Preparing to upgrade a geodatabase in PostgreSQL

When you upgrade any enterprise system, including a geodatabase, plan ahead. Test the new version on a development or test server to ensure that it works with all your client applications.

When you have determined that the new system works the way you expected, schedule the upgrade; be sure the necessary staff are available to perform the upgrade and that they have the permissions necessary to complete their assigned tasks.

Be aware of the following:

• Upgrades from beta versions of the software are not supported.
• Once a geodatabase has been upgraded, previous versions of ArcGIS may not be able to connect since some older versions of ArcGIS cannot read newer versions of the geodatabase. Releases prior to ArcGIS 10 will not be able to connect to a 10.2.x geodatabase. ArcGIS 10 clients will be able to connect to the 10.2.x geodatabase.
• There is no formal mechanism to downgrade a geodatabase to a previous version. If after upgrading to a newer version you want to move back to an older version of the geodatabase, you must restore the old database from backup.

You must also complete the following steps before you upgrade your geodatabase in PostgreSQL:

Steps:

1. Check the ArcGIS Resource Center to be sure that your system meets the minimum requirements.

   If you need to upgrade your PostgreSQL database, see your PostgreSQL documentation for information on new functionality in the DBMS and how to upgrade it. Also remember that the upgraded databases must have the same name and owner that they had before and set the search_path variable for the database to "$user", public, and sde.

2. Create a backup of the database.
3. If you use an ArcSDE service for connections and have customized any of the files in the etc directory of SDEHOME, make a copy of these files.
4. Remove any custom functionality you may have added to the ArcSDE geodatabase system tables outside ArcGIS such as triggers or additional indexes.

   The upgrade procedure cannot take into account customizations you make to the system tables. If such customizations prevent the alteration of a system table's schema, the upgrade will fail.

5. Grant the geodatabase administrator (sde) superuser permissions in the database.

   This is required to upgrade a geodatabase.

6. Install the current release of an ArcGIS client (ArcGIS for Desktop Standard or Advanced, ArcGIS Engine with the Geodatabase Update extension, or ArcGIS for Server Enterprise Standard or Advanced) on a computer that can directly connect to the geodatabase to perform the upgrade.
7. You must connect directly to PostgreSQL from ArcGIS to upgrade the geodatabase. Therefore, if your ArcGIS client is not already configured to make direct connections to PostgreSQL, download the PostgreSQL client libraries (if your ArcGIS client is on Windows) or RPM (if your ArcGIS client is on Linux) from the Esri Customer Care portal, and place them in the bin directory of the ArcGIS client you installed in the last step.

   When connecting from a 32-bit ArcGIS client, such as ArcGIS for Desktop or ArcGIS Engine, you must use the 32-bit PostgreSQL client. When connecting from a 64-bit ArcGIS client, such as ArcGIS for Server, you must use the 64-bit PostgreSQL client.

8. Make sure there are no users connected to the geodatabase you are upgrading.

   You can see a list of the users who are currently connected to your geodatabase by opening the Connected Users tab of the Geodatabase Administration dialog box in ArcGIS for Desktop.

9. If you are using an ArcSDE service, do the following:
   1. Stop the ArcSDE service using the sdemon –o shutdown command. Or if the service is running on a Windows server, you can stop the service from the Windows Services interface instead of using the sdemon command.
   2. If you are upgrading to a new, full release of the ArcSDE application server (such as from 9.3.1 or 10 to 10.1), uninstall the old release of ArcSDE. On Windows, delete the old service when prompted to do so.
      Note:

      If you are applying a service pack or patch, do not perform this step.

   3. Obtain the ArcSDE Application Server installation from the Esri Customer Care portal.
10. Copy the st_geometry file (and libst_raster_pg, if you are using the ST_Raster storage type in your geodatabase) from the DatabaseSupport directory in your ArcGIS client installation location and place them in the %PostgreSQL%\lib directory (Windows) or PostgreSQL lib directory (Linux) on the PostgreSQL server. You can determine the exact location of the lib directory for your PostgreSQL installation on Linux by running the pg_config utility as the postgres user. The lib location is indicated by the PGPKGLIBDIR parameter.

    Be sure to download the library appropriate to your PostgreSQL version and server operating system. Beginning with ArcGIS 10.1 service pack 1, st_geometry libraries are provided for PostgreSQL 9.0 and PostgresSQL 9.1 on both the Windows and Linux operating systems. The PostreSQL 9.1 libraries can be found in the 9.1 folder.

    • If your PostgreSQL server is running Linux, log in as the root user to the server and use FTP to transfer the st_geometry.so file (and libst_raster_pg.so file if using ST_Raster) to the PostgreSQL lib directory.
    • If your PostgreSQL server is running Windows, copy the st_geometry.dll file (and the libst_raster_pg.dll file if using ST_Raster) to the lib folder of the PostgreSQL installation directory.

The geodatabase is now ready to be upgraded. You can use the Upgrade Geodatabase tool in ArcGIS for Desktop or a Python script run on the ArcGIS client computer.

If you use an ArcSDE service for connections, install the ArcSDE application server after you upgrade your geodatabase.