The process of upgrading applies to major upgrades and minor service releases of all kinds. You should follow the same procedure regardless. This document covers upgrading supported versions of Telligent Community to version 9.0. It is possible to upgrade earlier versions of Community Server and Telligent Community to Telligent Community 9, however depending on the version additional steps may be required. Please contact support for more information.
This article makes the same assumptions about the person performing the upgrade made in the article Install Telligent Community.
Step 1: Stop Services
1. Stop the Application Pool on all web servers. Before proceeding the web site needs to be down. You should not attempt to upgrade while a site is actively being used as it can cause the upgrade to fail or corrupt data.
2. Stop the Job Service. As with the web, the job service should not be running during an upgrade.
3. Stop Search. The best way to stop search is to stop the Tomcat service on the search server. Generally this can be done in the windows services or depending on the installation there is a system tray icon.
You should also stop any monitoring or replication services external to the product.
Step 2: Backup
1. Backup the web files. You can do this through normal copying to a backup device of your choosing.
2. Backup Centralized File Storage. If you are in a single server non-development environment or your filestorage is located in the default location inside the web files (/filestorage) then step 1 would also have backed up your filestorage. If you reference filestorage from a shared location, you can locate that folder by finding the path defined in the communityserver_override.config file in the current web site root.
3. Do a FULL database backup. You should execute a full backup of the database to ensure no data loss and allow for a quick recovery in the event issues arise.
Step 3: Obtain and Extract Installation Files
1. If you downloaded a zip file from our website or another location, windows may have blocked the file for security reasons. Before proceeding, be sure to un-block the file. Generally this can be done by right clicking the zip file and selecting the unblock button or checkbox on the appropriate tab. The location of this however can vary for different versions of windows. Consult the documentation for your version of windows for more information.
2. Extract the files to an accessible location. You will be referencing these files in future steps, they should be readily available.
It is important to notice that the downloaded package is a full installation, Telligent no longer provides differential based packages starting with Telligent Community 8.0. The Upgrade process always uses full installation packages.
Step 4: Upgrade the Web Files
1. Rename your current web site installation folder. The name is not important, it is simply to differentiate it from the folder IIS is currently referencing. This renamed folder will be referenced as the current site files folder going forward.
2. Copy the Web folder from the installation package. Copy it to the same location as the folder you just renamed. This folder going forward will be referred to as the new site files folder.
3. Replace Configuration Files. From the current site files folder, locate the communityserver_override.config and connectionStrings.config* file. Copy them to the new site files folder, overwriting the ones present.
*It is rare that the connectionStrings.config file changes, however it may be worth quickly comparing the new one to your existing one for any differences aside from your connection specific information.
4. Copy over any custom files, language packs or add-ons. Because we start clean with web files, if your current site has any custom files such as custom DLL files or you installed custom languages you will need to copy them from the the current site files folder to the new site files folder*.
*WARNING: You should check with the vendor of any any add-ons or customization work in your current site to ensure they will be compatible with the new version of Telligent Community you are upgrading to. There may be newer versions or compatibility issues that could compromise your community upgrade. New versions of the software also can change, add or remove language resources that may conflict with any currently installed language packs.
5. Merge any resource changes and web.config changes. If you made changes or additions to the language resource files in the current site files languages folder, you need to merge those changes into the new site files folder's version of that file. Do not overwrite the new file with your current file. There are many tools available online to aid in the merging process.
The only recommended changes to the web.config concern changes to the security settings of authentication and the encryption keys. If you have made changes to the authentication node or added a custom machine key you should add them to the new site's version of the web.config.
6. Copy filestorage. This step only applies if you are running a single server with the filestorage in the web files folder, or multiple servers where the filestorage is in the web folder and being replicated by some external process. If you store filestorage folder in a central location referenced by the communityserver_override.config, as long as the overrides to reference your centralized filestorage path are configured correctly you can skip to step 7. Otherwise, copy the filestorage folder from the current site files folder to the new site files folder. Do not overwrite existing files (NOTE this folder is empty in the new site files folder with the exception of a web.config and while it rarely changes you should use the most recent version). If you are not running filestorage from the web, you can safely delete the filestorage folder from the new site files folder, but its not required.
7. Rename the new site files folder. Rename the new site files folder to name used previously by the current site files folder before renaming it. Following this procedure means you should not have to make any IIS changes. If you choose not to do this and use the new folder name permanently, you should alter the basic settings for the web site in IIS and ensure its pointing to the new site files folder. If you choose to not restore the folder name and your filestorage is located in the new site files folder referenced by a communityserver_override.config file, be sure to alter the filestorage path in the communityserver_override.config file.
It might also be good at this stage to re-verify that the application pool identity account still has read permissions to the new site files folder and that the application pool identity account still has Read, Read and Execute, List Folder Contents, Write and Modify permissions on the filestorage folder, especially if your filestorage is inside the site files folder.
Step 5: Upgrade the database
This will require you be logged on to the SQL server management tools as a system administrator or database owner of the community database.
1. Ensure you are connected to and running against your community database. If you are unsure of the name of your database you can obtain it from the connectionstrings.config file in the web site files or job service files.
2. Locate and execute cs_UpdateSchemaAndProcedures.sql or Upgrade.sql on your community database. This file can be found in the SqlScripts folder of the unzipped installation package.
If at any time this script encounters errors do not proceed any further. Evaluate the errors and see if its an issue in the database setup and/or permissions. If you are able to rectify the issue, drop the database and repeat this section. If you are having trouble contact a SQL Server Administrator or contact our support department for assistance. NOTE: There may be many errors in the SQL output because one error can cause more errors later in the script. Always look for the first error encountered.
3. Check for any needed SQL updates to third party components or custom work. If any of the add-ons or customizations you may have installed require updated SQL they should be applied now. If you run into issues you should contact the add-on vendor or whomever implemented the custom work before proceeding.
Step 6: Update the Job Service
1. Rename your current job service installation folder. The name is not important, it is simply to differentiate it from the folder the windows service is currently referencing. This renamed folder will be referenced as the current job service files folder going forward.
2. Copy the JobService folder from the installation package. Copy it to the same location as the folder you just renamed. This folder going forward will be referred to as the new job service files folder.
3. Replace Configuration Files. From the current job service folder, locate the communityserver_override.config and connectionStrings.config* file. Copy them to the new job service files folder, overwriting the ones present.
*It is rare that the connectionStrings.config file changes, however it may be worth quickly comparing the new one to your existing one for any differences aside from your connection specific information.
4. Copy over any custom files, language packs or add-ons. Because we start clean with web files, if your current job service has any custom files such as custom DLL files or you installed custom languages you will need to copy them from the the current job service files folder to the new job service files folder*.
*WARNING: You should check with the vendor of any any add-ons or customization work in your current site to ensure they will be compatible with the new version of Telligent Community you are upgrading to. There may be newer versions or compatibility issues that could compromise your community upgrade.
5. Merge any resource changes. If you made changes or additions to the language resource files in the current job service files languages folder, you need to merge those changes into the new job service files folder's version of that file. Do not overwrite the new file with your current file. There are many tools available online to aid in the merging process.
6. Rename the new job service files folder. Rename the new job service folder to name used previously by the current job service files folder before renaming it. This way the windows service does not need to be altered in any way.
If you chose not to use a consistent name for your web site files(as in you did not rename the new file to match your previously installed one) and your filestorage is located in the new site files folder referenced by a communityserver_override.config file, be sure to alter the filestorage path in the communityserver_override.config file in the new job service files folder to reference the new folder.
It might also be good at this stage to re-verify that the Job Service service identity account still has the Read, Read and Execute, List Folder Contents, Write and Modify permissions on the filestorage folder, especially if your filestorage is inside the web site files folder.
Step 7: Upgrading Search
In a maintenance release it is extremely rare that search is updated and if its required it will be specifically called out. For a major upgrade you should verify with the release notes to see if search has changed.
If it has changed, generally search is re-installed completely versus upgrading it.
1. Delete the solr folder from the tomcat installation root. You will also need to delete the solr folder found in the Apache Tomcat root/webapps folder. This folder will be regenerated when the Apache Tomcat service is restarted.
2. If for some reason your version of Tomcat is no longer supported by Telligent Community it should be uninstalled.
3. Reference and complete the steps in Install Telligent Community for installing and configuring search. You can skip installing Tomcat unless you previously uninstalled it.
4. Prepare for your Site to be Reindexed. After installing a new version of solr you will need to reindex your site content. In the extracted installation folder, locate the SqlScripts folder and the Reset_SearchIndexes.sql file. Open this file on your Sql server and execute it on your upgraded community database.
Step 8: Start Services
1. Start the Application Pool(s).
2. Start the Search Service(Tomcat).
3. Start the Job Service.
Step 9: Review/Update the User Experience
The user experience of upgraded sites is persisted to ensure users are not affected by platform upgrades. The first time the site is accessed after upgrading, an upgrade notification will be sent to administrators. If there were any changes to platform-defined themes or widgets, this message will include instructions to enable previewing, reviewing, and publishing platform user experience changes. The preview/review process enables customization via the site editing tools (widget editor, page editor, theme option editing, etc) while previewing to ensure that changes are ready to be used by your site members before you publish reviewed changes. If the site currently doesn't use the Social theme, the upgrade note will also provide a way to start the Social theme migration process.