Upgrading Blackbaud NetCommunity to Version 6.45

If you host all or a portion of your Blackbaud NetCommunity website and have considered upgrading your Blackbaud NetCommunity website from an older version, but have hesitated because of complexity or concerns about possible issues during the upgrade, then you’ve come to the right place. While the entire upgrade process is outlined in detail in our Installation and Upgrade User Guide, this post distills the process down to the individual steps you’ll take and includes links to where you can find more details if you need them.

Note also that a few third-party links, while not supported, are provided for your convenience.

Is your hardware up to the task?

The older your Blackbaud NetCommunity website is, the greater the chance that your hardware will not meet the minimum system requirements for Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.45.  You can read the full requirements here, but the key hardware specs to pay close attention to are as follows:

Blackbaud NetCommunity Web Server:

• Microsoft .NET v4.0 installed
• 2 GB RAM minimum (4 GB or more strongly recommended)
• 1.2 GB free hard disk space minimum

The Raiser’s Edge Web Service Server:

• The Raiser’s Edge 7.91 patch 12 or higher installed
• Microsoft .NET v4.0 installed
• 2 GB RAM minimum

Blackbaud NetCommunity Database SQL Server

• SQL Server 2008 SP2 or higher or SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 or higher (Standard or Enterprise)
• 2 GB RAM minimum (4 GB or more strongly recommended)
• Recommended to not run additional applications and databases from this server

Note that these minimum requirements assume that your server configuration is as above with three separate and dedicated servers. If you have combined any of these servers or have additional websites, applications or databases running, then you will need to exceed the minimum requirements.

The importance of meeting the minimum hardware requirements cannot be overstated. You don’t want to get through the upgrade process only to find that pages on your website are completely inaccessible because your server’s resources are exhausted.

Backup, backup, backup

I’m sure you already know how important backups are. But please don’t ignore this step, particularly if you are beginning from version 6.10 of Blackbaud NetCommunity. Regardless of your current Blackbaud NetCommunity version, make certain to take a full backup of the entire database and save the .bak file in a very safe place.

It’s also a good idea to backup your configuration files before you begin the upgrade as well.

Next step – What’s new in Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.45>>>