Upgrading Mail Express Server

Upgrade considerations and notes:

• Mail Express version 3.0 and later do not support upgrading from Mail Express v2.2. The installer will abort the installation if it finds Mail Express 2.2 installed. You must uninstall Mail Express version 2.2 before continuing with installation.

• During the Mail Express Server upgrade, the Mail Express Server Service will be stopped. When the Add-In tries to contact the Mail Express Server, the server will be unavailable, and the Add-In will be disconnected. Because of this, you should perform the upgrade during a normal maintenance window or when email activity is at a minimum. (Refer to Connecting to Mail Express Server for details of what happens when Mail Express Server is unavailable.)

• In addition to updating program files and the CRT and XML files, the upgrade also installs new templates. Any customized templates are backed up. Because the template format and variables have changed, you must migrate your customizations to the new templates rather than simply copying your old templates into the directory. Refer to Customizing Mail Express Pages and Notifications.

• If you want to expire external accounts automatically based on inactivity, and you plan to purge the database on a schedule, you should wait to enable expiration until a few months have passed since the upgrade to give the system a few months to monitor activity. For example, if you expire accounts based on 'x' months of inactivity, and you routinely purge the database such that Mail Express holds only y months of data, if 'y' is less than 'x,' then Mail Express will expire account unexpectedly. Instead, you should wait to enable expiration until at least 'x - y' months have passed since the upgrade. Alternatively, you could enable expiration and turn off purging until 'x-y' months have passed since the upgrade. (That is, the number of months that have passed since the upgrade should be greater than the purge frequency.)

To upgrade Mail Express Server

As a standard precaution, we recommend creating a backup of your Mail Express SQL database and if possible, upgrading on a dev/staging environment first to ensure functionality in your environment. 

1. On the Internal Settings page of the Mail Express Server’s web administration site, clear the Add-In services enabled check box, then click Save. This will cause any Add-Ins to gracefully use the “Behavior when Mail Express Server is unavailable” preference. The Add-In services enabled check box should only be re-selected after both the Mail Express Server and the Add-Ins have been upgraded. The Mail Express Server and the Add-Ins must have the same version number; otherwise, they may not be compatible with each other. If the Add-In detects that its version is incompatible with the Mail Express Server version, the Add-In will display a “Version Mismatch” General Status on the “Mail Express Status” task pane, the Mail Express Attach File and Send Options buttons will be disabled, and the Add-In will be disabled until it is upgraded. Users with disabled Add-Ins can still send emails with Outlook, but their emails will be ignored and not processed by the Add-In.

2. Execute the installer on the Mail Express Server computer. The Welcome page appears.

3. Click Next. The License Agreement appears.

4. Click I Agree. The installer detects that an older version of Mail Express Server is installed.

5. Click Upgrade Mail Express. The Database Upgrade Credentials page appears and indicates to which database it is connecting.

   

6. By default, the current credentials are used when upgrading. If you want to use the current credentials, skip to step 7.

   • If you want to connect using an account other than the configured database credentials, clear the check box and then specify the new credentials:

   • • The ability to specify an alternate set of database credentials is provided in case Mail Express Server is configured to connect to the database as a user with limited database privileges. During upgrades, the installer requires that the account used to connect to and upgrade the database has privileges to modify database objects. In this case, you should specify alternate credentials for a database account with higher privileges, such as an account with the "db_ddladmin" or "db_owner" database roles. If alternate credentials are specified, they will only be used by the installer to perform the upgrade. The credentials in use by the Mail Express Server will not be modified.

     • For Authentication mode, use SQL Server authentication when connecting as the privileged user account. When SQL Server authentication is selected, you must specify the Database owner username and Database owner password for the privileged user account to use when connecting to the database. Or you can use Windows authentication to use the active Windows user account when connecting to the database. (The "active Windows user account" is the account running the installer.)

     • Click Test to test the connection to the database before continuing.

7. Click Upgrade (which also tests the connection).

8. If the Mail Express Server service is running, the installer will stop the service before continuing. If a message appears asking if you want to stop the Mail Express Server service, click Yes. The Mail Express Server Service is stopped and installation continues. (If you click No, the installation aborts.)

   During the Mail Express Server upgrade, the Mail Express Server Service will be stopped. When the Add-In tries to contact the Mail Express Server, the server will be unavailable, and the Add-In will be disconnected. Refer to Connecting to Mail Express Server for details of what happens when Mail Express Server is unavailable.

9. When installation is complete, click Next. The final page of the wizard appears.

10. Select or clear the check boxes as necessary:

    • If you want to view the version history, select the Show version history check box.

    • If you do not want to create a desktop shortcut for the administration interface, clear the Create a desktop shortcut check box.

    • If you do not want to start the Mail Express Server service, clear the Start the Mail Express Server service check box.

    • If you do not want to start the administration interface, clear the Start the Administration Interface check box. (The server service must be started to start the administration interface.)

11. Click Finish.

    When the upgraded Mail Express Server service is started, the previous version's Outlook Add-In will not connect. The Add-In will indicate a version mismatch in the Mail Express Status pane and display an exclamation point on the toolbar/ribbon. After you upgrade the Add-In, it will then connect successfully.

12. Upgrade the Mail Express Outlook Add-In. Refer to Upgrading the Outlook Add-In for details.