Best practices throughout the upgrade process

There are a number of practices that you can follow when upgrading your iBase system. If you follow best practice, you can reduce the likelihood and impact of issues.

Test the upgrade first

Perform an upgrade to iBase in a test environment before you perform it against a live system. The test environment you use should closely match your current system, allowing you to troubleshoot any issues that arise.

Communicate with all system users

Once the upgrade testing has been successfully completed, you should send a communication to all system users advising them of the planned work, timescales, and how this will affect them. You should continue this communication throughout the process, alerting users to the progress that has been made.

Back up your system

It is of utmost importance that you make a complete backup of your existing iBase configuration and databases and verify they are successfully backed up before and after you perform the upgrade. To back up your system, follow the instructions in Database upgrades to ensure that the upgraded databases are successfully backed up and your changes stored.

Ensure that backups are stored in different secure locations to insure against any unforeseen issues and to prevent extra space being used on your Server.

Use supported prerequisites

iBase only supports the operating systems and supported software listed in the detailed system requirements. Ensure that existing deployments are upgraded to currently supported versions of all the software required. For more information about the software supported for the current release, see the system requirements.

Database Administration

Both before and after the database has been upgraded, a Schema Integrity Check should be carried out to ensure that the database is in a stable condition. The Wizard checks the schema, reporting any problems that were found and offering to fix those it can repair.

Additional actions for users of iBase Scheduler

When making any changes to the database, you should ensure that the iBase Scheduler has completed any outstanding import or export tasks, and has been turned off before the change takes place.

If Scheduler databases are on more than one SQL Server, an alternative to stopping the Scheduler service is to deactivate any Scheduler triggers that operate over the databases on the server you are upgrading. This will ensure that scheduled imports for databases on other servers continue unaffected.

When the modification has been completed, enable iBase Scheduler to perform its imports and exports by either starting the Scheduler service or reactivating the Scheduler triggers using the iBase Scheduler Configuration tool.

Additional actions for replicated databases

You must carefully plan the upgrade of replicated security files and databases. Data consistency issues can arise if changes are made to the security files or databases at multiple sites while the databases are not being replicated.

When making any changes to the database, you should ensure that database replication has been stopped by the SQL Server DBA before the changes are carried out. Replication of the audit log is optional, but if you have chosen to replicate it, the SQL Server DBA must stop replication on this database too.