• Article

How to Install and Configure the Upgrade Assessment Tool

 

Updated: March 24, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP2, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager SP1, System Center Configuration Manager (current branch)

Use this topic to install and configure the System Center Configuration Manager Upgrade Assessment Tool.

There are four main steps to install and configure the tool:

  1. Configure the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 6.1 

    You use this tool to determine whether the computers in your organization are compatible with versions of the Windows operating system. By using ACT, you can obtain compatibility information from Microsoft and software vendors, identify compatibility issues in your own organization, and share compatibility ratings with other ACT users. The tools in ACT help you analyze and mitigate compatibility issues before you deploy a version of Windows to your organization.

  2. Create and deploy a data-collection package 

    You create and deploy a data-collection package to computers to collect inventory data that will be uploaded to the ACT database.

    If you use the ACT 6.1 without Update 2, you must also specify a tag (label) of TotalDuration when you create the data-collection package. If you use Act 6.1 with Update 2 or later, you do not need to create this label.

  3. Install and configure the Upgrade Assessment Tool 

    You use this tool to determine whether the computers that are managed by Configuration Manager can run Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10.

  4. Perform Upgrade Assessment Tool synchronization 

    The Upgrade Assessment Synchronization Service connects to the Compatibility Online Service, your ACT database, and your Configuration Manager site database, and then synchronizes the compatibility data for the upgrade assessment reports.

Use the following procedures to help you complete these steps.

To configure the Application Compatibility Toolkit

  1. To start the Application Compatibility Toolkit Configuration Wizard, click Start, click All Programs, click Windows Kits, click Windows ADK, click Application Compatibility Toolkit, and then click Application Compatibility Manager.

  2. Complete the wizard, which includes the following:

    - Run an ACT Log Processing Service on the local computer. For more information about Log Processing Service shared files, see [Log File Locations for Data-Collection Packages](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=263565).

- Create a new or existing ACT database. For more information about how to create an ACT database, see [ACT Database Configuration](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=263489).

- Specify the log file location to use to collect data from the computers in your environment. For more information about how to set Log Processing Service permissions, see [ACT Log Processing Service Share Permissions](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=263553)

- Configure your ACT Log Processing Service account. For more information about the required permissions for the ACT Log Processing Service account, see [ACT Log Processing Service Share Permissions](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=263553).

For more information about ACT, see Application Compatibility Toolkit Technical Reference.

To create and deploy a data-collection package

  1. In the Application Compatibility Manager console, select the Collect tab to open the Collect screen.

  2. On the File menu, click New.

  3. Select the Inventory collection package type to collect a list of installed applications.

  4. On the Set up your inventory package page, provide the package information, and then click Create.

    - Make sure that the folder you specify for **Output Location** matches the ACT log shared folder that you created in the previous procedure.

- If you use the ACT 6.1 without Update 2, you must also specify a tag (label) of **TotalDuration** when you create the data-collection package. Without this step, ACT 6.1 data-collection packages will generate an error which prevents the data collected by the package from being processed. This is resovled in ACT 6.1 with Update 2.

  5. Browse to the location to save the Windows Installer (.msi) file for the package, specify a file name for the .msi file, and then click Save.

  6. Complete the Create a data-collection package wizard.

  7. Deploy the data-collection package to the computers that you want to assess. Use your preferred method to deploy the package. For example, you can deploy the package by using application management in Configuration Manager. Or, you can use other deployment methods, such as Group Policy or logon scripts.

When the package is installed on the computers, the package collects information about applications that are installed on the computer and collects that information in the ACT log share folder. After the data is collected, the package is uninstalled from the computer. For more information, see Managing Your Data-Collection Packages.

To install and configure the Upgrade Assessment Tool

  1. Download the Upgrade Assessment Tool from the Microsoft Connect site.

  2. From the downloaded files, run UpgradeAssessmentTool.msi to install the tool.

  3. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Upgrade Assessment Tool. Configure the following:

    1. Compatibility Online Service: Specify the proxy server, if it is required, to connect to the Compatibility Online Service website by using HTTPS.

      Note

      In the Application Compatibility Toolkit documentation, the Compatibility Online Service is referred to as the Microsoft Compatibility Exchange web service.

    2. Application Compatibility Toolkit: Specify the ACT database details and credentials. Click Verify to verify that the Upgrade Assessment Tool Synchronization Service can connect to the database successfully by using the credentials that you provided and whether the database is a valid ACT 6.1 database.

    3. Configuration Manager: Specify the Configuration Manager site database details and credentials. Click Verify to confirm that the Upgrade Assessment Tool Synchronization Service can connect to the database successfully by using the credentials that you provided and whether the database is a valid site database.

    4. Click Apply to save the changes.

    5. Synchronization Service: Click Start to start the Upgrade Assessment Tool Synchronization Service.

    6. Optionally, enable and configure the schedule so that synchronization automatically runs.

To manually synchronize the Upgrade Assessment Tool

  1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Upgrade Assessment Tool.

  2. Click Synchronization Service and make sure that the service is started.

  3. Click Synchronize.

To monitor synchronization activity, use the UATSyncs.log in the Upgrade Assessment Tool installation directory.