Aras Update Guide: Self-Upgrading Innovator Independently
After plenty of trial and error – and some much-needed help from Aras Denmark – we finally got the Aras Update application working. We wanted to handle upgrades independently to reduce reliance on the upgrade team and speed up our deployment cycles. The catch? The Aras Update installer only runs smoothly on a clean, out-of-the-box Innovator installation, which is rarely the case in real-world production environments. To save others from the same headaches, I’ve documented the steps for anyone brave enough to attempt a self-upgrade. Note: This process is supported from Release 14 onwards. It’s recommended that an experienced software engineer performs these steps. Attempt at your own risk. 1. Prepare a Clone of Production Install your current Aras version on a separate machine using the ‘Configure Only’ option. Restore a recent production .bak file in SQL Server Management Studio. Run the following queries against the cloned database: exec sp_change_users_login 'Update_One', 'innovator', 'innovator'; exec sp_addrolemember 'db_owner','innovator'; exec sp_change_users_login 'Update_One', 'innovator_regular', 'innovator_regular'; exec sp_addrolemember 'db_owner','innovator_regular'; Update the InnovatorServiceConfig.xml with the correct SQL connection string 2. Install Prerequisites Install all required prerequisites from the Installation Guide PDF for the desired target version. 3. Back Up Your Code Make a backup of the Innovator folder (your code tree). 4. Download the Patch Get the desired patch from the Aras FTP. You do not have to go through each version. E.g., you can go from Release 26 to Release 34 directly. 5. Customize Patch Files In the following files, append a custom suffix to the <name> property (e.g., <name>VersionServiceUpdate[YOURCOMPANYNAME]</name>): VersionBuild.xml VersionLabel.xml VersionMajor.xml VersionMinor.xml VersionServiceUpdate.xml 6. Launch Aras Update Run Aras Update as Administrator. 7. Add the Patch Package Click ‘Local’ in the left menu and add a new package. Select the extracted patch folder. 8. Install the Patch Click ‘Install’ in Aras Update. 9. Update Each Module For each applicable module: Select only one module at a time (this helps isolate issues). Enter the required application/server/SQL credentials. Click ‘Install’. If errors occur: Login to Innovator failed: Check prerequisites and ensure IIS is running. TRUNCATE or FOREIGN KEY errors: Compare the affected ItemType with one from a clean install. Adjust the related XML file in .\Aras Innovator 34 Patch\Imports\com\aras\innovator\ as needed, or temporarily remove it from the manifest (keep a backup for step 11). Oftentimes, it has something to do with property lengths, foreign properties and permissions. Innovator Variables issues: Revisit step 5. GetMethodsKey endpoint (500 Internal Server Error): Make sure a user with loginname clientadmin exists in the database. Add it through nash.aspx Other: If you hit something else, prepare for some blood, sweat, and forum searches – or maybe it’s time to reach out to the support team. Do not forget to leave the error message and solution in the comments down below. Tip: if you need many attempts running the Aras Update installer, do not click 'Exit' when it fails. If you click 'Home' instead you do not have to enter the server credentials every attempt. 10. Verify the Update If the update completes without errors, try logging in. If login fails: Use the NASH endpoint (e.g., localhost/.../nash.aspx) to manually execute the contents of any removed XML manifest files. Use DevTools (F12 > Network) to check for failed requests. 11. Test Everything Test all features and modules. If Aras features have changed, manual conversion may be needed. I recommend writing down test plans with relevant key-users to confirm everything still works Review Release Notes for all versions between your source and target version and perform tests accordingly. Keep a checklist of manual actions required. Repeat the entire process – including running the Aras Update installer and performing all your documented manual actions – until a clean test environment upgrades completely without errors or issues, and all tests pass, before moving on to the cutover step. 12. Plan Production Cutover Schedule a cutover weekend to upgrade production. Run your customized Aras Update Patch and complete any manual steps identified in testing. Congratulations You’ve now performed a self-upgrade. Time to celebrate. Just remember: this isn’t formal documentation, and I’m not responsible for any production issues you may face as a result of following these steps.Renewing OAuth Certificates
Hello fellow Aras developers, Here's another niche topic I recently had to tackle: renewing OAuth certificates. If you've been applying Aras patches (upgrade packages) over the years, your OAuth certificates are likely outdated. They expire every few years depending on your configuration and need renewal. I found several instructions online for manually replacing certificates, but they consistently resulted in: Authentication errors on sign-in ANCM Out-Of-Process Startup Failure After multiple attempts working with Aras Support, I took a different approach: Downloaded the out-of-the-box installer for our version (Release 36) and ran it on our production environment. Yes, even though the upgraded Release 36 was already installed. Selected 'Custom Installation' and chose ONLY the OAuth module. This generated a clean OAuth folder with a fresh set of certificates. Copied (overwrite) all the certificates (CTRL + A) into these directories (probably overkill, but redundant certs are harmless and it makes the process much faster): OAuthServer\App_Data\Certificates\ Innovator\Server\App_Data\Certificates\ Innovator\Client\App_Data\Certificates\ SelfServiceReporting\App_Data\Certificates\ VaultServer\App_Data\Certificates\ Updated the OAuth.config file in \OAuthServer\ with our internal production endpoint. iisreset (from command prompt as Administrator) Note: If you run the installer on a machine that already hosts an existing Aras instance, make sure to run changeguid.exe on the innovatorsetup.msi first to avoid impacting the current installation. Done! Please let me know if this helped and/or how I can improve this post. Let's make it a community effort to have up-to-date information for all of us.
Using Aras to Manage Aras Upgrade Planning, Test Plans, Test Records
I'm in the process to upgrade Aras, and I'm looking at the topic of Test cases and records. There seems to be some decent documentation about how to do this, it seems to be leaning on some external tool for this (looked around but things like TestRail is expensive... It appears to me to be a good use case for Aras to build in. ) Has anybody implemented an Aras Upgrade Planning / Testing Configuration? Any suggestions or potential pitfalls you see with this? Seems like if the structure was somewhat standardized, we could build a library of tests to share as a community, like this post suggested