Best Macola upgrade path from Macola 7.5 103f ?

[JDMiller]

What is the best upgrade path to Macola 7.6 300 from Macola 7.5 103f? We are running Pervasive 2000i.

I attempted to upgrade to Macola 7.6 100 and then run the pre update process prior to the Macola 7.6 300 upgrade but now I recieve an error when I attempt to open Macola and run the upgrade.

This application failed to start because F3BIPRCT.dll was not found. Re-installing the appliction may fix this problem.

Macola won't help. I don't have a support plan. Exactly why is it I should pay for the failure of their upgrade process?

I plan to restore my old Macola and try again. Is my upgrade path incorrect? Is there a better way?

 

[randva]

JD:

Wow, you sound just like me. Seriously, I do not have any help for you to upgrade, but you should seriously consider why you want to upgrade. If your maintainance is expired, you will not be getting future upgrades. Your best option may just be to freeze the software where it is now (at least you know it works) and live with any shortcomings.

If there is something specific you want out of 7.6.300 that 7.5.103f does not offer? Is there a 3rd party solution that will handle it?

I wish you luck with whatever you decide.

 

[dgillz]

Please clarify if you do not have a support plan or if you have not paid annual maintenance? These are 2 very different things which end users often get confused about.

Paying your annual maintenance gives you the upgrades for free for the next year, but it does not give you technical support for free.

Paying annual support gives you the support for free for the next year. Payment of support requires payment of maintenance.

You can pay only maintenance and not support, and any support you get would have to come on a usage basis from either Exact or your Exact Business Partner.

If you have not paid your annual maintenance, stop everything -- you CAN NOT upgrade to 7.6.300 -- it will not work with your expired registration file.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[JDMiller]

Our maintenance is up to date. We do not pay for support but I don't feel Exact should be able to blow off the fact that their pre update step for Macola 7.6 100 didn't work. I followed their directions and the process did not complete correctly. Exact should address the defect.

The only reason I am looking at upgrading is because I tried to upgrade my Pervasive to 8.6 and Macola 7.5 103f stopped working. It gave me an error that made no sense.
Something on the order of this softwire requires 6.15 or higher. Pervasive 8.6 is detected. Correct me if I am wrong but my math says 8.6 is higher then 6.15.

 

[JDMiller]

My reseller just got back to me. Macola does not support Pervasive 8.6. If we had purchased Pervasive from Macola then they might be able to help. How is that for customer support.

Wonder how Exact would feel if next time maintenance or upgrade comes round we say "I'm sorry but we don't support Exact".

Macola already has one foot out the door over here. This isn't going to aid their cause.

Sorry, needed to vent.

 

[MacolaHelp]

You are not getting accurate information. Pervasive 8.6 IS supported by macola, but if you bought it outside of macola, you still have to pay to get it registered at macola so they put the 8.5 reg byte in your registration file. If you don't, you will get the 6.15 error message. Depending on whether you have modified code, custom screens, etc., you can have problems upgrading from 103f to 100 & then to 300. We resellers have a number of tricks we use to supplement the upgrade process. An upgrade can fail for any number of reasons, including orphan users, users logged in during the upgrade, network permissions, OS of the workstation from which you are running the upgrade, etc., etc. Your annual maintenance is simply a license to operate the software for another year (many packages other than macola follow this model today) and to receive updates to the code. Macola is not in the business of providing hardware and OS support & they assume you are keeping up to date on workstations & servers & that you have a business partner, direct support with macola (the additional 10% above maintenance), or some in house IT expertise that can troubleshoot networking and hardware issues.

Having said that, I had one site that I upgraded last fall from 103f to 300. Every time I tried to run it, the server choked. I finally got around it by renaming the existing macola root directory, creating a fresh install of 300 using the original macola root directory name, copied over the syspass.btr to get security restored. They had no modifed screens. Then I moved the data folders from the old install to the new. That worked fine. I usually take the opportunity, however, to recreate custom forms as the underlying forms design has changed from the original versions you probably used. Many printing and design flaws were corrected. There are several other things I also check as well as some printing configuration, so it may be time for you to bring your reseller in to help you take a good look at your setup & see if you should make any changes and/or to assist you with this process.

 

[dgillz]

I agree with MacolaHelp, Pervasive 8.5 is supported. It is not the latest, but it is supported by Exact.

I understand wanting to vent about Exact (I have been working every day the last 10 years at this) however the upgrade DOES WORK, you simply have a technical problem in getting it to work in your environment, the 'F3BIPRCT.dll not found' issue to be specific.

To expect Exact, or your business partner, to fix this for free (unless you purchased a support plan) is frankly optimistic at best. If there is a quick resolution to a problem this CAN happen, but when you expect this to be free, you are not dealing in reality.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[JDMiller]

No offense DG but I would expect a Macola reseller (VAR) to promote the support is not free analogy.

It was Pervasive 8.6 but this is NOT the issue. I returned the server back to Pervasive 2000i before I ran the upgrades.

I am in IT. I have been for 20+ years. I started as a COBOL programmer. Beginning with the DOS version of Macola, all the installs and upgrades have been completed by me. All Macola issues have been resolved in house, by me. I support multiple software packages. Given the resource material, I have resolved more issues then you can imagine. When I have had to call for support for a product that is not working out of the box, yes it is FREE.

I'm not even finding any reference material to assist me with this issue. All I have are road blocks and additional expenses.

From MacolaHelp's post it is apparent that the upgrades DON'T work without some tweaking and/or special handling. Exact does not have documentation for troubleshooting their upgrade process. I have the upgrade process documentation. Exact does not list any more then the usual precautions when running the pre update process for Macola 7.6 100. I ran the Macola 7.6 100 upgrade without issue. It is the pre update process for Macola 7.6 300 that failed.

We use Macola straight out of the box. In fact we purposely do not utilize the software to the fullest extent. We don't follow the complexity is better theory. If you saw how little we allow ourselves to rely on Macola you would be amazed.

This is not a mom and pop shop. In fact, under the 80/20 philosophy we are becoming one of the top sales companies of a very large corporation. We are #1 in customer support in our product field. If our product fails we provide any all support we can to assist our customer FREE of charge.

NO it is not unrealistic to expect support for an out of the box product that has failed on a system with no enhancements.

 

[keain]

Verify that c:\program files\common files\fujitsu\cobol is in the search path of the workstation and the cobol folder is populated with ~61 files.

 

[JDMiller]

Thank you Keain. You have given me something to go on.

C:\program files\common files\fujitsu\cobol is as empty as Al Capone's vault.

I have restored my test Macola back to 7.5 103f. Now I am not sure if the Pre Update process for Macola 7.6 100 to go to Macola 7.6 300 is suppose to load this directory or the upgrade process is, but I will attempt the upgrade process once again and see how far I get.

Once again thank you.

 

[dgillz]

Keain,

Just curious how you knew this or found this. I could find nothing anywhere on the exact website when using F3BIPRCT.dll as a key word.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[keain]

JDMiller,

The preupdate is supposed to load that directory, otherwise you'd never be able to get in to complete the update.

dgillz,

I used to work for Macola, and then for Exact. All the way up until 06/05. That was a common error, and it's documented in e-synergy somewhere, but I have no way of getting in to find it.

 

[kscheeler]

Don,

You can't use a period in the search or it won't come back with anything (a shortcoming of searching in esynergy). I believe it thinks you entered a specific document number when using a period in the search function.

JDMiller

The pre update routine is to go from 7.5.103F to 7.6.200, not to 100. Exact didn't start to use the Fujitsu compiler until 7.6.200. To populate it, run the x:\macsql\install\fujitsu\fujitsucobol61.exe program where x is the drive letter for your Macola install.

Kevin Scheeler

 

[JDMiller]

Kevin,
I upgraded my Macola 7.5 103f to Macola 7.6 100 loaded the client and rebooted. The Macola 7.6 300 CD I have and the directions both stress that Macola 7.6 100x must run the Pre Update Installation before running the Macola 7.6 300 upgrade. The CD actually has a menu selection for Macola 7.6 100 users.

From what I understand it loads the core elements for Macola 7.6 300 (Fujitsu compiler) and then the Macola 7.6 300 client. I am to then open Macola and run the Macola 7.6 300 upgrade. The install of the client completed and I rebooted but I could not get in Macola.

I have restored my test server back Macola 7.5 103f and successfully upgraded to Macola 7.6 100 again. I cannot however run the Pre Update Installation because it already says it had the Macola 7.6 200 or Macola 7.6 300 components.

Where does it check for this? I specify our M:\Macola70 directory. When I open Macola it is at Macola 7.6 100.

 

[keain]

The nice thing about running the x:\macsql\install\fujitsu\fujitsucobol61.exe that Kevin recommends is that it will error out if there is a problem; but when this exe is run as part of the Macola client install (such as at the end of the pre-update), it will not error out if there is a problem. You simply won't get the files. It can be handy for troubleshooting.

Many times it will error out referencing a logical drive letter, such as H:\. Map that drive to your shared Macola drive and rerun the fujitsucobol61.exe or Macola client install and then disconnect the drive.

 

[JDMiller]

Kevin,
I do not have a M:\macsql\install\fujitsu\fujitsucobol61.exe
I am running Pervasive 2000i on a Novell NetWare 6.1 server

 

[keain]

JD,

To rerun the preupdate, look for a macpaths.dll in the Macola root directory and delete it.

 

[keain]

JD,

Replace Macsql with the name of your Macola root directory. Bacisically, once the preupdate is complete, you will have a fujitsu folder in the folder where you normally go to run your client installs from. That's the folder you're looking for on the server to track down the exe.

 

[JDMiller]

Aaaah Thank you Keain. Now we are getting somewhere.

 

[JDMiller]

Success!! I have upgraded to Macola 7.6 300. Thanks to all for your help.

Next I'll have to install all the hotfixes and see what else is broken.

I did find the Macola doc on F3BIPRCT using Kevin's tip. I'll have to keep that little period hitch tid bit in mind on my next search of infomine.

Thanks again !