Migrating an MES Database to the Current Release

Make a backup of the existing database prior to upgrading it in case any issues occur during the upgrade process.

Make sure that you have enough disk space available on your computer before you start to migrate the MES database to the latest version. The amount of disk space should be at least equal to the size of your MES database or 30 GB, whichever amount is larger. Also, in the case of large databases, reduce the size of the database and the transaction log file before you perform the upgrade. Then reduce the size of the transaction log after the upgrade is complete.

If the existing MES database has custom indices and keys that reference core MES tables, they must be dropped before migrating the database to the current release. If they are not dropped, the database migration will fail. They can be added back after the migration is complete.

Migration of MES databases from version 4.0 and later is supported. If you are migrating from versions earlier than version 4.0, it is recommended to first migrate the database to version 4.0.

Another option is to record the contents of the FactIntelligence.cfg file prior to the upgrade and then use that information to configure the new database in the post-install Configurator application (the database connection information will not be automatically populated in Configurator). You can see the settings to record by running the MES Database Connection String Editor on the old MES version.

Custom modifications to any version of the MES database might not be supported by the post‑install Configurator and might prevent migration. For more information on migrating an existing MES database, see the procedure in Migrating or Overwriting an Existing MES Database.

If you are migrating an MES database from a release prior to version 5.0, it will not have index optimization that was available starting with the version 5.0. To apply this index optimization to the migrated MES database, see MES Database Index Optimization Script.

If you are migrating an MES database from version 5.3 or earlier, the migration of the utilization table structure to the new structure can take a long time. A rough estimate is provided prior to migrating it. As a precaution, all the original data remains in the database in tables labeled tablename_deprecated. Once you are satisfied that the migration was successful, these tables can be deleted.