Upgrade a Data Archive server

There are four phases that make up the Data Archive upgrade process. Each phase contains tasks that are related to the goals for that part of the upgrade. The four phases are:

• Phase 1: Pre-upgrade

  The first phase of any upgrade focuses on the planning and preparation essential for a successful upgrade of your Data Archive. This phase involves tasks, such as: identifying the operating system and server name of the target Data Archive, ensuring hardware and sizing compatibility with the target server, and downloading the PI Server install kit. It is also in this phase where you must evaluate whether your current Data Archive needs intermediary steps to qualify it for a direct upgrade using the PI Server install kit.

• Phase 2: Qualify

  The second phase involves some intermediary steps that qualify your current Data Archive for a direct upgrade through the PI Server install kit if your current Data Archive is not supported. Upgrading with the PI Server install kit requires that your current Data Archive is version Data Archive 2015 R2 or later and also that your current version is 64-bit. If your current server does not meet these requirements, you must qualify your server for a direct upgrade. Then, you can proceed with the next phase.

  Note: If your version is earlier than PI Server 2015 R2, upgrade to 2015 R2 before proceeding to the current release.

• Phase 3: Upgrade

  The third phase centers around upgrading the Data Archive server on the host computer using the install wizard or through the command line using the PI Server install kit.

  Important: Upgrade paths can also depend on your Windows OS version. Newer version of PI Server (2018 and 2024) do not support older operating systems (for example, Windows Server 2008 R2). If your OS is not supported, you may need to move to a newer OS before upgrading PI Server. See System Requirements for details.

• Phase 4: Post-upgrade

  The final phase of an upgrade involves verifying that your upgrade was successful, as well as some initial configuration tasks for your upgraded Data Archive server. In this phase, you will verify that the upgrade was successful and the proper services are running on your server and that new data is being collected by your updated server.

Upgrade considerations

Recommend the following if you are upgrading a Data Archive collective:

• If your Data Archive is part of a collective, we recommend upgrading the secondary servers before upgrading the primary server in the collective. This ensures synchronization records sent by a primary server are recognized by a secondary server. Additionally, upgrading the secondary server first presents an easier rollback path in the event of issues with your upgrade. For more information on collectives, see the High Availability topic PI Data Archive collective management.

• Be aware that collectives use certificates for communication between primary and secondary members. Synchronization between members occurs after all members are upgraded and their certificates are in place.

• If you plan to upgrade a PI Data Archive server and also create a Data Archive collective, perform the upgrade first. Taking this approach means you only have to perform a single upgrade rather than creating the various members of the collective and then upgrading all of those members.

• If you are upgrading the members of a collective, perform all the phases of an upgrade, as described in the following sections, on each member of the collective.