Question RE Upgrading SmarterMail Server OS

Question asked by Steve Vibert - 11/22/2019 at 11:04 AM

Answered

We're currently running SM 15.7 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box. We're planning on doing an in-place upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2. We will, of course, do a full backup before doing the Window upgrade but are there any gotchas we should be aware of before starting?

Thanks -- Steve

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XT Replied

11/25/2019 at 8:28 AM

If i was you, I would migrate sm 15 into a different server with 2012 r2/ (2016 if posible) instead of doing a upgrade in place. you will save a lot time and avoid tons of pain.

Matt Petty Replied

11/25/2019 at 8:31 AM

Employee Post Marked As Answer

Since you are going to do a full windows backup before your upgrade, I suggest an in place upgrade. This ensures no files get lost in a move. Doing it in place ensures that it has all the files it needs. A conversion process will run when you move off of 15, it should be quite fast.
You can view the status of the conversion and any reported issues @ http://<yourSMurl>/interface/convert-status

I've seen issues where someone moved a partial set of files over and it caused many issues with the new set of data. The only hope was to go back to the backup, verify everything moved, then had to retry the conversion.

Matt Petty Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com

Jade D Replied

11/26/2019 at 8:22 AM

We've successfully upgraded Windows 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2 and then up to Server 2016 with MS SQL services installed, and had no issues.

Anyone who works with SQL will no that its a pain in the ass on a good day so an upgrade without any issues is a win.

Best suggestion is to convert your physical machine to a virtual, and then test - thats the only way you discover any issues.

Smartermail 15 will run fine on server 2012 R2 so theres no reason to be concerned about Smartermail - Just make sure that Mail services are stopped at the time of upgrade - I would also stop IIS.

Jade https://absolutehosting.co.za

Steve Vibert Replied

12/7/2019 at 12:22 PM

We ended up doing an in-place OS upgrade and SM didn't skip a beat despite some not so smooth MS related upgrade woes. Namely, an odd .net framework 4.5.2 update that took down our Sitefinity CMS until we reinstalled the update and TLS 1.2 issues that took hours of googling to find the obscure registry value required by 2012 R2 to actually use TLS 1.2 even though it was enabled and TLS 1.0 and 1.1 were disabled.

SM kept humming along despite both of these "you gotta be shi***** me!" issues.

Thanks for all of the suggestions -- Steve

Paul Blank Replied

12/18/2019 at 12:49 AM

I am curious to know what the registry value that you needed is. Strictly for reference at this time, as TLS 1.2 is working OK thus far on our Server 2012 R2 boxes.

Thanks in advance!

echoDreamz Replied

12/18/2019 at 1:44 PM

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001

I believe this is it.

Steve Vibert Replied

12/18/2019 at 4:22 PM

Yup, those were the ones.

Paul Blank Replied

12/18/2019 at 9:52 PM

Many thanks! I keep stuff like this on file.

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