Skip to main content

Notifications

Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Answered

Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

Posted on by 15,428

Hi

Friend of mine asked me to post this question 

They are on NAV 2016 and want to upgrade to BC SaaS (newest version) but all guideline he found is for Nav 2016 to BC 14 which BC 14 is not available on SaaS anymore. 

What are the step and process to upgrade from NAV 2016 to BC SaaS? What is the best approach here? 

Thanks 

  • MahGah Profile Picture
    MahGah 15,428 on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    MKilinski

    Outstanding. Thank you so so much for sharing details and screenshot. I sent them all to my friend he is super excited. He thinks he can do it this way.

    Thanks again

  • Verified answer
    MKilinski Profile Picture
    MKilinski 62 on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    Yes, according to my experience, it is possible to migrate from NAV2016 to BC21 on-prem directly, and then use Cloud Migration tool. But remember, it takes a lot of time. We spent whole month to make a first migration, because we don't make this action never before. And yes, we've migrated whole history, all Ledger Entries (Item, Vendor, Customer, Job, G/L, Posted documents, whole data), even all Incoming Documents with attachments.

    The hardest thing in this case was make a good SQL scripts with the field mapping. First, I've written a Powershell script to generate SQL migration files. Script gets a source (NAV2016) tables and one by one gets their columns. After that it looks for the new table with $ suffix, f.ex. dbo.Cronus$Item in NAV2016 and dbo.Cronus$Item$Base_Application_Guid and dbo.Cronus$Item$Some_Extension_Guid. If it found a destination table(s) it starts to try to map field using names. If the column with the same name wasn't found, there is a comment in generated SQL script, like [MAP ME MANUALLY]

    Here is a little screenshoot for the inspiration 

    Zrzut-ekranu-2022_2D00_12_2D00_12-202457.jpg

  • MahGah Profile Picture
    MahGah 15,428 on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    MKilinski

    Thanks for the detailed answer. It is really interesting that you were able to go from Nav2016 to BC21 direct. I just wonder if through those SQL Script you were able to move entire history (like vendor/customer ledger. G/L history, etc) to the new SQL?

    If you did then do you think it is possible to use your method to move the client from Nav2016 to BC21 on-prem direct then use Cloud Migration Tools to move it to cloud?

    Thanks  

  • Verified answer
    DAnny3211 Profile Picture
    DAnny3211 9,272 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    hi

    look this

    learn.microsoft.com/.../upgrade-considerations

    DANiele

  • Verified answer
    MKilinski Profile Picture
    MKilinski 62 on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    Hello. The mainstream support of the Business Central 14 aka Spring 2019 will end in October 2023. You can download BC14 OnPrem installation files from official MS release documentation.

    As a tip, I share my experience in migration from NAV2016 to BC21. We didn't make indirect migration from NAV2016 to BC14 and then from BC14 to BC21. We made a direct migration from NAV2016 to BC21 OnPrem. It was a very difficult task because of data migration. We've to write a lot of SQL scripts to copy data from NAV2016 tables to the BC21 database. But in the end, everything works great and our customer is satisfied.

    You can make your migration in two ways:

    1. Make a migration from NAV2016 to BC14, then do a technical and application upgrade from BC14 to BC21 OnPrem, and then use a tool for Cloud Migration.

    2. Rewrite all your extensions from C/AL to AL, create an empty BC Cloud instance and start the system using the opening balance.

  • MahGah Profile Picture
    MahGah 15,428 on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    Hi Dallefeld

    Thanks for your answer. I mean the method you describe is my understanding as well. But I do not know how to write step here form him.

    Like first upgrade to BC 14 On-Prem. Does even MS has BC14 on SaaS?

    Then upgrade from BC 14 On-Prem to BC SaaS?

    WoW. How your team can upgrade user from 2016 to BC14 then BC21 in one weekend? Do you mean you upgrade to BC14 in that weekend then just a software upgrade after that?

    Sorry for too many questions but I tried to find an answer for him without any success.

    Thanks

  • Suggested answer
    Dallefeld Profile Picture
    Dallefeld 11,425 User Group Leader on at
    RE: Upgrade from NAV 2016 to Latest Business Central SaaS (like 21)

    If I'm not mistaken, you will need to upgrade to BC 14 and then upgrade to current version. I just did this for 30+ companies last month.

    We typically take users to BC 14 while we upgrade customizations to extensions. They can test in role tailor client but run in BC Cloud. Then when ready to go live we move then from 2016 to BC14 to BC21 all in one weekend.

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

Quick Links

December Spotlight Star - Muhammad Affan

Congratulations to a top community star!

Top 10 leaders for November!

Congratulations to our November super stars!

Community AMA December 12th

Join us as we continue to demystify the Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Leaderboard

#1
André Arnaud de Calavon Profile Picture

André Arnaud de Cal... 291,240 Super User 2024 Season 2

#2
Martin Dráb Profile Picture

Martin Dráb 230,149 Most Valuable Professional

#3
nmaenpaa Profile Picture

nmaenpaa 101,156

Leaderboard

Featured topics

Product updates

Dynamics 365 release plans