Best Practices Tips and Tricks for Upgrading Part 4 ‘No, we did not forget the toolkit’

In the journey of upgrading between the Dynamics NAV old platform and the new ones, we have had 3 blogs written before:

Best Practices Tips and Tricks for Upgrading to Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 or Dynamics NAV 2015
Best Practices Tips and Tricks for Upgrading to Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 or Dynamics NAV 2015 Part 2
Best Practices Tips and Tricks for Upgrading to Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 or Dynamics NAV 2015 Part 3

We want to highlight some more points related to upgrading and will share some useful tips.

Many of you already saw that the newer cumulative updates for the supported versions of Dynamics NAV (versions 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018) no longer have upgrade toolkits for Dynamics NAV 2013 and Dynamics NAV 2013 R2.

For example, the Dynamics NAV 2018 CU1 DVD looked like this:

While the Dynamics NAV 2018 CU3 DVD looks like this:

In other words, starting with CU3, the upgrade toolkits for Dynamics NAV 2013 and Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 are not part of the DVD anymore.

What does this mean and why?

This first means, that whenever you want to upgrade to Dynamics NAV 2018 from Dynamics NAV 2013 or Dynamics NAV 2013 R2, you will need to plan the upgrade to Dynamics NAV 2018 CU2 specifically, and this is exactly what we documented here:

Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

Nevertheless, CU2 becomes a check point for all the other older versions as well, as you will mostly decide to do a full upgrade to Dynamics NAV 2013 first, and then to a higher version of Dynamics  NAV – unless you decide to do the upgrade from Dynamics NAV 2009 to Dynamics NAV 2015 directly (with the Unicode technical step in Dynamics NAV 2013 anyway), but that’s a different story.

The next question would be, can I simply import the Upgrade toolkit of, let’s say, Dynamics NAV 2013 from CU2 while I’m doing the upgrade to (for example) CU 4 directly? Would this work?

Actually, it would theoretically work, but the scenario is unsupported, and we have seen live examples showing us platform/ data issues after the upgrade finishes. In those cases, the only solution would be to revert to a backup before upgrading, do the upgrading to CU2 as explained, and then another quick technical upgrade to CU4 or any later one of your choice, otherwise your environment is not supported.

Here we would like to highlight again that you please take the upgrade toolkit related to the right cumulative update you are upgrading to and do not mix and match the toolkits with different cumulative updates.

So why are we doing this?

The answer is, the mentioned versions became out of mainstream support last January as per the following announcement in January 2018:

Dynamics NAV 2013 and Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 end of mainstream support

And as these versions became out of mainstream support, there will be no changes in the objects, as no more escalations are to be accepted and the source code stays the same including the toolkit, hence the toolkit would not change.

This reflects on the fact that in the product DVD there will be no more changes from the February CU in so forth related to Upgrade Toolkit. Removing it from the product DVD would maintain the CU generation and subsequent customer download easier and faster.

Disclaimer

Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the limitation and disclaimer set out below may not apply. ACCEPTANCE AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY The software contained in this communication is provided to the licensee “as is” without warranty of any kind. The entire risk as to the results, usefulness and performance of the software is assumed by the licensee. Microsoft disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to, implied warranties or merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, correspondence to description, title and non-infringement. Further, Microsoft specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties regarding lack of viruses, accuracy or completeness of responses, results, lack of negligence, and lack of workmanlike effort, for the software. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY In no event shall Microsoft be liable for any direct, consequential, indirect, incidental, or special damages whatsoever, including without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like, arising out of the performance, use if, or inability to use, all or part of either the software, even if Microsoft has been advised of the possibility of such damages.