Best Practices for Upgrading Kofax Capture

Issue

What Are the Best Practices for Upgrading Kofax Capture to a Major Version

Solution

The Best Practice is to perform a fresh installation of the new major Kofax Capture version that will run in parallel with the existing Kofax Capture version so that Batch Classes can be tested against the new major Kofax Capture version while the production Kofax Capture version is still working. This mitigates any problems that could occur while performing an in-place upgrade, so your production environment is not down. Having the original implementation in place provides a path to revert to the existing system if issues are identified that prevent the new environment from becoming the new Production environment.

NOTE: Any machine NOT on the same version as the Server or Central Site will be considered in an unsupported configuration.

For temporary license requests, please contact Kofax Sales or your Reseller/Partner.

If you cannot commit to a Fresh Installation then you may need to consider additional Best Practices for an in-place upgrade, follow the steps below:

1. Confirm that you have the Kofax Capture installation media (software) handy for the version you are currently running including any service packs, fix packs, patches, etc. in the event that the old environment must be rebuilt.


2. Verify that you have the installation media on-hand for any customizations such as Custom Modules, Workflow Agents, Export Connectors, etc.


3. Make a backup of Batch Classes by exporting them from the Administration module to a location outside of the Kofax Capture installation.


4. Confirm that there is plenty of disk space available prior to the upgrade; the suggestion is a minimum of 5 GB or more of free disk space.


5. If the Kofax Capture database is Oracle, be sure that your tablespace configuration complies with best practices for Oracle. See the Oracle Web site for more information.


6. Process out all Batches so that there are no Batches in the system.
   
   Use the Batch Removal Utility to export out the remaining batches using the XML option and re-import them using XML Import once the system has been upgraded and verified to be functioning properly.
   
   Below is the location of the Batch Removal Utility that can be used with Kofax Capture 10.1, 10.2, and 11.0:
   
   https://az32125.vo.msecnd.net/support/Support$/capture/11/utility_sample_sdk_releases/kc_11_bru.zip


7. Make a backup or snapshot of the entire machine with the current Kofax Capture version installed, as there is no rollback capability when performing a Kofax Capture major upgrade to another major Kofax Capture version. 


8. Make a backup of the Kofax Capture database using database management tools.


9. If User Tracking is enabled, export and purge out the older statistics from the Kofax Capture database either using Report Viewer or by your DBA running database queries, then perform a Repair and Compact in DBUtil afterwards. This will minimize the risk of a timeout occurring during the database conversion portion of the upgrade.


10. Stop ALL Kofax related services or modules including Kofax Capture, KTM or other Custom Modules.


11. Disable the KCN Service(s) prior to an upgrade if this a KCNS environment by running aciscfg.exe /d from an elevated Command Prompt.
    
    If you are upgrading an KCNS environment and plan to upgrade the Remote Sites at a later time, any changes to Batch Classes WILL NOT be downloaded to Remote Sites that are not the same version as the Central Site.


12. Exclude Kofax Capture directories from being scanned by any third-party monitoring software such as Data Endpoint Protection, Intrusion Prevention or similar. 
     - https://knowledge.kofax.com/Capture/..._Kofax_Capture


13. Disable any SQL Maintenance Plans that might commence while the upgrade is occurring.


14. Ensure that there are no active connections to the Kofax Capture database that may interfere with the upgrade.
     
    • For SQL Server, execute the following query: sp_who2
    
    
    • For Oracle, execute the following query: select * from v$session [where username is not null]


15. Confirm that the Kofax Capture upgrade is performed using an account that is a member of the Local Administrators group.


16. Perform the upgrade directly at the machine, and not through a remote session.


17. After the upgrade, verify the following:
     
    • The Kofax Capture database was updated successfully by checking the Convert.log file typically located under the CaptureSV\Logs folder.
      You should see a message when completed: Conversion completed successfully with 0 warning(s) and 0 error(s)
    
    
    • The Kofax Capture Bin folder was updated with the files from the new major Kofax Capture version.
      
      Typical locations for Kofax Capture Bin folder:
       
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Kofax\CaptureSS\ServLib\Bin
      
      
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Kofax\Capture \Bin
18. Create and process some test Batches after the upgrade to check for issues and to verify that the system is working properly.


19. Run XML Import to re-import the remaining Batches which were exported for Step 6.


20. Re-enable the KCN Service(s) that were disabled in step 11 by executing aciscfg.exe from an elevated Command Prompt.


21. Restart ALL Kofax-related services or modules including Kofax Capture, KTM or other Custom Modules that were stopped in Step 10.

Level of Complexity 

Moderate

Applies to  

References

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