Wow. This really didn’t need to be as complicated as it was. Documentation was a bit weak, things weren’t as clear as they should have been, API set up not clearly documented, OAuth weirdness (that’s for a future blog post on connecting to Power Apps).
This is my experience with upgrading SmartConnect on-premise to the latest version. Here we go!
1. Go to eOne’s website and sign in/sign up for an account. You’ll need to get to all of your products and then need to generate keys for SmartConnect 21. You need the customer ID after you install SmartConnect when setting up the first instance.
2. Set up IIS on your server. You’re going to need it no matter what, so just install it. Found this out the hard way: when you use the add feature wizard and select Web Server and IIS, Windows doesn’t select all of the items SmartConnect needs. Here’s the image from a KB article from eOne:
If you don’t select these other items, you’ll get an endless error of “HTTP Error 500.19 – Internal Server Error.” Fun.
2. Install SmartConnect version 21. Upgrade documentation did not match the screens I was seeing. There were no options to check or uncheck the SmartConnect application, the Windows service or the API. It just installs everything and you configure it later.
3. Initial configuration. You’ll have to set up a new, blank instance to get it ready for the upgrade. Set up the new instance, set up the accounts, etc. This was fairly straightforward.
4. Now the nail biting upgrade (which really isn’t a nail biter at all). Just let it do its thing. When the upgrade is complete, there will be some other gotchas here.
The web services server will still be pointing to your old SmartConnect server. Obviously, if you’ve moved this to a different server, this has to be changed, BUT you can’t do it until you get IIS configured correctly. Go back to Step 2 and make sure that is right. Also, for grins, run Windows Update and install all the updates after it installs. Restart the server.
Once rebooted, open SmartConnect, go to the File tab, select Maintenance and then select Setup. Go to the Web Service tab.
It will be showing the wrong web service URL (it’ll be the old server) and you’ll need to change it for the new server! I had to search the Internet and found a buried blog post on how to verify the web service is running and accessible. I’ll save you all the boring stuff, you just need this URL:
http://(your server name here):5557/SmartConnect.svc.
Any real-time triggers or Excel import maps need the web service set up correctly. Since the upgrade has to run the maintenance process to re-register real time triggers, the web service URL needs to be correct.
Only at this point is where you can run the routine to re-register the real time triggers and complete the upgrade.
5. To run the Windows service for scheduled maps, add the service user to the Local Security Policy > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment FIRST. Find the option called “Log on as a service” and add the user that is going to run the SmartConnect service FIRST. This service needs the user permissions already set up first or you’ll keep getting a cryptic error where the service never gets created and an error like “The service has been marked for deletion.” Hot.
6. Pat yourself on the back for successfully completing this upgrade.