Synergetic v68 Gold Release

Owned by James Overell
Last updated: Dec 18, 2017 by Chris Steel
8 min read

Dear Synergetic Users,

We are pleased to announce that Synergetic v68 is now available.

Contents

Version Features

The primary change in v68 is around v68 - Single Database, an architectural transformation and the first part of a much larger transition to allow clients the option to move to a cloud hosted approach.

Please review the Prechecker tool to determine if your environment is ready for this upgrade.

Additionally, after being initially configured, the Synergetic v68 suite will be updated using an automated deployment tool called /wiki/spaces/SUT/pages/2289470395.

Other significant developments include:

Upgrades

Please contact us via Service Desk to organise your upgrade. At this stage we are only accepting upgrade requests for test environments.

With any major release, we strongly recommend to upgrade a test environment to gauge the impact of the upgrade on your customisations or special use scenarios before moving on to upgrading production environments. There is no charge for upgrading Synergetic test environments.

There is a first in, first served policy in booking these into our calendar and there is typically a two week lead time. Please note that school holidays are typically booked out 4 weeks in advance and suggest booking early to avoid disappointment.

Migrations

If you are considering migrating to a new server we strongly recommend to utilise our expert Systems team’s services for installing and migrating Synergetic servers. Please contact us via Service Desk to request assistance with your migration.

We have often received urgent requests from clients who have attempted to perform their own migration and encountered unforeseen installation/backup issues; despite our best efforts to assist without advance notice, a resolution may not always be achievable within an acceptable timeframe.

Please be aware there is typically a two week lead time for installations such as new servers and migrations, although times of higher demand can see longer lead times.  We suggest arranging your booking as early as possible to provide best chance of securing your preferred timing.

Supported Versions

With the release of v68, the v66R1 and v66R2 releases move out of mainstream support and all clients should already have migration plans in place to move from an earlier version to either v67 or v68.

We have provided a grace period for v66 version support until December 2017 to allow surety of ongoing support for clients who have had upgrade scheduling difficulties.

However as v66 will move out from mainstream support, defect fixes/hot fixes will only be available in v67 and v68. 

We encourage you to make contact with our systems team or consulting team for queries regarding upgrading or project management.

Windows Server

Supported configurations

 

v66r2

v67

v68

v69

v70

Windows Server 2008 / 2008R2

  

 

 

 

Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)

 

Windows Server 2012R2 (64-bit)

 

Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)

 

 

Synergetic follows Microsoft mainstream support for Windows Server.

Windows Server 2008/2008R2 has ceased support. If migrating to a new server we recommend Windows Server 2016.


SQL Server

Supported configurations

 

v66r2

v67

v68

v69

v70

SQL Server 2012

 

SQL Server 2014

SQL Server 2016

Please note that SQL Server 2012 will cease mainstream support during 2017.

If migrating or creating new instances we recommend SQL Server 2016.

Microsoft SQL Links:

ServiceDesk

As a key part of our Premium Client and Customer Experience strategy which is:  We value, build and nourish strong partnerships. We drive client and customer success through proactive and continuous engagement, ensuring we provide high quality client and customer service every day, we are pleased to announce that Synergetic ServiceDesk is now fully operational for supported users at all clients. We have been receiving great feedback from users regarding the functionality of Synergetic ServiceDesk and we like to thank all users for the great feedback and the support given during the transition period to the new ticketing system.

Some key points to be aware of:

  • Your username to ServiceDesk is your email address. Please use your email address when logging in or if you need to reset your password.
  • As part of the initial setup all open tickets, and closed tickets within the last 3 month period have been migrated to ServiceDesk from our legacy support system.
  • Creation of support issues via direct email to support@synergetic.net.au has now been fully deprecated. All support tickets needs to be raised via ServiceDesk at https://jira.synergetic.net.au/servicedesk.
  • A list of common Service Desk Q & A’s.
  • Our support desk phone number is unchanged:  +61 (3) 9803 8111 will continue operating per standard support hours and you may raise tickets via calling as previously; however with the additional information available online this may be faster and easier for you – especially to provide screen shots and other relevant information that helps us to understand and resolve your queries as efficiently as possible.

Synergetic User Hub

We are thrilled to announce the release of our new documentation space – The Synergetic User Hub.

Over the last few months, we have gathered feedback from various parties regarding the structure and content of our existing documentation. Based on the feedback provided, we made the decision to move our documentation to a new online wiki platform called Atlassian Confluence, which also complements our new ticketing system, ServiceDesk.

All relevant user documentation will be available through the Synergetic User Hub, including product documentation, Knowledge Base (KB) articles, troubleshooting articles, company information, list of known defects, road maps etc.

We will also be providing updates on future releases and functionality via public pages on the Synergetic User Hub, which will provide users greater access and transparency to information.

How does it work?

The Synergetic User Hub can be accessed via https://wiki.synergetic.net.au.

The site contains product documentation, knowledge base (KB) articles, troubleshooting guides, company details and all other information that was previously available via our website http://www.synergetic.net.au.

The ‘Search’ box on the home page will search across the entire user hub, whereas if you execute a search within the page of a certain product/module, it will only search within that specific area. For example if you search for ‘Email’ on the home page, it will look for all articles across the entire user hub containing the word ‘Email', whereas a search for ‘Email’ on the Payroll documentation space will only search within that space. 

If you need to find any information, we would like to encourage users to start off by searching within the User Hub. This will also be useful for support related enquiries where an existing KB or troubleshooting article might give you the relevant information required to solve an error or an issue.

The Synergetic User Hub is also linked to ServiceDesk and it will prompt you with related articles when you are creating a new ticket, as the answer you need may already be available.

There will be more articles and content available as we progress further with the implementation. Please let us know if there is any additional information and content you would like to see available through the Synergetic User Hub.

Weekly Bug List

With the release of the Synergetic User Hub, known defects are now published online.

There are different filter options available on the page which will allow you to do specific searches for items within products or modules, by Issue key (DSY-####), legacy enhancement reference, created date etc.

While historically a list of known defects was emailed to all System Administrators on the weekend (separate email each for Windows, SynWeb and Portal) this public page will now replace that communication and will provide a more dynamic set of information for your reference.

Synergetic Community (Discourse)

Synergetic are also excited to announce a new community engagement platform called Discourse.

https://discourse.synergetic.net.au/

While historically enhancement requests were logged in and reviewed on a periodic basis, the release of Discourse will allow users to raise enhancement requests for all Synergetic clients to review and comment on. This will assist us in prioritising enhancements in the future based on the general consensus and support they receive from the Synergetic community. 

We are putting the development roadmap in the hands of the community and will be responsive to what our clients are wanting developed or improved.

Users are able to vote to support ideas that other users have suggested.

  • The number of active votes increases as users gain reputation - at starting level users will have ability to issue 10 active votes.
  • If the topic is closed or archived, the registered votes are released to the users and can be applied to other topics (but the vote count on the topic remains).
  • If a topic is re-opened or unarchived, the votes are reclaimed and applied back to the users active vote count.
  • If a topic reclaims the votes of a user and they go over their limit, they simply need to wait until topics are closed or archived to allow them to vote again.

The more interaction users have within the Synergetic Community the more 'trust' they are given.

User trust levels are a way of granting experienced users more rights, so that they can help maintain and moderate the community they generously contribute so much of their time toward.

Please note that the previous Synergetic forums will be deprecated.