If I want to upgrade from Navision Financials 2.00.x to Navision 3.60 do I have to go a version at a time or it is possible to upgrade directly to 3.60, except for the customisations probably which I would have to apply after I am done. If its possible, will there be any data lost along the way.
i made an upgrade from nf2.0 to attain 3.01 directly without data lost, so you could make an upgrade in “one step”, this is from nf2.0 to attain 3.60 directly. take care about report list table in nf2.0 and how the upgrade manages the upgrading of this table. i could remember the upgrade do it well but better check it, because the table structure was changed. also, the known changes in dimensions… be careful with upgrade codeunits, compile them before start the upgrade, if everything is ok you could see some of them don’t compile. take a look in this forum or also check technical forum for posts about upgrading to attain (any version), you could get some interesting information. make backups in every “big” step you make. of course, i don’t understand “big” step when i import some objects, i believe u know what i mean… 
good luck! regards
I suggest you contact Tom Wickstrom at the Aston Group in Indianapolis. He is an upgrade expert In fact, it is all he has done for the past 4 years! Contact him at 317-844-5705.
If you look a bit further back in time in the developers forum you should see a few strings on this subject. They don’t relate to your exact upgrade route but should offer some pointers. I can’t see why you would lose data but don’t quote me on that.[;)]
Thanks for the info. I am worried about the dimensions, because from what I understand, and have discovered. The dimensions tables are treated differently from NF 2.00 to NA 3.60. The main question is are there any such major changes in other table structures? I encountered a problem once when I had customised reports and some forms to manipulate the Departments and Projects table (back then they were two seperate tables) The objects wouldn’t work as expected. After Upgrading, should I expect more of these problems?
From what i understand the answer is maybe. If you have objects that have been customised in F2.00 that you are upgrading to 3.60 then the answer is yes. Those that rely on or have references to the Department and Project Tables will need to be adapted during the upgrade process to take this into account.
I just had an interesting conversation with a colegue, who says that I should upgrade one version at a time, verifying after every upgrade. However he has never done it before. My question now is How much time can a budget for this whole exercise. 2.00 to 3.60?
Again, without wishing to be vague, the answer really depends on how much modification you have to your objects and how experienced you are with navision in general. It can take more or less time depending on the severity of errors that occur during the upgrade process and your ability to deal with them. I would suggest trying a few objects to see how you get on and use that to judge how long the whole process will take you. This will only give you a very rough idea of time though. We encountered problems that would just be hiding behind other problems so the process dragged on a bit. As for upgrading one version at a time, Attain is really very different to financials in many ways so i think upgrading through versions of financials is probably a bit of a waste of time. I would say just to go for it and get it over with. I would suggest a trial run first so you are happy with the proceedure and to allow you to streamline the process for when you do it for real. I also cannot emphasise the need for regular backups enough. It gives a very handy safety net at annoying stages [:)]. This is just my opinion, i would also be very interested to hear other ways of doing it - safety in numbers!!!
What you need to do is create a new version of the database in the latest version. You have to go through each object, that has been changed and update the new version to reflect this. Be careful of contacts and prospects and other areas that have changed. You should follow the instructions in the upgrade guide; the instructions are different for the different versions you are upgrading from. You have to modify the upgrade codeunits to take account of the changes you have made to the tables. So do a data only backup of the old database, and restore it into the new version. Run the update codeunits. When you come to an error change the upgrade codeunit to fix the error and start again from the beginning. When you can run through the update without errors then do it again to make sure every thing runs. You may also have to run your own data clean up You can then just insert the new objects over the top. When you have all this working you then set up a cut off time for the clients database after which no more postings can be made. Make a data only backup and upgrade the data as you have successfully done before. Insert the new objects backup the upgraded database. During this time set up the new service on the server and install the new client on all the user machines. Restore the new database and get all the clients connected. The impact on the client should be no more than a morning on postings and they can make a enquiry on the old database at this time. Get all the users to go through all their procedures during the afternoon and fix any problems (its usually things like printer set ups but you always miss something on a form some where). So the secret of upgrading a database is preparation, the time it takes decreases each time you do it. It is not something you can rush and should actually have little impact on you client in terms of time. If things do go wrong you can still roll back to the old database and try again another day. Paul Baxter