresh test database?

  • John Heizer
    John Heizer
    Ancient Membership 500 Likes 500 Comments Photogenic

    Joanne Felci:

     

    John Heizer:

    Ray Berthelette:

     

    John Heizer:

    There are MAJOR changes in how phone numbers and handled and lots of threads here already discuss this at great length.  You'll want to reserach this and do test conversions before converting your production database.

    Thanks for the quick reply John! Yes, I've been reading about the differences in phone numbers and am finding a lot of infor here in the community. What do you mean by doing a test conversion?


    Thanks,

    Ray

     

    Have an offline temporary copy of your database and perform the conversion on that database.  Look at the results and see what's "broken."  Tweak your live data as necessary.  Get a fresh offline temporary copy of your data and perform the conversion again.  Repeat this until you feel you've minimized the amount of post-conversion cleanup you'll need to do before you do a final conversion on your live data.

     

    John - thanks for the advice...after the first test database do you remove that from the server and install a fresh test database?

     

    Yes.

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