Before You Begin

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Before upgrading to Pervasive.SQL V8, begin by reviewing the following documents for important information:

• Chapter 2, Preparing to Install Pervasive.SQL - This chapter provides important information including system requirements and platform specific notes that are relevant to your operation.
• "What's New in Pervasive.SQL V8" - This document is included in your product package and contains information regarding the latest features and improvements in this release.
• README file - This file is located on the distribution media and contains late-breaking product news that could not be included in the product documentation.

Considerations

Once you have reviewed the latest product information, review this list of considerations to complete your upgrade installation preparation.

• Pervasive.SQL Applications - Be aware of what applications you have currently using previous versions of Btrieve or Pervasive.SQL in your environment. Don't forget to include both client and server-based applications, such as ArcServe.
• Vendor-Specific Information - Be sure and check with your application vendors for any specific information regarding their product with Pervasive.SQL.
• TCP/IP Protocol - DOS applications require different requesters, preferably BTRBOX95, BTRDRVR, or BREQTCP.

Requesters or Server First? - Pervasive's upgrade and support policy dictates that you should always use requesters that are the same version as or newer than your Server engine. Based on this policy, Pervasive testing may not uncover all issues when using older requesters against newer engines. Thus, Pervasive recommends that you upgrade your requesters along with your server engine.

Whether you install the server or the requester(s) first depends on the mechanics of your site. If, during your system down time, you can install the requesters to all the machines that need them, then you should install the server first and immediately upgrade all the client machines. If you need to upgrade the clients at a different time than the server, and your users need access to the system between these times, you should use a different approach.

One method you can use is to install the Pervasive.SQL server on a test machine. Then, when you install the new requesters, you can give the Pervasive System Analyzer (PSA) the location of the test server to verify the successful client installation. Once the client installation is complete, your applications will use the new requesters against your production server until it is time to upgrade the production server engine.

• New Features and File Rebuilding - In order to make use of all the new version features, you must rebuild your data files so that they use the newest version file format. Advanced Operations Guide includes a chapter that details using the Rebuild Utility to rebuild your data files, if you would like to take advantage of newer features.
• Back Up Data Files - Make sure you have a current backup of all your data files prior to beginning upgrade installation.

Platform Notes for Windows

This section contains installation information specific to the Windows platform.

• To install Pervasive.SQL for Windows, you must have full administrator-level rights on the machine where you will install the product. You need administrative rights to make the client installation directories available to your workstations.
• If you want your individual client machines to install the requester portion of the installation from the server, you must give the clients permission to access the client installation folders, which are part of the Pervasive server install. The default location for these install programs is C:\PVSW\CLIENTS.
• If you run with Advanced Power Management, disable it while installing Pervasive.SQL. The power management can cause a Pervasive.SQL installation to fail if the server is suspended during the install. In Windows, you control the advanced power management via the Power icon on the Control Panel. If you are using Windows 2000, this setting is located in the Control Panel, under the Power Options icon, under the APM tab.

Migration of Existing Configuration Settings

During the installation process, all of your existing server configuration values are migrated to the new server engine, with several exceptions. The exceptions are documented in Table 5-1.

 
Table 5-1    Configuration Setting Values not Migrated to V8

Configuration Setting	Value in V8
Server4Debugging4Trace File Location	C:\pvsw\bin\mkde.tra [default]; or bin\mkde.tra file in selected installation directory.
Server4Directories4 Transaction Log Directory	C:\pvsw\bin\mkde\log [default]; or bin\mkde\log subdirectory of selected installation directory.
Server4Compatibility4 Create File Version	8.x. By default, new data files are always created in the most recent file format.
Server4Memory Usage4 System Cache	Off. With the addition of Level 2 database cache in V8, the system cache should not be used.
Server4Data Integrity4 Transaction Durability	Off. With the addition of a new setting, Transaction Logging (default: On), Transaction Durability is not needed to ensure multi-file transaction atomicity and data integrity. If your application requires true Transaction Durability, you will need to use Configuration to turn this setting On.

Installing Over Existing Pervasive Products

• If you are upgrading from older product versions such as Btrieve 6.15 and wish to make use of all the new version features, you must rebuild your data files so they use the v8 file format. See the Advanced Operations Guide section for detailed information on how to use the Rebuild Utilities to convert your data files.
• If you install Pervasive.SQL V8 over an existing version such as Pervasive.SQL 2000 or Btrieve 6.15, then those products will be archived when you install Pervasive.SQL V8 so that there are no component conflicts. You can use Pervasive System Analyzer later to restore the archived products if necessary. Your licenses from previous Pervasive products such as Btrieve 6.x and Pervasive.SQL 2000 will not be migrated to Pervasive.SQL V8.

Installation Tips

• When installing Pervasive.SQL V8 for the first time on a system, Setup will check if all of the needed system files meet the minimum requirements. In some cases, these files are locked by the operating system and a reboot is required before Setup can continue. The following dialog box is displayed if this is the case.

   
  Figure 5-1    Pervasive.SQL V8 Setup Reboot Required

Click Yes to reboot the system. Setup is then automatically restarted.

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Note
It is strongly recommended that you reboot your system if you encounter this message. If you do not reboot your system, Setup will encounter failures during engine and utilities configuration.

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• If you have any trouble with the following installation, see Chapter 21, Troubleshooting After Installation.

Accessing README file information

It is highly recommended that you go through the README file to find out the latest changes and additions to Pervasive.SQL V8.