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How to migrate from Dashboard Server Azure Edition v4 to v5

Documentation Team
  • Updated

How to migrate from Dashboard Server Azure Edition v4 to v5

This article describes how to migrate from Dashboard Server Azure Edition v4 to v5. We recommend you read through this article before starting the migration, to familiarise yourself with the migration process and the changes between versions.

If you have an earlier version of Dashboard Server Azure Edition already installed, then the installer will upgrade your installation:

 

Why migrate to Dashboard Server v5?

New features in v5

For the full list of improvements and bugs addressed see What's New in Dashboard Server Azure Edition and Release Notes for Dashboard Server Azure Edition.

 

Planning the upgrade

Summary of the upgrade process

1. Before Upgrading - complete the upgrade prerequisites

2. Licensing - have your license key ready

3. Download and install Dashboard Server v5

4. Update or redirect Open Access URLs

5. Configure Dashboard Server v5

6. Decommission v4

 

You will need to reenter your Dashboard Server license key as part of the upgrade.

1. Before Upgrading

There are a few key tasks you should complete before upgrading:

  • While you can upgrade to v5 from any version of v4.x we recommend you have the latest version of Dashboard Server v4 installed. Download the latest v4 version here.

  • Make a note of your license key, as you will need to enter this as during the v5 installation.

  • Ensure the server's default browser is not set to Internet Explorer, which is no longer supported (to check your default browser, search Windows > default apps).

    Dashboard Server works best with the latest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari on desktop & mobile.

    On Dashboard Server v5 Internet Explorer is not supported. Older browsers may show a blank page.

    On Dashboard Server v4 Internet Explorer 9 and earlier versions are not supported.

  • Check the SquaredUp server spec before upgrading (Server Spec and Sizing).

  • Publish any draft dashboards and perspectives you want to keep. Ask other users with authoring rights do the same, because draft dashboards and perspectives are not migrated to the upgraded instance.

  • Ensure no changes are made to your v4 instance. You might like to advise other administrators not to make any changes to v4, in particular dashboards, perspectives, profiles, Web API providers, dashboard packs, publishing Open Access dashboards, or modifying Named Users.

  • Consider user acceptance testing prior to upgrading, and user training after upgrading.

  • Backup Dashboard Server v4 - it is good practice to ensure you have a working backup before upgrading (How to backup and restore Dashboard Server Azure Edition).

 

2. Licensing

You may want to perform upgrade testing and user acceptance testing in your test/dev environment. For this please request a 30 day evaluation license from Sales.

You are licensed to run v4 and v5 side-by-side in production for 3 months. This is to enable you to complete the migration and configure v5 before going live and switching your production use to v5. After 3 months your v4 instance will no longer be supported; if you have any concerns please contact SquaredUp Support.

3. Download and install Dashboard Server v5

The installer will default to an In-place upgrade if it detects a Azure Edition v4 instance. This upgrades your v4 instance to a v5 instance. It is not possible to revert or rollback to v4.

If you prefer, you can change to a New installation at the Deployment Type screen. This will install a separate v5 instance which does not use any dashboards from your v4 instance.

This article will you lead you through the in-place upgrade option.

Carry out a in-place upgrade

For the full step-by-step guide see How to install Dashboard Server Azure Edition using the installer

  1. Download the latest version of Dashboard Server

  2. Run the installer .exe that you have downloaded.


  3. Click Next

  4. Accept the License Agreement and click Install.

  5. Click Next to move on to check the deployment type.

  6. The installer will default to a In-place installation if it detects a Azure Edition v4 instance:

    If you would rather carry out a new v5 installation click edit on this screen and then select New installation.

  7. Check that your v4 instance has been selected as the instance to be upgraded.

    If necessary click edit and then edit again to select your v4 instance from a list of installed instances, and finally click ok twice to return to the deployment type screen.

  8. Click Next to move on to check the deployment location.

  9. Complete the installer.

    If you have any queries or issues with the installer contact SquaredUp Support with a copy of the log file (accessible by clicking view log). If in the meantime you wish to evaluate v5 without your existing settings, you can change the deployment type to New Installation to deploy v5 without migrating any settings.

  10. On the Deployment Complete screen click Finish.

  11. You must now browse to Dashboard Server on your normal URL, so you can run through the setup wizard to configure Dashboard Server.
    If the browser appears blank when browsing to Dashboard Server, ensure the server's default browser is not set to Internet Explorer, which is no longer supported (to check your default browser, search Windows > default apps).

  12. Activation screen - enter your license key and click Activate.

  13. Dashboard Packs - click Import. 

  14. You may see the message 'Preparing your Open Access Dashboards please wait' followed by the Open Access screen. All Open Access dashboards will be regenerated in the new format for v5. Clicking Upgrade will regenerate all your Open Access dashboards now. If you have a lot of Open Access dashboards this could take a few minutes, so you may wish to click Skip Upgrade and regenerate the Open Access dashboards later from the top right-hand menu ☰ in Dashboard Server > system > open access.

    For each Open Access dashboard you will see the message 'Preparing your Open Access dashboard, please wait'.

4. Update or redirect Open Access URLs

All Open Access dashboards and perspectives will have been given new URLs in v5.

You must now either update all systems that are embedding Open Access dashboards or perspectives with the new URL (such as wall dashboards, Sharepoint, or other monitoring tools) or put some kind of redirect in place to automatically redirect traffic on the old URL to the v4 version. The Upgrade Assessment Tool will provide a list of the invalidated Open Access URLs and their updated value.

This can be achieved in a number of ways:

  • IIS Rewrite rule
  • Load Balancer
  • HTTP Proxy forwarding rule

5. Configure Dashboard Server v5

Dashboard Server administrators

Decide which users should be able to administer Dashboard Server and make them Dashboard Server admins (How to make a user a Dashboard Server administrator).

Redirect traffic from v4

Following a side-by-side upgrade, you may wish to re-use the URL that users were previously using to access Dashboard Server v4. You may choose to do this now, or following user training. How you do this depends on how you were originally serving Dashboard Server to users:

  • DNS A/CName record change
  • IIS Rewrite rule
  • Load Balancer
  • HTTP Proxy forwarding rule

 

6. Decommission v4

Backup

Before decommissioning and disabling your v4 instance, we recommend taking a backup of the Dashboard Server files so that you can refer back to them should any issues come up in the future (most likely a user realising they had an unpublished draft they want to retrieve). See How to backup and restore Dashboard Server Azure Edition. You can then use the JSON files as a reference for recreating that content in v5.

Licensing

Once your migration has been completed and v5 is running in production, you have 3 months of support on your existing v4 instance before v5 is your only supported and licensed platform. This should give you enough grace period to migrate any users who did not move across immediately, and give you a fallback should any unanticipated issues arise during initial adoption. If you have any concerns please contact SquaredUp Support.

Redirect users from v4 to v5

If you haven't already done so you should redirect traffic from Dashboard Server v4 to v5, jump to Redirect traffic from v4.

 

FAQ

I've upgraded Dashboard Server, but some of the built-in dashboards are duplicated?

The v5 upgrade process preserves any dashboards that you have customized - any modified dashboards will be cloned and recreated in v5.

When v5 is installed we re-import the community packs bundled with the product (such as Windows Server, IIS and SQL). If you have customized one of those dashboards yourself you will now have two versions - the native v5 version and your customized v4 copy. It is up to you to choose which version you want to keep (or amalgamate the two).