Benefits and risks to upgrades and migrations

This topic explains the benefits and risks associated with migration and upgrade:

Note

In all scenarios, BMC recommends that you install new 10.0 Integration Services. This means you must allocate hardware resources for the new Integration Services, regardless of whether you upgrade or migrate.

Migration pros and cons

The following table identifies the pros and cons of migrating to the latest verson.

Migration risks

The following are risks identified with migrating instead of upgrading:

The requirement to run parallel systems can result in confusion due to users having to view trends in multiple systems.
A migration can extend the time required to get to Infrastructure Management version 10.0. A complete migration requires complete configuration of the 10.0 environment including policies in Central Monitoring Administration, and upgrading PATROL Agents before they can be integrated in the new environment. This can extend the time required to complete the project so that all agents report into the new 10.0 environment.

Note

This risk exists for all scenarios when you consider “full Infrastructure Management 10.0 functionality”. However, with an upgrade, existing older PATROL Agents report into Infrastructure Management 10.0 immediately after the upgrade, even though “full Infrastructure Management 10.0 functionality” is not in place for them.

Upgrade pros and cons

The following table identifies the pros and cons of upgrading to the latest version.

Upgrade risks

The following are risks related to upgrades from all versions except where otherwise specified:

Poor perception of the new solution. The significant change between older versions and Infrastructure Management 9.6 results in a variation of the functionality, capability, and behavior which is likely to cause confusion for users. Users may also perceive issues in Infrastructure Management 10.0 that are actually related to data collected before the upgrade and/or before upgrading agents.
Improper decisions. Visualization might be confusing to users considering old versions of KMs compared to 10.0 KM versions being displayed, as upgraded and new Infrastructure Management 10.0 policy-controlled agents join the Infrastructure Management 10.0. This can result in improper decisions.
There might be altered event behavior associated with event management cell Knowledge Base configuration differences that were not accounted for.
Downtime associated with upgrading the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server(s), especially if upgrading from version 8.5, due to multiple iterations in the upgrade process.