Author: Eric Vasbinder
Applicable ERPs:
Vista
TABLE OF CONTENTS
From time to time in the Trimble Construction One (TC1) cloud, customers may need to move their Vista ERP installation, and associated components, such as Vista Web, from one TC1 cloud environment to another. This type of move is a clean installation of Vista in a new environment, followed by copying the data from the old environment to the new one.
Some of the reasons why a customer might need to move environments include, but are not limited to, the following scenarios:
Upgrades to Enterprise Architecture
When a customer purchases the Enterprise Solution Bundle at any tier, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum, they are entitled to an upgrade of their Vista installation to use "Enterprise Architecture" (EA). EA environments have a split app and database server, along with Crystal reports Load balancing unlike our standard architecture environments, where all of this is consolidated into the database server
Due to the design of Vista, moving to an EA environment requires a clean installation of Vista in a new, purpose-built EA environment, and the move of the data from the old environment to the new one: an Environment Move.
Server Renaming
When a customer is on a legacy Viewpoint Enterprise Cloud (VEC) naming paradigm for their environment, their server names might be in the form of "customername-v" for the Vista server, as opposed to our new environment naming pattern of "CompanyCodeD1" for the server name
NOTE: Company codes are random and have no direct indication of the customer to which they belong
If a customer wants to have a random name for their servers, rather than ones that are identifiable with their legal name, they will need to have a fresh install of Vista in a newly set up environment and then the data copied to that environment: an Environment Move
Moving Vista to a brand new environment is, in effect, a task with a similar level of undertaking as the move to the cloud itself. The reason is that Vista must be fully installed from scratch in the new environment and the data ported over from the old environment to the new one. As part of this process, the customer and the Trimble team will need to perform testing of the new environment to ensure that workflow processes, reports, logins, etc. all work the way they did before, in the previous production environment. Effectively, we are performing a full transformation from one environment to another, similar to an on-premise to cloud transformation.
The following are the stages of an Environment Move.
Please coordinate with your Trimble account manager to ensure you have a signed PS SOW in place to allot for the time necessary for the environment move. The costs for this are not massive, but neither are they miniscule. Please keep in mind that we will be setting up a brand new environment for you, creating a temporary throw-away Team Enterprise for SSO testing, and coordinating the testing and reconnection of third party integrations where needed. The exact costs for this move will be determined after analyzing your specific circumstances and environment loadout.
During this stage, Trimble will stand up a new pre-production environment into which your Vista data will be copied. In addition, we will begin to coordinate with the customer team to ensure proper awareness of the current production environment. We will also perform the Initial Data Copy from the old, current production environment to the new, pre-production environment. Finally, during this stage, we will set up the temporary, throwaway Team Enterprise to allow for SSO to be functional during your test period.
During this stage, the customer and Trimble teams will coordinate through a test plan that is similar to a test plan for an on-premise to cloud transformation project: all major reports and functions of Vista will be tested, third party integrations tested (if possible), logins and Federation setup and tested, etc.
One key element of this stage is the handling of third party integrations. As such, those are listed in more detail in the following section.
Third party integrations are called out separately in this document due to their unique nature and additional nuance. The key item to note is that third party integrations that are currently pointing to the original TC1 environment must be repointed to the new TC1 environment. In some, rare, cases, we need to move the actual integration itself, as the integration is physically hosted in our cloud's old TC1 environment. In some cases, the integration in question cannot be tested prior to the cut over to the new TC1 environment, and thus, we need to wait until after the cut-over to check the success of the connection to the new environment.
CRITICAL - The below steps should be performed for EACH third party product used in your current "old" TC1 environment PRIOR to when Viewpoint begins the migration process to the new TC1 environment
Step 1 - Is it Hosted Today?
The first step in understanding your situation with regard to third party products in our clouds is to determine if your specific third party integrations are hosted in the existing, old TC1 environment. If they are physically hosted in your old TC1 environment, it is likely because the hosting of the same was previously given an exception to be hosted in our cloud. We will continue to host this integration in the new cloud environment as well. Pleased inform your Environment Move project team if you believe that your integrations are currently physically hosted in your old environment today.
Step 2 - Ensure Connectivity
Whether your integration is using the TLS Database Endpoint (TLS VPN), the IPSEC VPN, or the SFTP with SSIS Package Plugin, or automated SMB file imports, you will need to coordinate with your Environment Move team to ensure that the third party vendors or your own internal IT have the information they need to point their integrations to the new IPSEC VPN, TLS Database Endpoint (TLS VPN), etc.
Step 3 - Ensure SQL Accounts in New TC1 Environment for all ODBC Integrations
For each third-party integration that uses ODBC to communicate with Vista, a new SQL service account in the new environment will be needed, configured to have the appropriate access permissions to allow for the third-party solution to communicate to Vista's database. To set up the appropriate SQL accounts for your third party integration, please following the instructions in the following cloud FAQ article: I need a dedicated SQL account for my integration to Vista in your cloud. How do I set that up?
Step 4 - Test Integrations (If Possible)
Though many third party integrations do not have the ability to set up test environments or test instances, some third party integrations do offer this capability. In the event that your third party integration(s) offer a test environment or instance, please coordinate with your third party vendor to ensure that you have that functionality turned on. Once it is turned on, you may connect this integration "test instance" to your new, pre-production TC1 environment during the testing phase. Once testing to the new, pre-production environment is complete, you will be able to sign off on the functionality of the integration in the new environment prior to the cut over.
If your integration does NOT offer this ability, you will need to wait until the cut over to the new environment to cut over your integration as well. Please coordinate with your Trimble Environment Move project team to ensure you have enough time in your plan to allot for integration testing post cut-over.
During this stage, we schedule a downtime of the old TC1 environment, usually starting in the evening of a specific Thursday around 4pm Pacific time. Once that time is reached, the old environment's Vista, Vista Web, etc. services and database are shut down and backups of the old environment's databases are made. Once those backups are completed overnight, the data is then copied into the new environment as part of the Final Data Copy. A series of tests are performed overnight and then the environment enters into final setup and testing the next morning Pacific Time. The temporary, throwaway Team Enterprise used for SSO in the cloud during the testing phase is deleted and the previous, production Team Enterprise is re-pointed to the new Vista environment. Later that day, usually Friday, the new production environment is turned over to the customer who then performs spot checking of the new environment. If all looks good, that new environment is handed off to the customer's end users.
Once an existing TC1 customer has had their contract for the Environment Move signed, the following are a high level description of the steps that are involved in making the technical switch:
Customer: Coordinate with Viewpoint Account management to ensure your TC1 Environment Move SOW is created and signed.
Viewpoint: Stand up "Transformation" Environment Move resources, including project tracking, test plan, dashboard, etc.
Viewpoint and Customer: Identify "Conversion" team point of contacts and set regular cadence of meetings.
Customer: Confirm network latency tests to validate the supported datacenter with the best possible / lowest network latency. NOTE: This will most likely be your current datacenter. Send results to the Viewpoint team.
See this URL for more details on performing these tests: https://sites.google.com/trimble.com/vista-cloud-faq/home/moving-to-the-cloud/network-requirements-testing
Viewpoint: Create a new environment for the customer in the Azure region with the smallest latency to the customer's location with the highest number of heavy data entry users
Ensure that this environment is an Enterprise Architecture environment if specified by the purchase of an Enterprise Solutions Bundle or as approved by cloud product management.
Usually workflows such as Payroll Timecard Entry, AP Unapproved Entry, Purchase Order Entry, etc. are the ones that are the most sensitive to high latency. The results from the latency tests for these users should be weighted higher when determining where to locate the new Vista environment.
Viewpoint: Stand up VRL proxy server and prepare the new environment for Initial Data Copy.
Viewpoint and Customer: Coordinate to set up new TLS and IPSEC VPN tunnel(s) as necessary to the new environment.
Viewpoint and Customer: Schedule a time of low activity (usually after hours) to perform an Initial Data Copy from current TC1 installation to the new TC1 environment.
This data copy will include a backup of the SQL databases in question (Vista records, VPAttachments, and HRIM - if Keystyle / HFF / Vista Web is used today), all custom reports, templates, etc.
If any third party, server side integrations (e.g. Bid2Win, HCSS, Prophix, Cosential, etc.) are currently hosted in the customer's TC1 environment on separate servers, those servers will be replicated to the new environment.
Viewpoint: Perform the Initial Data Copy from the old TC1 to the new, pre-production TC1 environment.
Viewpoint: Perform data restore and test results.
Viewpoint: Set up new, temporary, throwaway Team Enterprise for the use of SSO during the test stage of this process.
Viewpoint and Customer: Schedule meeting to set up Trimble ID SSO in the new environment and migrate Vista users using the portal.
Viewpoint: Send information to the customer on how to connect to the new environment to begin testing.
Instructions on how to install and configure the Vista VRL rich client will be included and are located here as well: https://sites.google.com/trimble.com/vista-cloud-faq/home/vrl-explained/installing-vrl-client
Customer: Begin testing of Vista reports, data entry, and more, following the instructions given to you in the test plan supplied in step 2 above.
OPTIONAL - Customer, Viewpoint, and Third-Parties: Coordinate to configure hosted server-side integrations.
Customer and Viewpoint: If any issues are uncovered in testing, partner together to correct them.
Customer: Ensure Vista client is available for all users.
VRL (PREFERRED): Where possible, you will be using VRL for all end users. In this case, you will, prior to going live with the new TC1 environment, install a Vista rich client on each end user workstation
NOTE: You may use the information on this page to "pre-configure" the Vista rich client to connect to Vista VRL using GPO and domain login scripts: Pre-Configuring the Vista VRL Rich Client
RDP (BACKUP): For situations where a customer has users on satellite Internet, or whose connectivity is too high of a latency to work through VRL, you will be setting up RDP access using the AVD Published Apps method.
Viewpoint and Customer: Determine a cutover day to move to the new environment.
Customer: Notify end users that they need to be out of the system by cutover time.
Viewpoint: Turn off all Vista, Vista Web, etc. services on the old Vista server in the old Vista environment.
Viewpoint: Commence Final Data Copy to new environment
Includes: Vista records, VPAttachments, HRIM, reports, SSRS, etc.
Viewpoint: Final Data Restore in new environment; notify customer when complete.
Customer, Viewpoint, and Third Parties: Complete any outstanding third party integration reconfigurations.
Viewpoint and Customer: Coordinate to address any final issues uncovered.
Customer: go-live with new TC1 environment
changelog
Thursday, 17 October 2024 at 08:43PM:
Initial Posting
Tags: TC1 Environment Move, TC1 to TC1