Upgrading Large Databases

The majority of the modifications performed on the ARM database when upgraded take only minutes to complete. Occasionally, more significant modifications will need to be performed when upgrading the database schema. These upgrades may take a long time, especially when they require modifications to the data stored within the database. As such, the time it takes to perform the upgrade may increase with the size of the database. Depending on the size of the database, such upgrades take hours instead of minutes.

The database upgrade preview process includes the age of the oldest data in the database as well as a rough estimate of the database size. Administrators should use this data to assess the current state of the database when deciding how and when to proceed with the database upgrade.

Administrators of large databases should consider the following options to ensure a smooth upgrade process:

Administrators should consider purging older data from the database prior to upgrading. (Refer to Purging Data from the Database for details.)
The database should be backed up prior to any upgrade to allow for quick recovery in case of errors.
Administrators should consider making a copy of the ARM database and performing a test upgrade of the database. The script necessary to perform the test upgrade may be obtained by proceeding through the EFT Server Installer's upgrade process and choosing to upgrade the ARM Database. When prompted for the database credentials, specify the test database credentials. On the Upgrade Preview page of the installer, click View, save a copy of the upgrade script, and then cancel the EFT Server installer. You may now use the SQL script to manually upgrade the database. Alternatively, you can install a clean copy of EFT Server on another computer and use the Database Utility (DBUtility.exe) to perform the test upgrade.
Administrators should consider upgrading the database out-of-band from upgrading the EFT Server installation. This may be done by skipping the ARM database upgrade in the EFT Server Installer when performing the initial EFT Server upgrade and then either:
- Rerun the installer in maintenance mode later to upgrade the ARM database
- Use the Database Utility (DBUtility.exe) to perform the upgrade
- Manually upgrade using the SQL scripts generated by the DBUtility.exe
ARM should be temporarily disabled in the EFT Server administration interface (or use the COM API to set the ICIServer interface EnableARM property to false) until the ARM database has been upgraded