Chapter 7. Upgrading to Dynamics NAV and MSDYN365BC

In the previous chapters, we covered the implementation process of Microsoft Dynamics NAV for new customers or companies that had not used Microsoft Dynamics NAV before.

What about companies already using Microsoft Dynamics NAV that want to upgrade to the latest version? Upgrading to a newer version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, unfortunately, is not like upgrading Microsoft Office, where it can be done with clicks of buttons. It's a project that has to be planned and executed carefully.

In this chapter, we will explain the migration process that comes from almost all of the previous versions of the application. We will go through the steps that should be done and the tools that are out there to help us execute the upgrade process.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• An explanation of the upgrading philosophy in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• A brief checklist of all the steps required to upgrade from the previous versions
• A detailed explanation...

Why to upgrade?

The possibility to upgrade a customized Microsoft Dynamics NAV installation is very important—the customer always wants to be updated. An updated system is a competitive advantage, but if the system is very personalized, it may not be easy to upgrade to the latest version of the product.

For Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central SaaS, the subject is different—the continuous update is the basis of the philosophy of the product itself, born to be in the Cloud and automatically upgraded.

Having an updated version offers a number of advantages:

• Access to new features introduced by new releases of the product
• Possibility to upload fixes and updates
• Maintenance of the support for all updated to releases still under maintenance
• Being updated with the latest technologies available on the market
• If the company has updated and has modern software, it increases in value

Note

For Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the model is different. If you have a lot of customizations in your old...

Upgrading philosophy

Prior to the release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, an upgrade was a tremendous project that required hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hours to bring you to the latest version.

The upgrade required a lot of time because of modifications done in your database; essentially, the less you modify, the faster the upgrade. In fact, if you need to upgrade from versions prior to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, you may see similar estimates during a new implementation.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be used with no customization at all, but that's almost unheard of. That's like buying a Ferrari and only driving it at 25 miles per hour. Once users discover the power of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and how flexible the software is, they will want to make changes so that they have a competitive edge in their industry. It's like the users suddenly discover the power of the force.

One of the greatest selling points for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the ease of making changes to the software. You don...

Upgrades prior to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013

An upgrade project from versions prior to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 can be an easy task or a large project. It really depends on the amount of modifications that are done and the version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV you are upgrading from. The basic principle is that the older the version, the more involved it will be for you and your company.

To summarize, the steps to upgrade versions prior to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 are as follows:

1. Back up your existing database (of course)
2. Compare and manually merge the codes that are modified to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV
3. Convert the database to the version you're upgrading to by opening it in the new version of the software
4. Import the merged objects (new version objects with customizations) to your current database
5. Run the processes to upgrade your data

Note

All of these steps are done manually and some steps are very time-consuming. There are horror stories of developers pulling all-nighters...

Upgrades after Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, Microsoft introduced the PowerShell upgrade, which automates code merging as well as data upgrades. In order to take advantage of the PowerShell upgrade process, you need to be at least on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.

There are some limitations to the automated upgrade:

• If the names of your old variables are used in the newer version as a function or statement, you must change them before you upgrade
• If your old code calls functions do not exist anymore in the newer version, you must verify that the upgrade codeunits migrate data correctly
• If the code you're coming from causes some fields on the table to be dropped, you'll need to make sure that it doesn't
• If your company name uses special reserved characters in Microsoft Dynamics NAV (such as, ~, @, #, $, %, &, *, (), ., !, %, -, +, /, =, and ? ), rename the company before proceeding
• Make sure that the system tables are in English

In the following section...

The upgrading-process checklist

As mentioned previously, using the PowerShell upgrade is only supported from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 forward. There are ways to use the PowerShell upgrade if you're running earlier versions, but that is outside the scope of this book. So, the simple rule is to get to at least Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 to make upgrading easier in the future.

If you are on older versions, the official documentation tells you to follow the Microsoft Dynamics NAV upgrade guide for the respective versions for details. Essentially, if you are coming from versions previous to X, you will have to follow guide Y, and so on. If you follow all the steps detailed in all the guides, it will take a long time—hence the rule that the older the version you're on, the more time-consuming and more complex the upgrade.

But there is some good news: if you are planning to upgrade from the older versions, you can skip some steps since the ultimate goal is to get to the latest version.

Note

In...

Upgrading steps for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013

In the preceding sections, we saw all the steps that you have to follow to upgrade from the older versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. In this section, we will explain those steps in more detail.

Preparing to upgrade

No matter what your current version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is, before you can upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, a migration to Microsoft SQL Server is needed if you are using a native database, as it is no longer available.

A test of the database is also needed before starting the upgrade process. In this section, we will explain how to perform these two processes.

Migrating to Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server (on its 64-bit version) is the only database supported in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. The native database is gone. If you are using a native database in the older versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you should upgrade to SQL before you start the upgrade process to Microsoft Dynamics...

Upgrading tools

There are several tools that help us in the upgrading process. Some of them must be used at some point in the upgrade process (such as the text format upgrade tool). Others can be used to help us in the upgrade process, but are not mandatory (such as MergeTool). In this section, we will explain them all.

Note

MergeTool is a great product that was published several years ago but is still updated. Today, it's mainly recommended for merging with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. For more information, you can visit http://www.mergetool.com.

Upgrade ToolKit

Upgrade ToolKit is included in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 installation media.

For the Microsoft Dynamics NAV W1 version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, Upgrade ToolKit only includes two folders: Data Conversion Tools and Object Change Tools. For country versions, it also includes an extra folder: Local Objects.

In both the Data Conversion Tools and Local Objects folders, there are two .fob files that have to be used in the data upgrade...

Upgrading from Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise

Now, let's discuss how to migrate from Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise.

On-premises versus online environments – differences

In upgrades with an on-premise architecture, you have complete control over your infrastructure's upgrades (hardware and software), and you can decide on what type of upgrade to apply and when to apply it. In an online architecture, you could have some aspects of the infrastructure where upgrades are not completely under your control, but they can be deployed globally from the solution provider (in this case, Microsoft) and the upgrades are managed automatically (a continuous upgrade detected).

Note

Here's a comparison between the different types of Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise installations (pros and cons). We will talk about these differences in Chapter 13, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business...

Summary

Upgrading used to take a considerable amount of time and effort. With the release of the PowerShell upgrade, it doesn't have to. Companies that already use Microsoft Dynamics NAV will want to get to, at least, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, so upgrading in the future will be easier. To do so, they have to go through an upgrade process to get their current implementation to the latest version. In this chapter, we covered upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 by using PowerShell to upgrade from NAV 2013. Even upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 is only supported from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. We also explained how to upgrade from the previous versions of the application.

Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise is similar to upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018. The main difference is that it is necessary to convert the existing developments to extensions in order to prevent system updates from touching the source code. Sometimes, it is necessary...