For information about upgrading the server components on a SQL Server cluster, see Installing the server components on a SQL Server cluster.

The SQL Backup Pro graphical user interface (GUI) and server components are upgraded separately:

If your SQL Server security does not allow you to upgrade remotely, you can upgrade the server components manually by copying SQBServerSetup.exe to the server and running it. By default SQBServerSetup.exe is located in:

When upgrading to a later version, the server components are installed in the default location and it is not possible to specify an alternative location. To install the server components in a different location, first uninstall the current server components, then install the new server components manually to specify the location.
The version numbers of the SQL Backup Pro GUI and and server components may differ. The latest version numbers of each are posted on the SQL Backup Pro forum.

Upgrading from SQL Backup version 5, 6 or 7

If you are upgrading from SQL Backup version 5, 6 or 7, you do not need to import SQL Servers that you previously added to the SQL Backup GUI. Your servers will be added automatically to the SQL Backup GUI Registered SQL Servers pane. If you have not yet upgraded to the SQL Backup Pro 8 server components, the upgrade server components icon  is displayed to the right of the SQL Server name in the Registered SQL Servers pane. Upgrade the server components as described above.

The upgrade server components icon  may be shown in various locations within the GUI when you are working with a SQL Server instance that still has version 5, 6 or 7 server components installed. This indicates that certain features are unavailable until you upgrade the server components to version 8.

The scripts and jobs you created using version 5, 6 or 7 are supported in version 8, and will work in the same way.

SQL Backup 6 introduced changes to the SQL Backup file format (.sqb). To restore backup files created by SQL Backup 6 or 7 on a machine running SQL Backup 5 or earlier, you must use the SQL Backup File Converter to convert the files first. When upgrading to version 8 of the server components, we recommend that you upgrade all SQL Server instances to maintain compatibility.

Upgrading the activity cache

The activity cache speeds up the display of backup and restore history in the SQL Backup Pro GUI by storing a copy of the backup and restore history for your registered SQL Servers.

By default, the cache data is located on the same computer as the SQL Backup Pro GUI in:

When you start the GUI for the first time, you may be prompted to upgrade the activity cache. This will only happen if an activity cache from SQL Backup version 5, 6 or 7 is found on your computer.

This may take several minutes, but happens only once.

Upgrading from SQL Backup version 4

If you are upgrading the SQL Backup GUI from version 4, you can import all your registered SQL Servers into SQL Backup 8; you do not have to register them all again. For details, see Importing SQL Server instances

When you add or import a SQL Server, if you have not yet installed the SQL Backup 8 server components on it, is displayed to the right of the SQL Server name in the Registered SQL Servers pane. Click the icon to upgrade the server components.

You must then activate the SQL Server. If you have purchased a support contract, you can use the same license key as you used in version 4 (SQL Backup will remember this for you). Otherwise, you can use a trial version of SQL Backup 8 for 14 days, but then you must purchase a license. For more information, see Licensing.

If you do not upgrade the server components, SQL Backup retrieves the details of activities and jobs on these SQL Servers when you first start SQL Backup. The information is displayed in the Time Line, the Activity History, and the Jobs tab. However, this information cannot be refreshed while SQL Backup is running.

Note the following changes from version 4: