Planning Your Microsoft Dynamics GP Upgrade

Brian Murphy & Lance Brigham

GP Product Roadmap
 Why Upgrade
• Take advantage of new functionality/enhancements
• What’s New In Dynamics GP 2016
• Supportability – Microsoft Mainstream Support:
• Ended for Dynamics GP 2010 on 10/13/2015
• Ends for Dynamics GP 2013 on 4/10/2018
• Ends for Dynamics GP 2015 on 4/14/2020
• Ends for Dynamics GP 2016 on 7/13/2021
• New licensing model if upgrading from GP 2010
• Web client
 • Key individuals within organization (IT, Acct/Fin,
project sponsor)
Planning • 3rd party products and add-ons for GP
• Custom code that will need brought forward
Considerations • Integrations to and from GP
• What company databases need upgraded
• Custom reports that reside outside of GP (SQL
Reporting Services, Crystal Reports, Excel, etc)
• Training on new features
• New modules or functionality
 • Consulting services for the upgrade
• Licensing changes
Budget • New hardware if applicable
Considerations • Customizations
• Post-upgrade projects
 • Is now a good time to upgrade my server or
migrate GP environment to a new server?
Hardware • Should I upgrade SQL Server?
• Terminal server or local workstation
Planning installations?
• IIS/web server for web client
• Consider moving to the Socius cloud?
 What client operating
systems are supported?

GP Version 7 8 10

2010 ✔

2013 ✔ ✔

2013 R2 ✔ ✔ ✔

2015 ✔ ✔ ✔

2016 ✔ ✔ ✔
 What server operating
systems are supported?

GP Version 2008 2008 R2 2012 2012 R2 2016

2010 ✔ ✔

2013 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

2015 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

2016 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
 What SQL server versions are
supported?
GP Version 2008 2008 R2 2012 2014 2016

2010 ✔

2010 SP3 ✔ ✔ ✔

2013 ✔ ✔ ✔

2013 R2 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

2015 ✔ ✔

2015 R2 ✔ ✔

2016 ✔ ✔ ✔
 What Office versions are
supported?

GP Version 2007 2010 2013 2016

2010 ✔ ✔

2013 ✔ ✔

2015 ✔ ✔

2015 R2 ✔ ✔ ✔

2016 ✔ ✔
 GP Upgrade Paths

GP Version Legend GP Upgrade Paths Minimum Build Numbers

GP 10 10 From GP Build To GP Build

GP 2010 11 10.00.1368 11.00.1247
GP 2013 12 10.00.1779 12.00.1295
GP 2015 14 11.00.1860 12.00.1295
GP 2016 16 11.00.2248 14.00.0524
12.00.1538 14.00.0524
12.00.1826 16.00.0357
14.00.0725 16.00.0357
 • Windows XP & Vista

• Windows Server 2003 all editions

What isn’t
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 all editions
supported with
• Microsoft Office 2010
Dynamics GP
2016? • Internet Explorer 10.0

• Business Portal

• Adobe Acrobat 9
 A few quick notes about
Business Portal
• GP 2013- last version that supports Business
Portal
• PTE, HRMSS, and Requisition Management
now included in the core GP product
• Order Management discontinued
• Web client offered as the going forward plan
for Business Portal
• No migration of existing Business Portal
configuration to GP web client
 • Upgrade a copy of GP live environment within
an isolated environment
• Both environments available for a period of time
What exactly is a • What are the goals of a test upgrade?
test upgrade? • Identify upgrade issues ahead of time
• Know exactly how much down time is
needed for the production upgrade
• Testing (user testing, reports, integrations,
etc)
• Training
 • Pre-upgrade planning and preparation (1-2
weeks)
High level sample • Test environment deployment and upgrade (1
week)
timeline for • Test environment up in parallel with production
typical upgrade environment for testing and training (2 weeks-4
weeks)
• Production upgrade (<1-2 days)
 How should we prepare for
an upgrade?
• Identify which companies can be removed
• Before you upgrade, you should post, delete or print all single-use batches
• We recommend that you post all transactions that can affect your purchase receipts

• You should make at least one complete backup of all your databases before
upgrading.
• It’s a good idea to make a backup before completing table maintenance procedures, in case you
encounter any problems in that process

• Print comparison reports

 How should we prepare for
an upgrade?
• Run Check Links on all companies
• What does the Check Links process do?
• It analyzes the relationships between physical files to find data that exists in one file but
is missing from other files. The process makes sure that the appropriate records or links
exist in a logical file group. If they do not exist in a logical file group, the process adds
them.
• A report is printed after the process is complete, regardless if data is missing. If data is
missing and can be replaced, the data is replaced automatically. The report will contain
the information about what data was replaced.
 How should we prepare for
an upgrade?
• If using FRx will need to migrate to Management Reporter
• Cleanup items in FRx:
• Remove unused companies, specification sets, and building blocks (catalogs,
rows, columns, and trees)
• Remove demo data
• Delete .F32 in SysData directory
• Run FRx compact process for system and spec set databases
• Verify segment name consistency in GP across all companies
 What does Socius do during
an upgrade?
• Backups (initial round and checkpoint)
• FRx, Integration Manager, Dynamics GP, Management Reporter, etc
• Checkpoint backups throughout upgrade process

• Install latest GP Service pack on current version

• GP Data update
• Install & update 3rd party modules
• Install custom code
• Update modified forms & reports
• Update integrations
• Update custom reports
• If using FRx, migrate to Management Reporter
• Upgrade Management Reporter
• If moving to new server, re-map shared files, set up database maintenance & backup plans, set up SQL DB Mail for
notifications
 • Print post-upgrade reports & compare to pre-
upgrade reports
Key user • Test custom code
acceptance • Test custom reports
testing • Test integrations
 • Workstation updates
• What’s New training for users
• Go Live support
Roll out to users
 • Opportunity for process improvements
• Opportunity for increased efficiency
Post upgrade • User Security Audit (during test upgrade)
projects • Implement new features like work flow
• Add new modules
 Important Links

Dynamics GP 2016 System Requirements

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/GP/learning/documentation/system-
requirements/MDGP2016_System_Requirements
Upgrading to Microsoft GP 2016 Hot Topic page
https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/GP/support/hot-
topics/HOT_TOPIC_MDGP2016Upgrade
Q&A