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App Portal & FNMS which product should upgrade first?

Big_Kev
By Level 7 Champion
Level 7 Champion

Hello App Portal experts

I have a client still using FNMS & App Portal 2017 version 🙂 and surprisingly they are still working fine (integrated with each other).  Now, It's time to do both products upgrade to the latest 2022 R1 (R2 for FNMS).  

However I need some confirmation/suggestion of which product should be migrated first than the other? We are doing in-place upgrade Flexera product only.  The reason of asking this question is in the real world the server downtime during the upgrade need be carefully planned.  From what I found the FNMS 2022 R2 release note does officially mention it support almost all the previous version of app portal (2013 R2 -- 2022 R1 Sp1).  https://docs.flexera.com/FlexNetManagerSuite2022R2/EN/SysReq/index.html#FNMS_sys_req/RN_sys_req_other.html

But I am not able to see the supported version range of FNMS from the 2022 R1 App Portal release note then.  (It looks to me I shall start FNMS upgrade first in this case , so if anything found when FNMS 2022 R1 not working with old AP 2017 , we still can get some support ? ).

Other concerns that in general, comparably the time spent on upgrading FNMS will be longer than App Portal. During the FNMS upgrade, it also impacts App Portal as the integration will likely be stopped (FNMS DB upgrade, FSG update etc), Also because AP is an IT store software , the number of users using AP will be larger than SAM team size who is using FNMS.  With this concern, I am thinking maybe upgrade App Portal from 2017 to 2022 first.

Is anyone can confirm whether we upgrade App Portal to 2022 R1 sp1 ,it shall still work with FNMS 2017 ?  Or say if anything noticed broken when 2022 R1 AP <> 2017 FNMS, will we get Flexera support still ? 

 @jdempsey , @CharlesW  any inputs from you guys will be much appreciated.

Best Regards

Kev

 

(2) Solutions

Kevin,
     We discussed something similar a while back in a different post. See https://community.flexera.com/t5/App-Broker-Forum/App-Portal-FNMS-Version-Compatibility/td-p/269381

Long story short, App Broker does not care what version of FNMS you are running.. For the most part, App Broker only calls into the FNMS compliance API service, which has changed very little over the years. 

I guess I'd start by upgrading FNMS, as that will likely be much more challenging that upgrading App Broker (get the hard stuff out of the way first, I always say).

View solution in original post

If it's any consolation, we just upgraded one of our customer recently from the 2018 version of the two suites to 2022 for both.   Everything went smoothly.  We also changed servers to get to fresh new OS's, so make sure you back up customizations and double check everything after the upgrade.  All in all, very painless.  

View solution in original post

(8) Replies
Big_Kev
By Level 7 Champion
Level 7 Champion

Silly me, just add a clarification here that It's unlikely we can do AP & FNMS at the same time due to resourcing and client requirements those reason etc. So need to be one after the other upgrade process...

Cheers

Kevin

Kevin,
     We discussed something similar a while back in a different post. See https://community.flexera.com/t5/App-Broker-Forum/App-Portal-FNMS-Version-Compatibility/td-p/269381

Long story short, App Broker does not care what version of FNMS you are running.. For the most part, App Broker only calls into the FNMS compliance API service, which has changed very little over the years. 

I guess I'd start by upgrading FNMS, as that will likely be much more challenging that upgrading App Broker (get the hard stuff out of the way first, I always say).

My reply was going to be "you're overthinking it, just pick one and do it, then do the other".  🙂  But I agree with Charlie, do the hard one first.  Then when you upgrade App Portal, you'll appreciate it that much more!  Or better yet, let us migrate your FNMS to Flexera One ITAM, and then you'll never need to upgrade it again!

Anything expressed here is my own view and not necessarily that of my employer, Flexera. If my reply answers a question you have raised, please click "ACCEPT AS SOLUTION".
Big_Kev
By Level 7 Champion
Level 7 Champion

Hello @jdempsey 

I indeed wish like my client a small size of FNMS & AP could use FlexeraOne 🙂 ...but it's likely only when the time Flexera One IT Asset Request feature (new name for App Portal in Flexera One ?:), is this module mature enough as the AP on premise version? And also only when the time Flexera has a 'mature' process similar to moving FNMS On premise to Flexera1 ITAM. I know more and more FNMS users start doing that. I am interested to hear if any App Portal on premise user can migrate their existing AP system 'seamlessly' to Flexera One?  

Is that true these days people can only migrate FNMS On Premise to ITAM and using the existing AP ON premise to connect with ITAM I assume? 

@CharlesW  thank you for your inputs and finding the other thread. The only 'concern' is when something unexpected happening ...for instance, say leave the AP <> FNMS servers communications open (including service gate way as is etc) when the FNMS migration is running.  I am assuming during the FNMS DB being upgrade by hundreds of FNMS scripts (usually it may be couple of hours time....), API still connectable to FNMS ....if an AP user check out a catalog item and consume one license quantity from FNMS at the same moment, what would happen? and particularly if FNMS DB need to rollback whenever any migration error encountered , what's the outcome this AP user checked out result from FNMS, likely license quantity is reverted...but any impact from AP functioning point of view ? etc

This is the main concern ....for the 'worst' case scenario preparation , we need to put both products 'down' during whatever the product migration, in that case we may look into two products migrate at the same windows.

Happy to hear any better suggestions here.

Best Regards

Kevin 

There is currently no "migration" path from App Portal to IT Asset Request, and currently IT Asset Request isn't a good fit for some customers (very specific requirements around ServiceNow front-end and either SCCM or Jamf  - or both - as the deployment system).  But App Portal (on-prem) still works well with IT Asset Management in Flexera One, and that migration from FNMS to ITAM is very smooth.  We have migrated many customers already.

Anything expressed here is my own view and not necessarily that of my employer, Flexera. If my reply answers a question you have raised, please click "ACCEPT AS SOLUTION".

If it's any consolation, we just upgraded one of our customer recently from the 2018 version of the two suites to 2022 for both.   Everything went smoothly.  We also changed servers to get to fresh new OS's, so make sure you back up customizations and double check everything after the upgrade.  All in all, very painless.  

Big_Kev
By Level 7 Champion
Level 7 Champion

Thanks for sharing @cdubs76 

Sure thing--and good luck with your migration!  reach out if you see anything goofy.