Upgrading the EFT Server Database

A Database Utility (DBUtility.exe) is used to upgrade the database, when applicable. You have the option of either upgrading the database during the upgrade process within the EFT Server Installer or choose to upgrade the database "out of band" later using the Database Utility. Because the EFT Server installer uses the same Database Utility internally to perform the upgrade, the methods are synonymous.

As part of this new approach to upgrading the ARM database, the database schema maintains an independent version number. This version is used to determine if the database schema and data require an upgrade across various releases of the EFT Server application. This version number is maintained in a new table called "TBL_SCHEMA_VERSION." This new table is created as part of the initial ARM upgrade process when upgrading EFT Server.

When upgrading the database you will be prompted to provide the user credentials that should be used when connecting to the database. You must provide the credentials for the EFT Server database user account, as opposed to the super-user accounts such as "sa" or "sys", because the upgrade process assumes it is operating as the database account that owns the schema to be upgraded. (Refer to the "Database User Account Privileges -> Upgrade" section for information on the required database user account privileges necessary to successfully upgrade.

When upgrading from within the EFT Server installation process the installer will now analyze the database prior to performing the actual upgrade. The results of this analysis are displayed in an upgrade preview page of the installer. Administrators are urged to carefully read the results prior to continuing with the upgrade.

The analysis step will determine whether or not the database requires an upgrade by examining the version number in the new version table. Indeed, across many builds and releases of the EFT Server application the ARM database may not require any changes. As such the version number for the database may not change as often as the EFT Server version. If the database does not require an upgrade then the installer will state this and essentially skip the ARM upgrade process.

As with the database upgrade, the database analysis process used in the EFT Server installer is actually performed by the Database Utility and is equivalent to running the utility with the "-action=PreviewUpgrade" command line option. In addition to checking the database version number the installer/utility will also check for various prerequisites needed to properly perform the upgrade. Prerequisites that have been met will be output with a "PASS" status. Any prerequisites that have not been met will be output with a "FAIL" or "WARN" status. These issues should be researched and rectified prior to proceeding with the upgrade.

Recommendations are provided along with any failed prerequisites suggesting how to resolve the issue. Users may reanalyze the database by clicking the "Reanalyze" button.

The analysis will also display information about the database such as the approximate size of the user data as well as the age of the user data within the database. Additionally, the SQL script that will subsequently used to perform the actual upgrade will be displayed.

At this point some users may decide to instead upgrade the database at a later date. You can retain the upgrade script by clicking the “View” button to open the database analysis results in a text editor and then save to a file of your choice.

Alternatively users may simple run the EFT Server Installer in maintenance mode or run the Database Utility using the "-action=UpgradeSchema" option at a later date to upgrade the database.