A Modest Proposal re: Vault Installer

[jfuex]

I just got done upgrading Vault from 4.1.2 to 5.0.3, and the process was just as painful, if not more so than the last time around. Can I make a few suggestions to the team at SG responsible for the installer?

1) Pre-flight check for server installer
I got half-way through the install and apparently the credentials I supplied for connecting to SQL Server weren't sufficient to complete the install properly (insufficient rights on Master DB). Since the DBA wasn't around, I decided to abort the upgrade and try again tomorrow when he was available. Unfortunately canceling the install left the server in an unusable state. It took a couple of stress-filled hours to track down the DBA during which time no one could access vault.

It would remove quite a bit of panic from the upgrade process if it just checked for all the permissions that were needed before the installer made any changes that take down the current version of the software.

2) Do a license check/warning BEFORE starting a major version upgrade.
So I finally got the whole thing installed, and then no one could log-in because we didn't have any valid licenses. After investigating I found that it couldn't use my existing 4.x licenses, they needed to be upgraded to 5.x licenses. Also, it warned that I couldn't upgrade the licenses because my maintenance agreement had expired.

This was not a good situation, I was either going to have to do a mega-priority PO, or downgrade back to 4.X to get the developers back into the system until I could work out whatever I needed to buy to be eligible for the upgrade. Luckily, and for reasons I still don't understand, the online store let me "Buy" an upgrade to my current licenses for $0, despite an expired maintenance contract. No idea why that worked, but I'm glad it did.

It would have saved me a lot of stress if the installer warned me about the licenses before trying to upgrade the software so I could work out any purchasing issues without the pressure of all the developers being locked out of the system waiting for me to re-activate the system. Also, it would be nice if the license upgrade process was integrated into the installer so I didn't have to go searching for a resolution to what must be a very common issue.

3) When upgrading check the virtual directory path before upgrading files.
After my initial install, we moved the files and re-pointed the virtual directory to a new location other than the default inetpub.

However, every upgrade I've run has always deletes the contents of our alternate virtual directory location, then puts the new files in the default location under inetpub. This forces me to copy the new files into the correct directory after every install to get it working again. Unfortunately, I upgrade rarely enough that I often forget this manual step and have to troubleshoot my way back to this conclusion each time.

Could the installer just get the path of the current virtual directory and install the new files to that location?

[Beth]

I will take down feature requests for what you've suggested. Thank you for your feedback.

F: 15459, 15460, 15461, 15462

In the meantime, we have an Upgrading Guide KB article that may help you posted here: http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic ... 231#p49231.

[Jim]

1) Pre-flight check for server installer
2) Do a license check/warning BEFORE starting a major version upgrade.

+1 to both of these. I've knocked out all our users (200) for much longer than I would have liked due to similar issues biting me. Upgrading Vault fills me with dread which it shouldn't do. Also each time I have done it I have lost the configuration settings (like extended timeout).

[Beth]

I've added your vote to the requests. Thank you for your feedback.