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Are you looking for a SOLIDWORKS PDM upgrade guide? Here are the steps that will be helpful during the upgrade process
Note: The steps mentioned here might have to be modified based on your PDM installation and data model. Contact us if you have any queries.
Installation files can be downloaded from the SOLIDWORKS customer portal.
It is always best practice to first upgrade the Sandbox environment and test the upgraded Sandbox environment before performing the upgrade on the Production environment. The sandbox environment should be similar to the Production environment when it comes to setup.
License server first needs to be upgraded so that licenses are available for the upgrade process on Sandbox. The version of the license server can be higher than the SOLIDWORKS product. So same license server can be used for the Production environment as well. There will be some downtime involved during the upgrade. So plan it not to affect production activities.
Before the upgrade is started if the toolbox is being maintained in SOLIDWORKS, check-out toolbox folders. If the toolbox is not checkout then PDM Client needs to be upgraded first and then the toolbox needs to be checked out before upgrading SOLIDWORKS. If the toolbox is not checked out then it will not be upgraded and additional effort will be required to upgrade the toolbox.
Upgrade servers. Launch the installer and select the “Upgrade SOLIDWORKS PDM Server” option. On the next page, SOLIDWORKS Installer will ask for SQL Server credentials. So have them ready.
SOLIDWORKS & SOLIDWORKS PDM Client needs to be upgraded\installed on a client where testing needs to be done. Note: two versions of SOLIDWORKS PDM Client cannot exist on a computer. So don’t use a client that is being used for production activities
It is always a good practice to upgrade add-ins. The old version of add-ins work with the new version of PDM but sometimes they throw unexpected exceptions. Also, there will be an improvement in the APIs in the new version of SOLIDWORKS PDM.
Testing is one of the important activities. Test the regularly used functionalities like workflows, check-in, check-out, and any other custom actions. Not always we can expect functionality to work as expected after the upgrade. After testing if any errors are encountered, fix them and note them down to do the same changes during production upgrade.
Take back up of SOLIDWORKS PDM database, PDM Archive server settings. If you are having replicated servers then take a backup of Archive server settings on all servers.
Lessons learned during the upgrading of the sandbox environment need to be applied at relevant steps.
Before upgrading check out the toolbox on a client.
Upgrade all servers. Don’t forget to upgrade replicated servers.
It is recommended to upgrade servers during non-working hours and ensure that there sufficient time to roll-back in case of unexpected problems.
Upgrade SOLIDWORKS PDM Client and SOLIDWORKS on all clients.
Upgrade add-ins
Check-in toolbox.