Hi Folks,

Just been given the orders to upgrade both ARS 6.3 and ITSM 5.5 to v7. Were running XP Server 2003 ARSystem MS SQL2K (on a SAN).

It has been decided that that approach to take would be to start over again and carry out a fresh vanilla install with no migration of data or any customisations of any kind.

To get a feel for what I'm faced with, I'd like to here from anyone who has "been down this road" who would be kind enough to share their experiences. In particualr, I'm looking for advice on:

1. I this something that (in theory) is relatively straightforward)and is something that can be done in-house, rather than hiring a 3rd party?
2. How long would the base installtion take, keeping in mind that the focus is currently only on the enablement of Helpdesk, Change, Problem and SLA. We'll leave the CMDB for a little later.
(we've been quoted in the order on sevral hundred hours just to get the vanilla install setup ready for configuration (CTIs etc)).

3. Is there some sort of documentation/whitepaper etc that lists the upgrade steps?

Any horror stories?

Thanks in advance - Karl

You'll find a lot of question in regard with upgrading to v7 and there is just as much answers, so it's hard to say what exactly you'll require or which is the best.
I can tell you this much, if you want to upgrade from 5.5 to 7, You msut first upgrade the ITSM to 6 and then to 7. What most of the clients do these days is start up fresh install of ARS 7 and ITSM 7 and migrate the data only.
The base installation (ARS Base) is simple and straight forward. But if you start up fresh then everything should be sorted beforehand like the DB (I assume you're going SQL 2K5) etc.

Then after the ARS is installed, all the components you will need can be installed (Like Email Engine etc)

Now, comes the ITSM. First of you'll need to add all the licenses using the Admin Tool, then you install (They say order doesn't matter in v7 but I do it in this order, IM, PM, CM, AM, SLM). This can take some time depending on your system speed and resources. I never timed this exactly but takes about two hours a module I would say. Then after you've done this you'll need to configure the whole ITSM, this takes a lot of time especially if you don't have "data templates" for uploading purposes.

The thing about version 7 is, if you would like to practise the installation procedure of the modules first, you need licenses to do so.

Hopes this helps... :-)

If you install AM module first, it will speed up your installation.

After the CMDB is installed, IM, PM, or CM will install the AST forms across the CMDB. However when AM is installed & if it finds existing AST forms it has to modify them. Alternatively if AM is installed first it creates the AST forms and when subsequent apps are installed they do not modify them. AM also installs three additional CMDB classes.

So the installation order I recommend is the following : ARS, Approval, CMDB, AE, AM, IM, PM, CM, SLM...

The order of IM, PM and CM doesn't matter...

Hey thanks guys.

I'll take your advice and give it go.


Rgds,
Karl