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What is the process to upgrade to v9?

Introduction

With the release of v9.2, it is now possible to upgrade from v8 to v9 for hardware encoders - this is more complex than normal firmware upgrades, and this article explains the process you should follow.
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The new Central Licensing Service (CLS) that is used to manage your encoder's SaaS licence must be programmed with the correct licences for your encoders to have full functionality.

To avoid users accidentally upgrading to v9 before their licences are available within CLS, we have a special 'gateway' firmware that is required to upgrade to make the step up to v9.

This is required as devices running v9 firmware can not be downgraded to v8 again.

Upgrade process

We have been selling our encoders with SaaS licences for a number of years, and it is likely that if you already have a supported product then you also purchased the appropriate licence at the same time. The following process will determine which products you already have licences for, those that you can pay to upgrade, and those that would require a hardware upgrade to continue.

The general upgrade process is:

  1. You contact our Licensing team to begin the process (see green box below).

  2. Our Licensing team will review all sales orders we have on record for you and produce a proposed set of CLS licences that matches our records. This could be a multi-step process if you have purchased through a reseller. See the following section for a further explanation.

  3. (Optionally) You might take the opportunity to discuss with our sales team options for your encoders that are not eligible or capable of the upgrade.

  4. You review our proposed CLS licences, make any necessary purchases, and confirm you are happy to proceed. See the section What decisions will I have to make? below

  5. Our Licensing team add the resulting licences to your CLS account.

  6. Licensing will send you details of the technical steps to proceed, including a download link to the gateway firmware.

Ready to begin?
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Please fill in this email template, supplying as much information as possible (see the following section for the kinds of information that may help)

How do we determine what licences you have/need?

There are different sales routes that customers may have originally used to purchase encoders and licences from us, and so this process will differ depending on your circumstances - our operations team will guide you through this exercise, so that at the end we have a proposed set of licences that both parties are happy with.

There are two things we will work to establish:

  • What licences do you already have, and which ones may you need to purchase

  • What devices do you have that support v9 (and which won't)

We can use a variety of methods to determine this:

  • A review of our existing SaaS licence sales orders (for orders we can easily tie to you)

  • For purchases through a partner or reseller, you may need to find details of your original purchase, e.g. which reseller did you use? When was the purchase? Do you know the reseller's POS number? What did it contain?

  • A live review of the devices on your server. For simple orders, supplying us with some serial numbers may provide a clue to the original purchase order.

  • Otherwise, upgrading to v9.2 or above of EdgeVis Server allows the user to export a report showing all known encoders and their serial numbers.

As this could be a multi-step process, please allow for the additional time that may be required to review records, contact resellers, and upgrade servers.

What decisions will I have to make?

After the steps above have been performed, you will likely have encoders in one or more of the following categories:

  • A list of devices/licences that are covered with an existing SaaS licence
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    For these, we simply need to add the existing licences to CLS as-is.
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  • A list of compatible devices/licences that have a recent perpetual licence
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    These devices shouldn't be upgraded to v9 as you don't have the appropriate SaaS licence. We are running a promotion that will allow you to convert your devices to v9 with a free SaaS licence with a duration that scales with when you purchased your device:

    • Within the last 12 months - a free 3-year SaaS licence

    • Within the last 24 months - a free 2-year SaaS licence

    • Within the last 36 months - a free 1-year SaaS licence
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  • A list of compatible devices that were purchased over three years ago
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    These devices are still technically capable of running v9, but an upgrade to v9 would require the purchase of a SaaS licence - our sales team will assist if you wish to consider upgrading these devices
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  • A list of incompatible devices
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    These devces are too old to be upgraded. For devices with v8 firmware, they are currently fully supported on a v9 EdgeVis Server. For devices with v7 firmware, these devices must continue to run on a v7 or v8 server.
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    ​Note: While EdgeVis Server v9.2 will support all V8 firmware/devices and clients, v8.x EOL notices have been issued, with a 12-month care-and-maintenance cycle for P1 security issues.

For encoders in each category, you may decide which to proceed with the upgrade to v9 - we will issue a licence that matches your final decision.
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