Private Host Installs and Upgrades

Solver Private Host (PH) is an on-premises solution that customers can install in their own infrastructure.

Recent Announcements

• Solver has announced the end of support for Private Host, Dec 31, 2025.
• Solver no longer offers new installation support. Solver will continue to support upgrades and server migrations.

System Requirements

Solver Private Host requires 3 servers plus the end users computer to create reports.

1. Web App Server
2. SQL Server (2017+ only)
3. Services Server

End users responsible for creating and running reports will need to have Excel 2016+ installer on the work provided laptops.

While you can install the Services on the web app server, to reduce server costs, should you have any performance issues, Solver will require you to meet system requirements.

• Private Host is not supported on Linux Servers
• Load Balancer configurations are not supported

The following are requirements for the above-mentioned server.

Web App Server

• Windows OS 2019+
• 16gb ram

SQL Server

• Windows OS 2019+
• 4+ Core CPU
• 32+ gb ram

Services Server

• Windows OS 2019+
• 32+gb Ram

Pre-Upgrade Considerations

Before beginning the installation or upgrade, the following should be considered.

1. Do you need snapshots of the VMs taken prior to beginning the installation? For upgrades, it is strongly recommended to take a snapshot of the Web Server and Services server.
2. Have backups of the databases been taken? For upgrades, it is required to take a backup of the database.
3. Private Host upgrades can take time to complete, make sure you are in a scheduled maintenance hour(s) and are not doing an upgrade during a critical reporting and budgeting period.
4. The typical upgrade steps are
   • Back up your SolverDW, Solver_Repository and Solver_Scheduler databases
   • Run the database upgrade script
   • Run the installer on the Web Server
     • This will update the Solver_Repository at the same time
   • Run the installer on the Services Server

Upgrade Steps

To upgrade your Private Host installation to the latest version:

1. Request the latest installer from Solver Support (support@solverglobal.com)
2. Download the installer and place it in a location that the web server and services server can access or put it on the server desktop.
3. Unzip to download. There are 3 folders inside the zip.

SQL Database Upgrade

1. Navigate to a machine that can access to SolverDW database. This can be the SQL server itself or any machine that can connect to the SQL Server via SSMS.
2. Connect to the database using the credentials of a user that is sysadmin or db_owner on the SolverDW and Solver-Scheduler dbs.
3. As a reminder, have backups of all three databases, prior to running the upgrade.
4. Start with the first folder, 01. dbUpgrade
5. Open the file, SQL script.
6. Ensure you are on the SolverDW database in SSMS
7. Execute the Query. The query should take no more than 30 seconds to complete.
   • If successful, proceed to the next step, if unsuccessful, review the error.
   • If you can resolve the error on your own, restart the script again after fixing the database issue or contact Solver Support.

This completes the database upgrade step.

Web App Upgrade

1. Next, navigate to the Web Server.
2. Navigate the 02. Installer and run the executable as Admin (right-click > Run as Admin)
3. Proceed through the installer
   • Click Next on the Welcome Screen
   • Choose the install path
   • Choose just Solver Portal. If the web server is also hosting the services, choose Services and Maintenance service as well.
   • Click Install
4. The installation will begin. The installer will uninstall the previous version of Private Host, upgrade the Solver_Repository database, and install the new version of Private Host.
5. Upon successful completion, click Close to exit the installer. If there are any errors, try running the installer again or contact Solver Support.
6. Remaining on the Web Server, navigate to Program Files\Solver\Private Host > Right click > Properties.
7. On the security tab, add the user “IIS APPPOOL\Solver” with read/write permissions to this folder.

The completes the upgrade of the Private Host web app.

Services Upgrade

Services upgrade is a two-step install.

1. Run the Private Host installer to upgrade the reporting services
2. Run the Service Fabric installer to upgrade the integration services.

Reporting Services Upgrade

1. Navigate to the Services Server.
2. Run the Private Host Executable as admin.
3. Proceed through the installation wizard.
   • Click Next on the welcome screen
   • Choose the installation path.
   • Choose only the “Services” option
   • Click Install.

Upon successful installation, click Close. You have upgraded the Reporting services.

Service Fabric Upgrade

1. Navigate to the Services Server.
2. In the install folder, navigate to 04. Service Fabric
3. Run the prepare_SF installer as admin
4. A command prompt will open.
   • Type in the name of the sql server where the Solver_Scheduler database exists. You can type in the windows name or the IP address of the SQL Server.
   • Type in the name of the Scheduler db, it is going to be either Solver_Scheduler or BI360_Scheduler depending on when you did your initial install
   • Type in the credentials of the SQL User name and password that has db_Owner permissions to the scheduler db.
5. Next, run Install_SolverSF installer as admin.
6. Type in the name of the computer that Service Fabric will be installed on. Since you are running the installer on the computer where Service Fabric will run from, you can just type in localhost and hit enter.
7. The installer will begin. The installer will install and can take some time (10+ min) to complete depending on resources on your Services Server.
   • Service Fabric
   • 8 Solver applications
8. Do not click into the Powershell/Command prompt window that appears on the desktop. If you do, simply click on your desktop.

Your command window will tell you once the installation is successful, hit Enter to close the window and you have successfully installed Service Fabric. If you receive any errors, please contact Solver Support.

This completes the upgrade of Solver Private Host.

Validating your Installation

There are a couple places to validate the upgrade.

Private Host Application

1. Log into your Private Host environment
2. In the upper right-hand corner, click your Username > About.
3. In the popup that appears, the version number is listed. You can match this version number to the version of the installer you just installed.

Services Server

1. Log into the Services Server
2. Navigate to Control Panel > Programs and Features
3. Scroll through the list to find Solver Reporting and a version number will be listed. You can match this version number to the version of the installer you just installed.

Service Fabric Install

1. From the Service Fabric server, navigate to the URL http://localhost:19080 
2. Service Fabric Explorer, part of your Service Fabric install will appear.
3. Under applications, you can view the version numbers. You can match these version numbers to the version numbers referenced in the release notes.