Is there an upgrade doc for NPM?

We'll do you one better! We've got an online Upgrade Advisor. You put in your current environment and it will spit out links to the specific  versions you will need:

Product Upgrade Advisor | SolarWinds Customer Portal

In your case, presuming you are running on Windows server 2008 R3 64bit and MS SQL Server 2012, your backup path is (this is a cut-and-past from the Upgrade Advisor):

Upgrade Path 

Follow these steps to upgrade your products:

Before starting any work on your environment please ensure that you have a recent backup of your database.

1  Upgrade Network Performance Monitor from version 10.6.1 to version 11.5.2

  2  Upgrade IP Address Manager from version 4.0.0 to version 4.3.0

I used the advisor, it gave me the installation bits for the latest versions but there was not doc on how to do the upgrade.  What are the steps required to do an upgrade is what I want.

I used the advisor, it gave me the installation bits for the latest versions but there was not doc on how to do the upgrade.  What are the steps required to do an upgrade is what I want.

Hi rjurek‌,

You might find some additional information here: How To Upgrade To NPM 11.5

Hope this helps.

Maria

That link does have a little bit more info, but still nothing that tells me how to upgrade.  Do I install over the current versions, do I install fresh and copy database over, what are the steps????

I'd be surprised if it's not in there, but there's always a chance we're making some assumptions about the starting point.

Upgrades (unlike hotfixes) will almost always work either way - as a clean install or as an upgrade to an existing system.

That said, the typical route is:

1) download the new version to your existing SolarWinds server(s)

1a) note that if you have additional polling engines or additional web servers (those are specific products) the download is different from the primary poller

1b) if you only have one server, it's a primary poller.

2) make sure you have backups, that you have a recovery plan in place, that you are wearing clean underwear, that you keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times, blah blah blah.

3) PRO TIP: make sure you are logged in as local administrator. Not as a user who is part of the administrators group. Not as domain admin. As the actual true-blue local administrator. Trust me on this one, guys. JasonFerree‌ will back me up on it.

4) Extract the .EXE from the download and install it

4oops) First check if there's a "Readme" file in the download. If it is and it has install instructions OTHER THAN to run the .EXE, then follow those.

Hope this helps to get you started.

I happen to be playing around with the upgrade advisor and I was not able to find said links to the software I needed for the upgrade.  It did tel me the versions I needed to use in the upgrade path but did not give me the links to the software.  Am I doing it wrong? I do things wrong sometimes so please let me know lol.

You know, I *THOUGHT* there were links the last time I looked, but there's nothing there now.

I could have hallucinated it. So for now, we'll chalk it up to bad cold meds.

Sorry about that.

No worries Leon,  I thought it spit out the links as well.  It would actually be very nice and convenient for customers to have the links there.  I am just saying lol.

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to pop in and answer the question about the upgrade guide.

We don't have a separate guide for upgrading NPM but it is in the NPM Administrator Guide on page 108 - http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/orion/docs/orionnpmadministratorguide.pdf

With regards to the Product Upgrade Advisor we have it on our roadmap to add upgrade guides to it so that you will be able to access them directly when you get an upgrade path. This is a little way down the line yet so unfortunately I cannot give you an ETA.

If you run into any problems during the upgrade please don't hesitate to contact our Support Team SolarWinds Contact Us

Thanks,

Melanie

Forgot to add.

For the links to the product downloads you need to be logged into the customer portal. Once you are logged in it will give you the links to the products you have under maintenance.

You can also email the PDF to yourself and you will be able to download the links from the PDF.

This has been eating at me, and I asked around. Hat tip to Jason Ferree for the insight..

IF you are logged  into the SolarWinds support portal FIRST, then the upgrade advisor has links. If you aren't logged in, then it just gives you the list of upgrades with no links.

As always you folks are guiding light in the darkness that is my stupidity lol.  Thanks folks always a pleasure.