Upgrading is an essential process to keep your Synergetic installation up to date with the latest security updates, bug fixes, improvements and new features. Education Horizons supports the two most recent 'major' releases (currently v70 & v71).

How to arrange an upgrade

Upgrades currently require a Education Horizons team member to perform the upgrade for you.

Booking an upgrade is fairly straight forward. Upgrades are available during business hours. After hours upgrades are not currently available.

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/Synergeticupgrades@educationhorizons.com/bookings/

Be sure to let us know the preferred date and time as well as which environment that requires upgrading (production, test or development). There is typically a two week lead time for upgrade requests. Please book early to secure a preferred date.

Which version should I update to?

If you're unsure which version to upgrade to, feel free to give us a call to discuss. You can find a list of available versions together with features and release notes from our Synergetic User Hub here: Product Versions

What do I need to do to prepare for the upgrade?

There are a few items to check before the upgrade takes place.

Make sure to provide a contact name and phone number for our team to call on the day. This person needs to be contactable and able to provide local support for the Synergetic environment. It's ok if they are not on-site, just as long as they can remotely connect and attend to issues.
The Synergetic servers need to be turned on and remotely accessible. This includes database servers, application and web servers as well as any Arrival Departure Terminals you may have.
Make sure to provide test user account details for each of the Synergetic products you have in use. ie: Synergetic Windows application, SynWeb, Community Portal
Set a System Message (shutdown notice) to let users know in advance that Synergetic will be offline and unavailable on the date and time of the upgrade.
When the upgrade is due to commence, make sure all users have shutdown the Synergetic Windows application.
Check to make sure the Synergetic login account is a local administrator and has remote desktop permissions for each of the Synergetic servers.
Check there is enough disk space to perform a full backup prior to the upgrade proceeding.

Can users access Synergetic during the upgrade?

Synergetic will be offline and unavailable for all users during the upgrade process. This includes Synergetic Windows application, web portals and SynMobile. Please make sure all users including staff and parents are aware of the outage and set the Synergetic 'shutdown' notice in advance for the date and time.

What happens during an upgrade?

The SysAdmin will be called and advised the upgrade to about to commence.
Synergetic applications will be taken offline.
The databases and application folders will be backed up.
The databases and applications will be upgraded.
Synergetic applications will brought back online.
A series of tests will be performed to verify the upgrade completed successfully.
The SysAdmin will be contacted again and advised the upgrade is complete.

What happens if the upgrade fails?

In the unlikely event that the upgrade fails for whatever reason, the databases and applications will be restored to the prior version. There will be no loss of data or functionality.

How long will the upgrade take?

The time taken to perform the upgrade depends on several factors including the Synergetic version, number of products installed, size of the databases and server performance.

Synergetic version updates take around 1 - 2 hours to complete. These are both minor build updates within the same major version (ie: v71.03 → v71.06) or updates to a newer major version. (ie: v70 → v71).
It is a requirement to perform a database backup prior to the upgrade and upgrade time is dependent upon the size of the Synergetic database and for any additional finance schemas.
If the school System administrator can perform a VM server backup (if your environment is applicable ) then that will eliminate the need for a database backup

Is there a cost for upgrades?

Upgrading Synergetic during business hours (9am to 5pm AEST) is covered under the Support costs. Out of hours upgrades are available Monday to Friday for before-hours (ie: 7am or 8am start) or Monday to Thursday for after-hours (5pm start) - these are available at $170 / hour ex GST and subject to availability.

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