How do I plan a Grand Avenue Software upgrade?

Owned by Ann Ivey
Last updated: Aug 15, 2024
3 min read

Grand Avenue releases new versions of the software approximately 3-4 times per year. Customers are not required to upgrade to every new version, but they are asked to stay within one major release of the most recent version of the software. This article describes the following steps to prepare for a Grand Avenue upgrade:

  1. Review the Release Notes

  2. Test the new software version

  3. Upgrade Production Environment

  4. Perform Post-Upgrade Actions

Software upgrades are available to all customers with current license agreements at no additional charge.

Review the Release Notes

All Customers

Download and extract the Validation Package for the target release from the “Software Releases” section of Grand Avenue’s customer support website (http://www.grandavenue.com/site/Support.html). Contact support@grandavenue.com if you don’t know your organization’s shared username and password for this website.

  1. Open the file “GAS XX.X Release Notes in Excel Format.xlsx” and filter the Release and Module columns to display only the changes applicable to your configuration and versions being upgraded.

  2. Use the information from the release notes to assess the impact of the upgrade on your quality system. The suggested group of columns beginning with Impact to SOPs/WIs (column K) may be used to record your assessment, or you may replace those columns with your own assessment criteria.

Test the New Software Version

Hosted Grand Avenue Installations

An upgrade testing environment is provided for you. The data in this site is a snapshot of your production database that has been upgraded to the latest released version of Grand Avenue. Contact support@grandavenue.com if you do not know how to access your upgrade testing site.

Configuration changes made in your upgrade testing environment cannot be automatically transferred back to the corresponding Production system. You are responsible for manually implementing GAS post-upgrade configuration changes in Production.

On Premise Grand Avenue Installations

Your IT department is responsible for creating a non-production installation of Grand Avenue for upgrade testing. For instructions, please contact support@grandavenue.com.

Upgrade Production Environment

Hosted Grand Avenue Installations

For hosted installations, upgrades are performed by Grand Avenue customer support.

When upgrading a hosted production installation, customer support asks for 1 hour of exclusive access to Grand Avenue, scheduled at your convenience, to prevent users from experiencing intermittent system unavailability that may occur during an upgrade. The upgrade itself only takes a few minutes, but we like to schedule up to an hour of downtime to give us plenty of time to back up the database, perform the upgrades, and execute the installation checklists we send to you after completing the work.

  1. Contact Grand Avenue customer support (support@grandavenue.com) with your upgrade request, including potential dates and times for the upgrade to be performed.

    • We can usually accommodate same-day requests for upgrades performed during normal business hours (8:00am-5:00pm US Central Time).

    • Upgrades scheduled outside normal business hours (e.g. early morning, late evening, over a weekend) to minimize disruption for Grand Avenue users must be scheduled at least a few days in advance to ensure that a member of the customer support staff is available.

  2. Grand Avenue customer support confirms your scheduled upgrade date and time.

  3. Notify your Grand Avenue users of the scheduled system unavailability.

  4. Grand Avenue customer support performs the upgrade and sends you the installation qualification (IQ) checklists with the Grand Avenue activities signed off. Receipt of the checklists is confirmation that the upgrade is complete and Grand Avenue is available for your use.

  5. The IQ checklists have two items to be completed by customers. The email with the IQ checklist will also contain further instructions for completing those items and signing off the checklist.

On-premise Grand Avenue Installations

  1. If you have not already done so, download and extract the installation package from the “Software Releases” section of Grand Avenue’s customer support website http://www.grandavenue.com/site/Support.html. Contact support@grandavenue.com if you don’t know your organization’s shared username and password for this website.

  2. Notify your Grand Avenue users of the scheduled system unavailability.

  3. Prepare your Grand Avenue server, verifying that it meets the Server Operating Environment requirements listed in the installation instructions.

  4. Complete the Verify Installation Prerequisites checklist embedded in the installation instructions.

  5. Perform the upgrade as directed in the installation instructions.

  6. Complete the Installation Qualification (IQ) checklist embedded in the installation instructions.

Perform Post-Upgrade Actions

  1. The final item on the Verify Installation Prerequisites and Installation Qualification (IQ) checklists may be completed post-upgrade.

    • Verify software levels for the clients. Verify that users are accessing Grand Avenue using only supported client operating system and web browser versions.

    • System configuration plan. Use the file “GAS XX.X Release Notes in Excel Format.xlsx” to review the new and changed configuration options applicable to your configuration and ensure that they are set according to your organization’s preferences.

  2. Retain the completed IQ checklists for your records.

 

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