Move ePO to new Server then upgrade to ePO Version 5.10

[nayr]

Hi Guys, I need help on how to move ePO from one server to a new Server, then upgrade the ePO version. Currently here are our current configuration

Current ePO Server OS: Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise 64 Bit 
ePO DB: SQL Server 2012 SP3 (Running on separate SQL Cluster Server)
ePO Version: 5.3.1

Then our goal are migrate to new Server, then upgrade to latest ePO Version, below are the requirements

New ePO Server OS: Windows Server 2012 R2
ePO DB: We will be using the existing ePO DB
Target ePO Version: 5.10

Basically our Plan A are as follows

1.) Install ePO 5.10 on new Server ( use option: Restore ePO from an existing DB Snapshot)
2.) Register each ePO Servers (both 5.3.1 and 5.10). Exchange Security Keys
3.) Enable System/Policy/Task sharing then start the transfer process
4.) Monitor the process and continue the migration.


***I'm in doubt on our first step, if we should use the option to Restore ePO from an existing DB Snapshot, or just point to Blank DB.


Alternatively here are our Plan B

1.) From current ePO Server, upgrade ePO version 5.3.1 to 5.10
2.) Setup new ePO Server with ePO version 5.10 (Point to a blank Database)
3.) once both server are running on same version 5.10, then import/restore the DB on the new server
4.) Turn off old ePO Server, and use same DNS name and IP Address of it to new ePO Server

Which Plan would work best or if there is better way to accomplish our goal. 

[vnaidu]

@nayr 

Your proposed plan B seems to be good, however, I would recommend you to use the ePO Disaster Recovery Snapshot functionality to restore an ePO server to a new machine, even if the machine is running a different operating system.

Makesure you follow the manual migration process described in KB71078 to transition to a new machine with the preferred operating system.

[cdinet]

The steps you listed will not work and here is why:

Plan A - you can only restore from snapshot the same version of epo that was the original installed server database is running.  You would need to upgrade your existing first, make sure you know the recovery password, then run a snapshot recovery task to back everything up.  Also back everything up per kb66616 (file system).  Back up the database only after you are sure the snapshot recovery task has completed successfully.

Plan B - There is more to just pointing it to the old database.  To follow those procedures, you would follow kb66616 to do a manual disaster recovery.

One of the easiest ways is to do it all in one step. 

First, go through kb71825, clean out any old logs and any db\events\debug\* files and run the epip tool in the epoip folder in the install files for 5.10 to make sure you are ready to upgrade.  Run IIScrypto tool on the sql server and epo, choose best practices and then reboot.  You can google iiscrpto for the free download for it.

In the install files for 5.10 there is an upgrade compatibility folder.  Run upgradecompatibility.exe, and for the output file choose where you want to save the migrate.zip file and enter the epo admin account credentials.  This should be the default admin account or other global admin account that is using epo authentication rather than Windows authentication.

Then click on migrate and it will create the zip file.  Please be aware it will turn off epo services and possibly disable them.  Copy the zip file to the new server and then bring down the original server (turn it off).  You should then either rename the new server to the old, or reset the IP address to what the old is or have some dns alias set up so that the clients will be able to find the new server without having to reinstall agents. 

Then run the same upgradecompatibility.exe file and choose target and point it to where the zip file is located, then click migrate.  You would then run the setup for 5.10.  This migrates it and upgrades at the same time.  Be sure you have full backups of the original server files and database before doing anything.

[NikolaiR]

i receive an error when running the Upgrade Compatibility tool.

it says:

this utility supports migrating from ePolicy Orchestrator version 4.6.8

please upgrade to 4.6.8 patch.

[vnaidu]

Dear @NikolaiR 

I would suggest you to go through the below post. I am sure this would be of a great help.

https://community.mcafee.com/t5/ePolicy-Orchestrator/Upgrading-from-ePO-5-3-3-to-5-9-1-combatibility...

Let me know if the above link is helpful.

Cheers,