Communications Manager upgrade

You can upgrade Communications Manager versions 5.5.0 and later to Communications Manager 2025.3. The upgrade installs Communications Manager 2025.3 alongside your existing installation, using the same configuration that the current Communications Manager was installed with. The upgrade includes Batch & Output Management.

Note the following when upgrading your Communications Manager installation:

• Before upgrading, back up the databases that the current installation uses.
• If you have an older Communications Manager installation, first upgrade it to 5.5.0. Then you can upgrade it to 2025.3.
• Upgrade preserves the ports of the Contract Manager and Communications Manager Control Center, but it re-assigns the ports of the Communications Manager instances and of Batch & Output Management. For this, it will use the new start points for private and internal ports.
• You need to manually reinstall any custom additional language packs. We recommend that you execute the script GetLanguagePack.ps1 of your previous Communications Manager installation prior to upgrading the product, update the custom language packs so they include new translations, and then install the language packs using the tool named AddLanguagePack.exe. For information on managing language packs, see the Manage language packs topic.
• If your setup in Communications Manager contained a Document Pack Template with at least one exception for a custom Batch & Output Management channel, you need to manually configure this channel after upgrading to Communications Manager 2025.3 in order for this exception to work. For information on configuring, see the chapter "Configure a project" in the Communications Manager Designer Help.
• If your B&OM installations share a single Communications Manager Core installation, after upgrading you need to manually reconfigure Communications Manager Core to accept remote connections. To access these settings, open Communications Manager/Core Administrator and go to Security section of DP Manager tab.
• Upgrade fails if the old installation has components that have not been configured yet. To allow upgrade to continue, add the Upgrade!IgnoreUnconfiguredComponents=True parameter. If you have Communications Manager 5.7.0 and above, use InfoServer.exe (called InfoKCM.exe in Communications Manager 5.7.0 and 5.8.0) to see whether your server has any unconfigured components.

To upgrade Communications Manager, use a command-line tool Upgrade.exe.

The automated upgrade process performs the following operations:

1. Exports the configurations of the Contract Manager and Communications Manager instances.
2. Exports the repository data of the Communications Manager instances and, if available, Batch & Output Management.
3. Deactivates and stops the current installation.
4. If the current installation has a Contract Manager, adds a new Contact Manager.
5. For each Communications Manager instance in the current installation, adds a new Communications Manager instance.
6. If the current installation has Output Management, adds a new Output Management.
7. If the current installation has Communications Manager Control Center, adds a new Communications Manager Control Center.
8. Imports the configurations of the old Contract Manager and the old Communications Manager instances into the new Contract Manager and new instances.
9. Imports the repository data into the Communications Manager instances and optionally Batch & Output Management.
10. Transfers the core security configuration from the old Communications Manager instances to the new ones.
11. Registers the new Communications Manager instances at the new Contract Manager.
12. Activates and starts the new Contract Manager, new Communications Manager instances, and the new Output Management.

When the upgrade is complete, the new installation becomes active and available for testing. The previously active installation becomes disabled.

The upgrade process copies the Communications Manager Repository content to the new database. Any subsequent changes to the new Communications Manager Repository content are be reflected in the older version.

If the upgrade process encounters an error and the following conditions are met:

• The error is not in the final step of starting the upgraded instances.
• The old installation was active before the upgrade.

• Uninstalls the new Communications Manager software .
• Activates the old Communications Manager installation.
• Starts the old Communications Manager installation.

This way you can address the reported issue with minimal disruption to the existing installation. You can then try updating again once the issue has been addressed.

If the old installation is not active when an error gets reported by the upgrade, or an error occurs in the final step of starting the upgraded instances, then no automatic rollback is attempted. This makes it possible to investigate the partially installed new software installation, fix the issue, and either rollback, or perform the remaining upgrade steps manually.