Upgrade data

This article explains the process for running the data upgrade as part of cloud migration. Data upgrade is typically required when migrating from Business Central version that is earlier than the version used on the destination online environment. Data upgrade runs the logic that's required upgrade the platform-related data in database.

For an overview of the full end-to-end process for Business Central on-premises cloud migration, go here.

Prerequisites

Data replication has been run on the company or companies that you're migrating to the online environment. For more information, go to Run data replication.

Important

Before running data upgrade, ensure that data from all companies has been replicated to the online database. Once you run data upgrade successfully, you can’t run data replication again from an earlier version, because you risk corrupting data in the online database by mixing non-upgraded records with upgraded records.

Prepare

Once you start the data upgrade on an environment, all client connections are terminated. You can't reconnect until the upgrade process has completed. Also, hotfixes can't be applied and scheduled tasks can't be run. This behavior means data upgrade is the only process running on the environment, which helps prevent potentials database locks and errors.

Inform any active Business Central online users to finish what they're doing and sign out.

Avoid long running data upgrades

APPLIES TO: Business Central on-premises only

When running the data upgrade during cloud migration, you can experience that it takes a long time to complete. You can speed up the data upgrade by temporarily skipping API upgrade. To learn more, go to Skip API data upgrade.

Run data upgrade

  1. Search for and open the Cloud Migration Management page.

  2. Select Run data upgrade > Yes > OK to schedule the data upgrade.

    The upgrade starts as soon as possible according to following flow:

    1. The tenant status changes to Update and any client connections are lost.

    2. You can track the data upgrade in the Business Central admin center from the Environment Operations page or admin center API.

      For more information, go to Log of administrative operations.

    3. When the data upgrade completes, the environment has one of the following statuses:

      • If the data upgrade is successful, the data upgrade status on the Environment Operations page switches to Complete. The environment state become active again, and you can reconnect connect via the client. If you open the Cloud Migration Management page, you notice that Status field has changed to Upgrade completed successfully.
      • If the data upgrade fails, the data upgrade status on the Environment Operations page switches to Failed. An automatic point-in-time restore is run to revert the tenant to the point before upgrade. The environment state become active again, and you can reconnect connect via the client. If you open the Cloud Migration Management page, you notice that Status field has changed to Upgrade pending.

Tip

If telemetry is enabled on the environment, you can view data about the success or failure of the cloud migration operations like, cloud migration setup, data replication, and data upgrade. For more information, go to Enable environment telemetry and Analyzing cloud migration trace telemetry.. You can also track the status of the data upgrade on the Operations page in the admin center (see Operations log).

Fix upgrade errors

On the Environment Operations page, select the Failed status for the data upgrade operation to open a pane that displays the full stack trace for the error.

You can then fix the errors and try run the upgrade again. You can rerun the cloud migration setup or data replication to replicate more data.

Next steps

Complete cloud migration