Aloha Version/Upgrade Question

[AlohaWahini]

Can anyone tell me an official (or round-about) way to determine how far an exisitng Aloha system can be upgraded within a specific version?

For example, I had customer on version 5.2.36 (with a key that was issued a few years ago) who was having some issues, so we decided that maybe a software upgrade was the best route to correct their flakey problems. 5.3.12 was installed, and life was good.


A few months later, I had customer on version 5.2.68, with similar issues, and thought "Well, it worked before, so it should work again." No dice. Got the message about not be authorized for this version or some such thing.

Is there a simple way to figure out exactly how far you can upgrade without having to call Radiant?


Thanks!

 

[AdamDR]

The easiest way is to log onto eorder and find out what the key is licensed for. Or call radiant and ask. Basically it works like this: If your key is licensed for 5.2 then the max you can upgrade is 5.2.8. If your key is licensed for 5.3 then you can upgrade to the lates version out there (5.3.25). I hope that clarifies this a bit for you!!
I've had an instance where I had an old key that I knew was only licensed for 5.2 and I was able to get 5.3 onto it. I don't know why it worked, but I didn't dig into it too much.

Adam

 

[AlohaWahini]

I had this same experience once too, Adam. I don't even remember the circumstances how I found this out, but a customer had a 4.2 key get fried in a power outage, and when the new key arived, it would work with 5.0, even though he did not purchase an upgrade (at least it would open Aloha manager, etc--never tried to see if it would run the FOH, but with no error messages on the back, I assume it would).

The story I mentioned in the begining of the post, about the 5.236 upgrade to 5.3 was similar--I know that key was a couple of years old, before 5.3 was released. If what you're saying is accurate (it makes sense), that should haven't worked either.

 

[AdamDR]

If you upgrade your aloha system, all radiant does is release new key codes to you (which are hex codes). You don't need to get a new key, so I'm wondering if some old hex key codes merge with new version codes. I guess some clients are just lucky!!

Adam

 

[Aloha1]

Here is a little secret that I found out, and maybe this will help folks.

If you have a 5.2 key, you can upgrade safely all the way up to 5.3.9, until a new license (codes) are required. They wont tell you this for obvious reasons. So instead of running it to 5.3.12 like you stated, try a lower 5.3 version.