To upgrade Polar Help Desk 4 to Polar Help Desk 5, please follow this steps:

Step 1: Upgrade your Polar Help Desk 4 to the latest version.

This step is required to upgrade your database to the latest version. Upgrade application will accept only the latest version of Polar Help Desk 4 database. You need Polar Help Desk 4.1.23 version (please, ask Polar for this version ). Please note that you need to have an license key with upgrade functionality. Go to web page pricing and buy one.

Step 2: Backup your Polar Help Desk 4 database.

Backing up your database is optional as it will stay unchanged during the upgrade to Polar Help Desk 5, but for safety reasons it is suggested to do so.

Step 3: (Optional) Uninstall Polar Help Desk 4

This step is optional as Polar Help Desk 4 and Polar Help Desk 5 can run simultaneously, but doing so they will use seperate database and seperate URLs. This is only recommended if you want to test Polar Help Desk 5 before you upgrade to it, and do not wish to uninstall the working Polar Help Desk 4.

If you uninstall Polar Help Desk 4 your data will not be deleted, the database will be unchanged. Uninstall by using "Add / Remove Programs" from Windows Control Panel.

Step 4. Start installation of Polar Help Desk 5

Run "PolarHelpDesk.msi" or "setup.exe" you received within installation files of Polar Help Desk 5. Automated wizard will guide you through the installation.

Step 5. When asked, chose to upgrade

During the installation of Polar Help Desk 5 you will be asked if you wish to upgrade databases, where you should say yes. The upgrade application will start.

Step 6. Choose upgrading options

There have been some changes in new Polar Help Desk 5.  Primarily, Groups were substituted with Teams and Incidents are now assigned to Teams instead of Groups. In order for the data to be compatible, Groups must be converted to Teams. As it cannot be automated, you will be prompt on how to proceed with the conversion.

Follow these steps to proceed with the upgrade:

1. In welcome screen click "Next" button
2. On "Select SQL Server" screen press "Test" button and wait few moments. If button changes to "Test (PASSED)" click "Next", if button changes to "Test (FAILED)" enter correct SQL Server login credentials and click "Test" button again.
3. On "Select Database" screen select the database you want to upgrade and click "Next" button.
4. On "Add Teams" add or remove Teams you will use. If you do not know what Teams you will use you can click "Next" button.
5. On "Convert Groups into Teams" screen, you will need to choose what to do with each Group in your database. You can convert it to a Team or to convert all members to Contacts. Convert Groupsthat are formerly used for providing support, your technicians, to a Team. Convert all others, Groups that contain your customers, to Contacts. Note that Contacts cannot be assigned to an Incident or Work Order or resolve it. If you wish to add more Teams, you can always press "Back" button and add more Teams, but note that this will undo your conversion choices you made so far. Click "Next" button when you are done.
6. On "New database name" screen select a new database name. Old database will not be changed but new, upgraded database will be created instead. Click "Next" button and then "OK" to confirm.
7. Click "Finish" after upgrade is complete to exit the upgrade application.
8. Now open your website. Once website is open, you should be redirected to URL http://website/install
9. Select your the database from the list and click Upgrade button. This will synchronize your database with your Polar Help Desk installation.

Upgrade application is located in InstallationFolder/Setup folder (UpgradePHD4ToPHD5.exe) and you can also run it manually.

Should you have any questions or need assistance in installing Polar Help Desk, contact us at support@polarsoftware.com

Upgrade and email integration (IMPORTANT)

System for identifying already downloaded emails has changed. If you keep all your emails stored on your email server, this means that all the emails will be downloaded again. This may result in unwanted notifications sent to your users.

To resolve this, on Email Account you will create to download emails from your email account, select for new emails to not be converted to incidents (Email Automation Mode, first option). Then just let Help Desk download all the emails. You can monitor how emails are downloaded by clicking on Emails in the main menu. To speed up the process, you can force Scheduler trigger intervals by going to Administration/Scheduler and clicking the Force Scheduler button.

Once all emails have been downloaded, change Email Automation Mode back to what you want to use.

External Resoruces

• Download MS SQL Server 2008 R2 Express - free version or here
• How to: Install SQL Server 2008 R2
• The Official Microsoft IIS site - http://www.iis.net/ - Installing IIS 7
• IIS 7 Performance: Optimizing Performance of IIS7 Configure IIS 7 Output Caching , Configure the HTTP Expires Response Header , Client Cache
• Understanding Sites, Applications, and Virtual Directories on IIS 7
• Internet Information Services - Wikipedia.org
• Security Guidance for IIS - Microsoft "TechNet"
• Download MS SQL Server 2005 Express

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