Enterprise Customers Upgrading Recast Server 3.2 to 4.0

Upgrading from 3.2 to 4.0 has some special steps to get you upgraded.  Due to the large infrastructure changes, and new features in 4.0, a simple upgrade, and migrating settings just isn’t possible.

Items that don’t migrate: permissions/roles, lab manager profile (now renamed Kiosk manager), and Builder actions.  In order to help recreate them in 4.0, we recommend you document the permissions and export the lab/kiosk and Builder items before the upgrade. Then load them into a 3.2 standalone enterprise install afterward, so you can reference them when you recreate them on 4.0.

The good news, future releases will be a simple upgrade.  Before going much further, the official docs for the Installation of 4.0 are here, along with detailed info.

Let’s do a quick reminder of the backend differences:

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Starting the Upgrade, if running on the same server, you’ll notice right off the bat additional Pre-Reqs are needed to support 4.0.
Pre-Reqs:
Recast Server requires a domain joined Windows Server 2008 R2 or later server for installation with IIS enabled, the .NET Core Hosting Bundle needs to be installed, and a SQL Server Express (or better) server needs to be available. If the .NET Core Hosting Bundle was installed before IIS was installed, you will need to repair the .NET Core Hosting Bundle installation.

• Domain Joined Windows Server Standard, testing has been done up to version 2019.
• IIS Enabled
• .Net Core Hosting Bundle 2.2.7 [Do NOT Use anything newer yet]
• SQL Server [For 99% of orgs, SQL Express is perfect]

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On my Recast 3.2 Server, before starting the upgrade, I already installed SQL Server 2017 Express LocalDB and SQL Server Management Studio [OPTIONAL] to manage the Database.  I also installed the IIS Feature. [which was already installed because this server doubles as a ConfigMgr Management Point]

Now I’ll install the other Pre-Reqs, clicking the Link brings up the website, launching the installer, then checking the box and clicking “Install”

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Now that .Net Core is installed, re-launch the Installer, and follow the Prompts

Make sure the “Test SQL Connection” returns “Success”

After installing, you can see 3.2 is no longer installed.  The 4.0 Installer removed 3.2.

After the Install is finished, it will prompt for Reboot, which is highly recommended.  If you don’t and you launch the web console, you’ll find yourself quite annoyed at the behavior of being prompted over and over again for creds.  Just reboot and save yourself a little frustration.
Once rebooted, go ahead and launch the Browser-Based Console (From any machine that can connect to port 444 on the Recast Management Server)

Things to Note:

• Settings do NOT transfer. If you would like assistance, contact support:  https://docs.recastsoftware.com/help/recast-management-server

• SQL Install will be different depending on:
• SQL Express vs Full SQL (Standard / Enterprise)
• Local SQL vs Remote SQL
• Upgrade from 3.2 vs Clean install.. pretty much the same thing.
• IIS was installed by ConfigMgr Prereq Tool when I chose Management Point: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ConfigMgr-2012-R2-e52919cd

If you have any questions, or want to discuss your upgrade or install before you make the jump, please contact support and schedule a time to cover them.