Migration Staps

Business Central/NAV Technical Forum
1

Hi all,

I want to know the steps to be followed in migration.

Rdgs
Sam

2

From which version to which one in particular?

3

In general there are two steps, the technical upgrade, and the objects upgrade:

NAV technical upgrade

A Dynamics NAV Technical Upgrade, is the first step of a full upgrade, and often this part is carried out alone without performing a NAV database upgrade

Performing a technical upgrade means that you can be on the latest supported version of Navision, and thus take advantage of any performance enhancements and hot fixes, but does not require and major changes to business processes or system design. Typically a customer will perform a technical upgrade in house.

It is recommended that a system is never more than a year behind the current technical version.

Technical upgrade: This process can begin as at any time.

  • Install and test the base executables and perform test of Technical upgrade on a local database.
  • Setup test a test server using copy of the customer database.
  • Test integration that has been made to Dynamics NAV #ref1 this is sometimes a big job.
  • Test Citrix / Terminal Server if you are using these.
  • Test on client machines for clashes and compatibility with other products.
  • Import and integrate Menu Suites into the customer database. #ref2 only if moving from prior 4.00 version.
  • Check that permissions are working correctly.
  • Install executables on all customer work stations, including Citrix / Terminal Server.
  • Test connection and usability on each workstation.
  • Test performance of client server. Specifically look at known locking issues, Dimensions, reservations, add-ons, posting routines etc.
  • Prove viability of backup and recovery procedures.
  • Switch over server to latest version.

NAV database upgradeThis is a quick summary of a Dynamics NAV Database Upgrade. Prior to performing a Database Upgrade, you must first perform a NAV technical upgrade

Database (Object) Upgrade: This process is by far the largest part of the upgrade process. Basically what we will need to do is to take all the modifications that have been coded, and merge them into the New database objects. It also means that we need to retest everything.

  • Stabilize current version of live database. - this means that we need to pick a point in time where we can say that we will make no more changes or at least keep them to the absolute minimum.
  • Create a list of all modifications that have been made. Basically this is a summarized list of change requests, but the list is generated by review code changes that have been made to the customer Database. This will be the change list.
  • Compare new functionality to the change list, to see if we can in any cases replace modifications with standard functionality.
  • Review change list to see if there are modifications that are not necessary, or are not being used, and thus do not need to be converted.
  • Review all modified reports and document in the customer system, and determine if they are required in the new system going forward. - this step is important, since many reports were created just for testing, or for one off requirements (e.g. during the NAV go-live process) that are no longer needed, and there is no point spending money to bring over un-needed reports. Note that user’s input will be required extensively for this step.
  • Create definitive list of changes that are to be converted.
  • Export modified objects from customer database and re-merge to new system.
  • at this point, we must have the NAV technical upgrade completed.
  • Convert a current copy of customer data to the new database.
  • Test all the modifications that have been converted and merged.
  • Run performance tests to confirm that the system will perform as required.
  • Train users on the new version.
  • Have key users sign off acceptance on functionality.
  • Prepare a conversion weekend.
  • Switch over to the new server
  • Restart workstations on new system.