Things to Know Before You Install/Upgrade IT Management Suite 8.7

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Client Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

What to do before a new install of IT Management Suite (ITMS) 8.7.

What to do before upgrading an existing version of ITMS to ITMS 8.7.

Environment

ITMS 8.7

Resolution

1. Read the ITMS 8.7 documentation. Please visit the main ITMS landing page.  This will have sections for the LATEST RELEASE of ITMS including: Release Notes, Platform OS Support, Getting Started, Administration, etc.  Become familiar with this link.
    As well, refer to our online article "What to Know Before Installing or Upgrading ITMS 8.7"

2. During the course of your upgrade, you may determine that you need to upgrade your Windows Server Operating System. Does the IT Management Suite (ITMS) support in-place upgrades of Microsoft operating systems?

   Check the following document to see which upgrade path you should follow. --> Supported upgrade paths for IT Management Suite. 

   1. If you are running 8.5 but not 8.5 RU4, please update to 8.5 RU4 using the following sections in order  --> ITMS 8 5 RU4 Release Notes
      1. System requirements and supported platforms
      2. General installation and upgrade information
      3. Performing post-installation tasks for Deployment Solution (if Applicable)
   2. If you are running 8.1 but not 8.1 RU7, please update to 8.1 RU7 using the following sections in order  --> ITMS 8 1 RU7 Release Notes
      1. System requirements and supported platforms
      2. General installation and upgrade information
      3. Performing post-installation tasks for Deployment Solution (if Applicable)
3. To determine what version of IT Management Suite (ITMS) you are running, do the following:
   1. In the Symantec Management Console (SMC), go to Help | About Symantec Management Console
   2. In the Symantec Management Agent (SMA), go to Help | About
   3. Compare the version numbers with the charts in the appropriate document below.
      1. What are the released ITMS 8.5 Agent or Plug-in versions and build numbers?
      2. What are the released ITMS 8.6 Agent or Plug-in versions and build numbers?

4. Verify that your systems meet hardware recommendations. --> IT Management Planning Considerations. Recommended IT Management Suite Hardware

5. Verify that your ITMS environment is running on supported Server OSs, IIS, and SQL. --> ITMS Platform Support Matrix

6. If you find after reviewing the documents in Steps 2 and 3 above that you need to upgrade your server's hardware or OS, please read the following documentation: 

   Migrating a stand-alone ITMS 8.5 RU4 to the latest ITMS (8.6 or 8.7) Version using new hardware and a new hostname for Notification Server
   
   

7. Best Practice calls for testing the install/upgrade in a lab environment before doing the install/upgrade in the production environment.

8. Make a backup of the Notification server, Site servers (task and package), Gateway servers, SQL servers, and SQL databases.

9. Make a backup of (export) your Certificates. Also, please refer to other items considered important to backup: ITMS Disaster Recovery "ITMS Disaster Recovery White Paper"

10. Follow the steps in this document to perform the install or upgrade (instructions are identical to 8.7 as they were for 8.5 and 8.6) -->
    Installing the IT Management Suite
    Upgrading IT Management Suite

    1. Prerequisites for installing ITMS 8.7
    2. ITMS 8.7 solutions also require the following additional third-party software
    3. Installing the IT Management Suite OR Upgrading to IT Management Suite 8.7

Additional Information

"Migrating a stand-alone ITMS 8.5 RU4 to the latest ITMS (8.6 or 8.7) Version using new hardware and a new host name for Notification Server" (KB 257157 )

"Symantec IT Management Platform End of Life Schedules" (KB 173849)