Update Process

EvoERP Help System Overview
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Update Process

Note: if you are on a version of Evo-ERP/DBA Classic older than 2020.1, please follow the instructions here instead.

If you are on version 2020.1 or later, you can use the new update process below to update directly to the current version. This new update process will be used going forward for future updates and applies to both Evo-ERP and DBA Classic.

If you are using a Linux server or your server operating system is older than Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows 10 or your Pervasive version is older than 11, please contact tech support. These are not officially supported but we will try to work with you. If you are on Version 11 but not 11.3 you can install the update to 11.3 at no cost. Updating to a different numbered version does require purchasing an new license but incremental updates within the same number such as 11.0 to 11.3 do not. The 11.3 version as well as all newer Pervasive/Zen versions can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

The instructions below assume you have a supported Windows server and Windows workstations and Pervasive/Zen version.

Before Updating

  1. Make sure you know the version of Evo-ERP you are currently using and follow the appropriate update process. You can determine this by loading either Evo-ERP or DBA Classic and going to Help - About to see the version.
  2. Make sure you have a full backup of your system folder. Errors that occur during the update process can leave your Evo-ERP installation in an unusable state. If this happens, simply replace your EVOERP or DBAMFG folder with your backup from prior to the update.
  3. If you have test companies or old no longer needed companies the update process will be faster if you delete them so they do not have to be updated. Delete them using UT-I, do not just delete the company folder. If you have both Evo-ERP and DBA Classic, deleting the company in Evo-ERP is required to update both systems.
  4. Make sure you have noted your Customer Code that we have assigned you. This can be found on any invoice from Evo-ERP, Inc. or IS Tech Support, LLC or by logging in to our website and checking the Customer Information on the home page. You will need this to install your license even if you already have a valid license prior to updating due to changes in our licensing process. This is required even if you only use DBA Classic.
  5. (Optional but recommended) Run our table check utility to see if there are any problems with any of your data files. Our new update process is stricter about errors/corruption in data files that the old update process might have skipped over.
  6. If you have named databases in Actian Zen/Pervasive Control Center for your companies that don’t follow the naming convention EVOB, EVOB99, etc. for each company we strongly recommend deleting the named databases and allowing the update program to create them with the appropriate names. Also, if you have databases with names matching the naming convention but pointing to a UNC path or mapped drive or IP address rather than the local server drive letter the update will fail. Go to the Pervasive Control Center on the server and for each database matching the above naming convention right click and go to Properties and Directories and make sure it is pointing to the local server drive letter. If it is not, right click and Delete and select Database Name only and it will be recreated by the update with the correct path. Deleting the database name does not do anything to the actual data. Going forward, Evo-ERP and Evo Web will require named databases for each company along with a few non-company specific management databases, e.g., EVOISINT. If you already have databases with other names that you use for ODBC connections or other programs, keep in mind that it is recommended you modify these other programs to use the correctly named databases. If you do rename your database, ensure all your other software is working before performing the update.

Installing the Update

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE CONTINUING

  1. Download the installer for the update by logging in to our website and going to the Downloads page. The downloaded filename should be evoerp-update-2026.1.exe.
  2. If you are not on your server, go to your server and run the update installer there. It can not be run from a workstation pointing to the server folder.
  3. You must have an internet connection to install the update because it will check for patches and connect with our server to install the license. You can log into Evo as ADMIN and go to Tools - Users and Disable Logins to make sure nobody logs in when you are updating.
  4. Make sure you select the correct EVOERP or DBAMFG folder when running the installer or the update will not be installed to the correct location. If you do select an invalid folder, the update should quickly stop as long as the folder you select does not appear to be an Evo-ERP or DBA Classic folder.
  5. Follow the prompts in the installer. We recommend leaving the option to run the license program checked so that you can install your license after updating. This must be done even if you have a valid license as of 2024.2 because we have changed how we are managing Evo-ERP licenses. This is required even if you only use DBA Classic. We recommend upgrading to Evo-ERP because DBA Classic has a hard end of life in 2030.
  6. After the installer copies the new files, it will run the update utility program. This program will run through several tasks to perform the update. It is designed to have very verbose logging to help our tech support staff identify and resolve problems that may occur during an update.
  7. Once the update utility finishes, it will run a dictionary check and launch the license utility if you selected that option at the beginning of the update process. If so, see Installing Evo-ERP License for information on installing your license.

If any error occurs during this process, immediately make a copy of the evoutil.log file in your EVOERP or DBAMFG folder and note the error message displayed by the utility.

If you run the utility program again, it will overwrite this log file which will make it difficult to resolve any problems so ensure you have a copy from the update installation attempt.

In several steps of the update process, the new update utility must call some old Evo-ERP programs. If an error occurs in one of these programs, the evoutil.log file will not have detailed output about the error but it should recognize that an error occurred. If you see any error dialog from the other program that was launched, try to take a screenshot or note any information presented about the error.

For more information about resolving update errors, see Update Troubleshooting.

About the System Overview category
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This link is broken for me.

Do you require anti virus/security protection to be disabled for this update?

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This information is for 2025.1.

It depends on the antivirus software. The update process needs to run as administrator and since it is spinning off subprocesses and writing to files, it may get flagged by some heuristics in some antivirus programs. The update installer itself is signed and that usually helps. Windows Defender doesn’t seem to have any problems with the installer based on the updates I have installed (a bunch of my own tests plus dozens on live servers).

I fixed the link for the update troubleshooting but I noticed we did not finish that help page so we need to expand it. It must have gotten skipped over in the process of filling in the rest of the forum. If there is a problem during the update, it’s best to first copy the evoutil.log file in the EVOERP/DBAMFG directory as that has the information about what went wrong and send it to us. Then, you can delete/rename your EVOERP/DBAMFG folder and put the backup you made prior to updating in to its place so that you can keep working on the previous version while we figure out what went wrong during the update. Once we figure it out, you can run the update again.

Here are some problems we have seen with 2025.1:

  1. During the DDF task, you get an error that there is already a database for a company but the path is wrong. This can happen if the path is actually wrong or if you defined the database using a UNC path that happens to point to the correct folder. Either way, you can just delete the database in the Pervasive/Zen control center and run the update again. It will create it pointing to the correct folder. Deleting a database in Control Center does not delete any data files. If you are using any third party software that connects to the database(s) with ODBC, verify which database your software is configured to connect to because you might need to change it.
  2. An error occurs in the record size check task. This is rare, but typically indicates there is a problem with your existing dictionary and we might need to manually fix it before you can retry the update.
  3. Patch downloads fail. I added an option to skip patching during the update installation if this does occur since this step isn’t absolutely necessary.
  4. (Usually in the DDF task) an error like “the key number parameter is invalid” when trying to fix/create an index. This might indicate something wrong with the data file itself or your dictionary. We probably need to look at the files and find the specific problem.

If you have any other errors, let us know and we will look into it.