Phase 1: Pre-upgrade

The first phase of any Data Archive upgrade focuses upon planning, evaluating the upgrade strategy as well as taking stock of the current status of your Data Archive. These essential steps will be valuable and assist with recovering in the event that you may encounter issues during the upgrade and need to restore to the pre-upgrade state.

Be aware of the following important considerations when preparing to upgrade:

• A new license file is not necessary in most upgrade scenarios. A new license file is needed if you are moving your Data Archive onto a new host computer or if you have changed your licensing agreement with AVEVA. In some situations, changes to the hardware of an existing host computer may also necessitate a new license. Otherwise, your current license file can be reused after an upgrade. For more information, see Learn about licensing for Data Archive upgrades.

• During an upgrade, keep the newly upgraded server isolated from the network to lessen the chance of data loss.

• Plan for downtime during the upgrade process.

• Only perform upgrades on healthy systems. Do not attempt an upgrade on a system that is not functioning correctly.

  Note: COM connectors will no longer function starting with PI Data Archive 2018 SP3 Patch 1. To migrate your COM connectors prior to upgrading from an earlier version of PI Data Archive, contact the Customer Portal for assistance.

1. Record the current version and server name of your current Data Archive server you plan to upgrade. If you are upgrading a collective, record the version numbers and server names running on each of the collective members.

   For more information on how to check the version of your updated Data Archive, see Check the version.

2. Record the desired version and server name for your upgraded Data Archive server. If you are upgrading a collective, record the version and name for each upgraded Data Archive collective member.

   Note: Changing a PI Data Archive server name requires caution and careful planning. For example, Interfaces and buffering nodes for the server must also be updated.

3. Ensure that the upgraded server operating system is compatible with the desired Data Archive version by reviewing System requirements.

   Repeat this step for all secondary servers if you are upgrading members of a collective, and if the secondary servers have different versions of the operating system.

4. Record the operating system version you want on your upgraded server.

   Repeat this step for all servers if you are upgrading members of a collective, and if you want different versions of the operating system on them.

5. If you are moving your PI Data Archive onto a new host computer, determine the best hardware specifications for your new hardware.

6. Record the PI AF server name for your upgraded Data Archive server.

7. Ensure that your user account has Administrator-level privileges on the upgraded server machine.

8. Make sure your interfaces and/or connectors are buffering on your current server.

9. Check all PI Interface nodes and upgrade PI Buffer Subsystem prior to installing Data Archive.

10. To help you recreate your current AVEVA™ PI System™ and analyze any issues that could occur during the upgrade, record the following information:

    • All installed PI Server and related AVEVA products

    • Tuning parameters (see PI Data Archive tuning parameters)

    • Archive information, noting in particular any archive gaps (see Manage archive gaps)

    • Errors in message logs

    • Network manager statistics

    • Startup type of all PI-related services

    • List of stale and bad points (see Find malfunctioning points)