Ensure you plan your deployment of DRA before you begin the upgrade process. As you plan your deployment, consider the following guidelines:
Test the upgrade process in your lab environment before pushing the upgrade out to your production environment. Testing allows you to identify and resolve any unexpected issues without impacting daily administration responsibilities. For more information about installing DRA in uncommon or complex environments, see Enterprise Environment Considerations.
Review Section A.0, Ports and Protocols Used in DRA Communications.
Determine how many AAs rely on each MMS. If the majority of your AAs rely on specific servers or server sets, upgrade those servers first during off-peak hours.
Determine which AAs need the Delegation and Configuration console. You can obtain this information in one of the following ways:
Review which AAs are associated with the built-in AA groups.
Review which AAs are associated with the built-in ActiveViews.
Use Directory and Resource Administrator Reporting to generate security model reports, such as the ActiveView Assistant Admin Details and Assistant Admin Groups reports.
Notify these AAs about your upgrade plans for the user interfaces. For more information, see Deploying the DRA User Interfaces.
Determine which AAs need to connect to the primary Administration server. These AAs should upgrade their client computers once you upgrade the primary Administration server.
Notify these AAs about your plans for upgrading the Administration servers and user interfaces. For more information, see Deploying the DRA User Interfaces.
Determine whether you need to implement any delegation, configuration, or policy changes before beginning the upgrade process. Depending on your environment, this decision can be made on a site-by-site basis.
Coordinate upgrading your client computers and your Administration servers to ensure minimal downtime. Be aware that DRA does not support running previous DRA versions with the current DRA version on the same Administration server or client computer. Likewise, DRA does not support synchronization between Administration servers running previous DRA versions and servers running the current DRA version. Therefore, for each MMS, you should plan to upgrade the Administration servers and user interfaces in the same phase.