How to roll back to a previous version of Essentials – VertiGIS Support

Overview:
This KBA will explain the process of rolling back from an upgraded version of Essentials to a previous version. Note that this article only covers versions of Essentials that run on Geocortex Core (Essentials 4.3 and up). If you need to roll back to a version of Essentials that relied on Geocortex Application Services, please contact support for assistance.

This KBA relies on the fact that you have kept documentation, and know a few things about your environment:

What version of Essentials you are rolling back to.
What version of the viewer you are rolling back to.
The name of your instance
The name of your deployed viewers

Additionally, you will need to have made backups of a few key folders before you upgraded:

Your Sites folder (Here by default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Latitude Geographics\Geocortex Essentials\Default\REST Elements\Sites)
Your viewer folders (Here by default: C:\inetpub\wwwroot)
Your Core data directory (Here by default: C:\Program Files\Latitude Geographics\Geocortex Core\Data)

You should also have in your documentation any manual modifications you made to your web.config files, so that they can be recreated when you reinstall.

Solution:

Uninstall the current version of Geocortex Essentials, and Geocortex Core.
Delete the following directories:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Latitude Geographics\Geocortex Essentials\<The instance you just uninstalled>
C:\Program Files\Latitude Geographics

Reinstall Geocortex Essentials, matching the Instance name and version you were using previously.

Note, this does not need to match, however any web browser bookmarks that your users may have created for the site will need to be recreated if the instance name changes.

Reinstall your viewers making sure to match the names and versions you were using previously

Note, as above, this does not need to match, however any web browser bookmarks that your users may have created for the site will need to be recreated if the instance name changes.

When Essentials and the viewer are reinstalled, stop the Geocortex Core service.
Replace the contents of C:\Program Files\Latitude Geographics\Geocortex Core\Data with the data folder from your backup
Replace the contents of C:\inetpub\wwwroot\<your new viewers> with the old viewers
Replace the C:\Program Files (x86)\Latitude Geographics\Geocortex Essentials\<Your Instance>\REST Elements\Sites with your backed up sites folder
Re-add any manual modifications that you need to add to your web.config files
Start the Geocortex Core service
Re-run the Post installer, and reconfigure your sign in settings
Check you sites and viewers

Note, your permissions may be orphaned at this point (if your sites were secured). If you go into the permissions tab on your site, and if you see any orphaned permissions, follow this KBA to resolve the issue

If you run into trouble with this, please contact the support team for assistance!

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