Upgrade Instructions

The Geobank Mobile 2020 new version release provides significant new features and enhancements related to licensing and performance. Depending on which version of Geobank Mobile you are upgrading from, the process has some differences; see table below:

Upgrading From	Details
Geobank Mobile 2019.1 (3.1)	Crypkey Licence will be migrated to MLS. No other special instructions.
Geobank Mobile 2019 (3.0)	As above.
Geobank Mobile 2018 (2.4)	As above and additionally, should a roll-back be required, instructions are provided in the section Roll back for KT-10 users if required. The upgrade involves no structural changes to the database and only involves data changes.
Geobank Mobile 2.3 or earlier	As above and additionally, the database upgrade is a significant change and relevant information on the upgrade and roll-back processes is provided in the section Upgrade History.

Notes relevant to upgrades from all versions:

Ensure you have taken backups and have a roll-back plan prior to performing an upgrade.
Each new Geobank Mobile major or minor version will install independently to previous versions. As Geobank Mobile is now 64-bit, it is installed in the Program Files folder, (not Program Files (x86).
The migration of the Crypkey licence is done automatically; if a problem is encountered with this process, the user can continue using Geobank Mobile 2019 even after installing Geobank Mobile 2020. Note however, the user will need a new licence for Geobank Mobile 2020 onwards.

WARNING: The database conversion process is IRREVERSIBLE.

Before you proceed, please ensure that the following steps have been successfully carried out within a change-freeze:

For every sync profile on all devices, ensure that all data has been synchronised.
For all profiles (sync and non-sync), use the File | Backup option to create a backup of the local database. Store each backup separately.

This step is crucial for roll-back planning purposes, particularly for KT-10 users – see Roll-back details below.

Backup all SQL Server databases that contain sync profiles.
Designate ONE device to carry out this upgrade process.
On the designated device, ensure that at least one sync profile of ALL sync databases that are to be upgraded are downloaded to the device.
As noted in the table above, if upgrading from a Geobank Mobile version prior to Geobank Mobile 2018, see the special instructions in Upgrade History.
Install the latest version of Geobank Mobile on all devices.
Start Geobank Mobile on the designated upgrade device to launch the upgrade process.

After successful upgrade:

On all other devices, start Geobank Mobile.
On all devices, download the sync profiles from the SQL Servers as required.

Roll back plan

Should a roll-back to a previous version be required, your pre-defined custom roll-back plan should be followed, this will likely involve the following within a change freeze:

Uninstall latest version and install the previous version
For all profiles (sync and non-sync), use the File | Restore option to restore the pre-upgrade backup of the local database
If using one or more sync profiles, restore the pre-upgrade backup of SQL server Sync database
Continue using the previous version until upgrade can be performed again

Note: see the special instructions relevant to older versions and KT-10 users in Upgrade History.

Version Warning Message

If a profile created in a later version of Geobank Mobile is edited in the current version, it is possible that some of the configuration added by the later version will be lost. For this reason, a warning message about the profile version will be displayed in the following cases:

When downloading a later version profile from the SQL Server Sync database.
When importing a later version .gmp profile.
When opening the data entry forms for a later version profile.
When opening the schema editor for a later version profile.

It is best practice to edit the profile using the version in which it was created (or using a higher version).

Upgrade History

Geobank Mobile 2020 now uses the same Micromine Licensing System (MLS) used by Geobank and Micromine. The new licensing system provides the ability to temporarily borrow a network licence without a security key (dongle) or a persistent network connection. Administrators can set up licence configurations that connect to different licences, or to different feature sets within licences, and new purchasing and leasing options are available.

Geobank Mobile 2020 is now only available in 64-bit architecture. This allows Geobank Mobile to make better use of the computer resources and ensure more efficient and faster data processing in a variety of scenarios. Geobank Mobile 2019 is the last Geobank Mobile version to support 32-bit.

Microsoft introduced its first 64-bit operating system (Windows XP) in 2005, and nowadays virtually every PC runs 64-bit windows. You will not be affected by this change unless you are using a very old computer or operating system.

The Geobank Mobile 2018 release upgraded the on-board database used by Geobank Mobile from SQL CE to Local DB. SQL CE is a compact relational database provided by Microsoft that has been used on mobile devices since the early 2000’s. It was discontinued by Microsoft in 2013, though is still supported through to 2021.

The main benefit of SQL CE was that it was a very light install. However, it had a number of limitations for data synchronisation and processing speed. These were both issues that clients had been coming up against as they started collecting more data and having multiple users at multiple sites synchronising data to a central database.

Local DB is essentially an on-board version of SQL Express and works the same as SQL Express and other versions of SQL Server when it comes to synchronisations and command processing. It is a larger install, but this is not going to be an issue with modern tablets and laptops that have significantly more memory than mobile devices of a few years ago.

The benefits of Local DB are that it uses the same data synchronisation logic as the destination database (SQL Express or SQL Server) so it works out of the box and will process commands significantly quicker. This is especially important when clients have large datasets with complex data validation rules, and we have seen time reductions in testing of calculations that used to take two minutes now being run in a few seconds!

An additional benefit is that the on-board Local DB database is an .MDF file to which users can create an ODBC link. This allows users who have Micromine installed on their tablet to generate an ODBC link to their logging data, and to be able to see the results in Micromine in near real time; a real benefit for Geologists in the field who might want to assess the performance of a drillhole and ensure it is on-target.

Upgrading Geobank Mobile to use Local DB enables us to support our existing client requirements and further develop Geobank Mobile moving forward.

Roll back for KT-10 users if required

Please note that Geobank Mobile 2019 introduces functionality to record Mag Sus and Conductivity reading simultaneously. The device settings are expanded to support this during the upgrade. This change is not backwardly compatible.

If it is necessary to uninstall Geobank Mobile 2020 and roll back to Geobank Mobile 2018, the following steps must be taken:

Uninstall Geobank Mobile 2020.
Install Geobank Mobile 2018.
Open Geobank Mobile 2018 and use File | Restore to restore the LocalDB backup taken prior to the upgrade (from Step 2 above).
Continue working in Geobank Mobile 2018.

If Step 3 (above) is not performed, if the user tries to connect a KT-10 device in Geobank Mobile 2018, the integration between the KT-10 and Geobank Mobile 2018 will no longer work.

Additional upgrade steps: Versions 2.3 or earlier

To avoid incompatibility issues when converting the database to Geobank Mobile 2018+, the following components must be manually un-installed in the following sequence:

Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 x64 ENU
Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 ENU
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express LocalDB
Microsoft Sync framework 2.1 Database Providers (x86)
Microsoft Sync framework 2.1 Core Components (x86)

The installation will perform the following:

All profiles that have no synchronisation configured will be converted from SQL Server CE to SQL Server Express LocalDB.
All profiles that do have synchronisation configured will NOT be converted to SQL Server Express LocalDB.
For each unique SQL Server database from the available sync profiles, ALL sync profiles on the database will be upgraded to the Geobank Mobile 2019 format. This step applies to the first instance of the upgrade (designated upgrade device). Subsequent devices will not activate this step.

Once the installation is complete, start Geobank Mobile this will convert any non-synced profiles from SQL Server CE to SQL Server Express Local DB.

Table Name Changes: Versions 2.3 to 2.4

As a consequence of the table name changes described below, custom-made views or queries to the Geobank Mobile database will need to be updated.

Previous releases of Geobank Mobile used a less than optimal mechanism to ensure that table names were unique across all profiles created using different devices. In Geobank Mobile 2018 a new table naming convention was applied. The new convention applies prefixes to the table names as before; however, when profiles are created by multiple devices, these prefix numbers are no longer guaranteed to match the prefix numbers of the tables on other devices.

For example:

Device A creates the first profile and the prefix number is “1_”. Similarly, Device B creates its first profile and the prefix number is also “1_”.

If Device B is first to sync to the SQL server, the profile that gets created on the server will also have the prefix number “1_” (this assumes that the database has just been created). However, when Device A syncs to the same database on the server, its profile number will be “2_”.

Since each profile can be identified by a GUID, having different prefixes on the devices, and on the server, is not an issue.

This change resolves the sluggish performance of Geobank Mobile on some devices.

Each of the data tables has various system columns including the Row Status (GMBRowStatus) and Row Owner (GBMRowOwner) columns. Information about these columns is provided below:

Post Upgrade Sync Database Clean-up

Due to the change described under "Table Name Changes" (above) the database may be left with two sets of tables (and views) at the end of the upgrade process. If this occurs:

Backup and store a post-upgrade copy of the sync database (for rollback if necessary)
Manually check and then remove the old tables

If it is necessary to uninstall Geobank Mobile 2020 and roll back to Geobank Mobile 2018, the following steps must be taken:

Uninstall Geobank Mobile 2020.
Install Geobank Mobile 2018.
Open Geobank Mobile 2018 and use File | Restore to restore the LocalDB backup taken prior to the upgrade (from Step 2 above).
Continue working in Geobank Mobile 2018.

If Step 3 (above) is not performed, if the user tries to connect a KT-10 device in Geobank Mobile 2018, the integration between the KT-10 and Geobank Mobile 2018 will no longer work.

Rollback to Version 2.3