Best practices when upgrading in version specific scenarios

This section contains information about upgrading from earlier versions and risks present if any.

BMC ProactiveNet 8.5

Upgrading from BMC ProactiveNet Server 8.5 requires first upgrading to one of the BMC ProactiveNet Server minimum versions supported in BMC ProactiveNet 9.6 as an upgrade candidate. You have to upgrade BMC ProactiveNet 8.5 to one of these versions first.

BMC ProactiveNet Server 9.0.00 SP1
BMC ProactiveNet Server 8.6.02 SP3

Note

You can upgrade from more recent service pack versions of 9.0 and 8.6. The versions above are the minimum service pack versions from which to upgrade.

Risks

The following are risks associated with upgrading from BMC ProactiveNet 8.5 to 9.6:

Possible issues related to upgrading from BMC ProactiveNet 8.5 to BMC ProactiveNet 9.0 SP1 or BMC ProactiveNet 8.6 SP3.
The significant change between BMC ProactiveNet 8.5 and BMC ProactiveNet 9.6 results in variances in functionality, capability, and behaviors that are likely to cause confusion for users and perceived issues in version 9.6 that are actually related to data collected previous to the upgrade and previous to upgrading agents.

BMC ProactiveNet 8.6

The following information is specific to upgrading from BMC ProactiveNet 8.6:

BMC ProactiveNet 8.6 must first be upgraded to at least SP3 before upgrading to BMC ProactiveNet 9.6.
With BMC ProactiveNet 8.6, your environment may be using Bii4P3 or Bii4P7. Both Bii4P3 and Bii4P7 are supported and tested with 9.5 agents, so event flow with agent first upgrades is not impacted.
BMC ProactiveNet 8.6 does not include Central Monitoring Administration. Therefore, all policies created in BMC ProactiveNet 9.6 are new and there is no concern for policy upgrades or related conflicts.

BMC ProactiveNet 9.0

The following information is specific to upgrading from BMC ProactiveNet 9.0:

BMC ProactiveNet 9.0 must first be upgraded at least to 9.0 SP1 before upgrading to BMC ProactiveNet 9.6.
If you have configured monitoring policies in Central Monitoring Administration 9.0, the policies are upgraded. However, you must validate the policies and ensure that you have no conflicts as you edit and create policies in BMC ProactiveNet 9.6. Keep in mind this involves creating policies in a BMC ProactiveNet 9.6 development environment, testing them, and then moving the policies to the BMC ProactiveNet 9.6 production environment after the upgrade.