Establish Testing Environment

Recommended Steps

Overview: Upgrade Your ThingWorx Platform

Create a test environment that is a replica of production so that testing and validation are completed accurately before the Go-Live upgrade on the Production server. This helps you avoid any significant setbacks when moving to production.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

01. Backup ThingWorx

You want your test environment to be as close to your production instance as possible. ThingWorx related backups can be executed at both the datastore level and ThingWorx application level. Refer to the ThingWorx Backup and Recovery Planning guide to start preparing for backups and refer to the original vendor documentation for further details, including the following:

Watch our Expert Session on ThingWorx Backup and Recovery for best practices around:

Strategy and tools for ThingWorx application backups
Backup terminology and concepts
Drivers to define a backup strategy
Tips for executing backup in a ThingWorx instance: Tomcat, certificates, configuration and file system data, application-specific files, database

To learn more about application-level backups such as Import/Export of entities and data from the platform, review How to Import/Export Entities and Data in ThingWorx.

Review Best Practices for ThingWorx Backups, Replication, and Migration to learn more about the topic.

In case your current installation involves other complex customizations, functionalities, and installations such as SSO, High Availability, or any third-party software/hardware:

Take necessary backups of all data and configuration files
Contact PTC Technical Support or search the PTC Knowledge Base for any query

Ensure each resource working on this objective has access to the right environments and knows how to contact PTC Technical Support.

If you followed a DevOps process, your work should already be backed up. DevOps' critical portion is setting a Source Control Solution such as Solution Central, Git, or SVN that helps you manage code repositories. Your developers should access and back up the code as they collaborate to build your application. If your organization lacks an official DevOps process, take a look at Principles of ThingWorx DevOps Practices. A PTC expert helps your team understand how to implement ThingWorx configuration management and coding and naming standards. We work with you to find the best solution to use your current source code control systems or recommend a new one and promote code from development to test to production.

Recommended Resources

Browse Documentation
Resource Center
PTC Customer Success Management
PTC's eSupport Portal and Knowledge Base
eSupport
PTC Community Support
PTC Communities

02. Create a Testing Environment

Create a test environment using your most recent ThingWorx backup which should be replica of production.

Make sure you know:

Which environments have been configured and who has access to them
Release numbers & software versions
- Evaluate product compatibility matrices and PTC product calendar
Naming conventions
Hardware requirements (Memory, Storage & CPU cores) in production
- Browse Documentation to check for sizing guides
The capacity you need to create an environment
How to move your backed-up code files and data files to this test server

Document your work and sequence of events followed through this process.

Be sure to contact PTC Technical Support with any questions regarding downloading software, installation, documentation, or moving code & data files to the server.

Recommended Resources

PTC Product Calendar
PTC Product Download
eSupport
Browse Documentation
Resource Center
PTC Help Center
Help Center
PTC Community Support
PTC Communities

03. Validate the Testing Tools and Processes

After the server has been prepared, the very first step is to verify licenses and functionalities.

For license

Login to Composer
Navigate to Monitoring -> Subsystems -> Licensing Subsystem Settings
In case of any issues follow these steps or reach out to PTC Technical Support

Recommended Resources

PTC recommends incorporating three levels of testing into your DevOps:

Unit testing: where you test each component independently to ensure they're operating as expected, like creating test services and executing through REST API's or manually
System testing: testing the features and functionality of a collection of components
User acceptance testing (UAT): bringing in select end-users to ensure the application is meeting their needs

Move forward through the creation of test plans, test scripts, and tools to validate. Verify they are available in an accessible location with required access. If necessary, go through a trial run to ensure nothing gets stuck.

Ensure you're testing the right items. Run scripts and tools through iterations and record test results. Use assertions as well. Test plans should include any non-ThingWorx or third-party software as well.

Recommended Resources

Suggested testing tools, scripts & processes in ThingWorx
Resource Center
Automated Testing
PTC Communities
JMeter-for-ThingWorx load test
PTC Communities
ThingWorx-Automated-Unit-Testing-and-Test-Driven-Development
PTC Communities

04. Identify Resources Required to Validate

Identify your project team with the right capacity to validate the software on the test environment. Ensure you have the right mix of people to test the software thoroughly and completely.

Resources identified could be:

Internal team members who have both ThingWorx admin access as well as access to mashups/apps
External clients, partners, stakeholders & end users having access to only mashups applications but no access to ThingWorx composer & no admin access
Skills-based resources for automated & unit testing, preparing and executing test scripts & tools, creating test plans and validation criteria, Java, database to check for data flow and integrity, and managing source control repositories.
Other resources may be required as per the involvement of any non-ThingWorx or any third-party software.

Ensure the resources you identified as testers can access the testing environment, test scripts, tools, test plans, and all processes. They should have proper rights & permissions to run and execute those services and tools as well.

Ensure they are available to begin testing when needed, get approvals from their managers if needed.

Test plans and validation criteria as per user's test limit should be made available to users, if possible. While testing, they should record the results and preserve for prospects.

05. Turn off Non-ThingWorx Software

ThingWorx should run correctly without any failure while turning off the non-ThingWorx software in parallel. ThingWorx should not go down, failing any dependency checks while turning off any non-ThingWorx software.

Non-ThingWorx software could include:

Network layers, firewalls, and proxies
External databases
ThingWorx connected to external apps via connectors
External frameworks (Java-based or testing)
Load balancers
Source control systems like SVN or Git
Any third-party application

Try making ThingWorx software less dependent on any external software/applications. Make sure ThingWorx is up and running even if any non-ThingWorx software in the environment goes down. If their dependency cannot be avoided, that should be well documented and communicated among team members. Testing around these areas should be well performed and documented. These test plans should be sent to resources allocated for this task. If there are several dependent non-ThingWorx software or third-party software, then test suites/cases should cover all various possible combinations of dependency checks.

Monitor the impact and behavior of ThingWorx software while other non-ThingWorx software is turned off. Closely monitor ThingWorx application logs for some time at regular intervals for any issues/errors. Ensure that data flow, connectivity, and functionalities are hampered.
Run the test suites, scripts, and tools while turning both off and on the non-ThingWorx software and record the results. Resources should be evaluating the results against the validation criteria mentioned above. Any criticality, unusual behavior observed, or some observed issue we cannot avoid, alert the project members.
Ensure all dependencies are well placed, checked, and documented well enough.
Document and understand the effects of dependent non-ThingWorx software going down:

Downtimes
Preventive measures
Urgencies
End-user effects
Backup plans
Cost
Data loss

The team should always have a proper backup plan or an alternate plan to ensure dependent non-ThingWorx software gets up and running ASAP to minimize the loss.
Document and understand the effects of non-dependent non-ThingWorx software going down, i.e. the amount of data loss due to downtimes & cost. Prepare a backup plan or alternative plan to ensure non-ThingWorx software gets up and running ASAP to minimize the loss.
Backups and recovery paths should always be on top of mind.
In case of urgencies or any critical issues, resources should contact PTC Technical Support.

Once test resources feel that software is successfully deployed and the validation criteria is showing satisfactory results, inform project members/stakeholders and provide a green light for Go-Live.

Recommended Resources

PTC Marketplace
Find a PTC Partner
PTC Help Center
Help Center
PTC Community Support
PTC Communities
PTC's eSupport Portal and Knowledge Base
eSupport
Browse Documentation
Resource Center
ThingWorx Developer Portal
(Developer.thingworx.com)

Previous Step

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Upgrade ThingWorx

Upgrade Your ThingWorx Platform

Everything you need to know to upgrade your ThingWorx Platform

This is a PDF version of Upgrade Your ThingWorx Platform - Establish Testing Environment. downloaded on Date : 4/14/2025 1:28:17 PM and may be out of date. For full latest version click here.

Discover What's New

Evaluate Requirements to Upgrade

Assemble an Upgrade Team

Document a Test Strategy

Adjust Adoption and Communication Strategy

Create a Rollout Plan

Finalize Upgrade Project Plan

Acquire Equipment and Resources

Access the Software

Establish Testing Environment

Upgrade ThingWorx

Validate Upgrade

Prepare End Users

Go Live

Provide Support

Overview: Upgrade Your ThingWorx Platform

We have centralized our top resources from across the company to help you plan, set-up, and deploy your ThingWorx upgrade.

In this success path, you will find general step-by-step instructions for all ThingWorx versions as well as the latest version-specific documentation, training courses, and PTC services to help you along the way.

The information is useful for:

ThingWorx Admins
Project Managers
Stakeholders
Technical Staff
Developers

What is a Success Path?

A Success Path is an online guide to help you implement a specific PTC product at your organization. Each path provides step-by-step instructions from the early planning stages all the way through to deployment. Use a Success Path to help your organization get the most out of a product and achieve your business goals.

See all Success Paths

Discover What's New

Learn about the newest features and functionality in ThingWorx and review your upgrade options.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

New Features and Functionality

Review Roadmap

Why Upgrade to ThingWorx 9+

Understand Upgrade Options

01. New Features and Functionality

New Mashup Widgets – Leverage new widgets in the Mashup Builder to create new IIoT user interfaces like Waterfall Chart, Menu, and Tool Bar.

JAVA SDK 7.0 Andriod Support – Supports Android API versions 19 through 22. It can be used with an IDE that supports Java-based development. Proxy settings can be configured for all examples provided with the Java SDK, including Android applications.

JAVA SDK 7.0 Edge Extensions – Set of building blocks of functionality that allow you to select functionality you want, reduce the SDK footprint, and create functionality by writing your extensions. A Thing representation of a device can be assembled with functional blocks faster, reducing time to value.

Remote Access and Control (RAC) – Run remote sessions to Axeda Edge devices using the Axeda Policy Server. Give visibility to a local audit trail and control over remote sessions. Ability to see and record a Remote Sessions Request status and provide details for a file transfer performed in a VNC session.

ThingWorx Solution Central – Expanded application support, including the ThingWorx applications; you can now download out-of-the-box solutions directly from Solution Central. You can authenticate with Config API of ThingWorx Kepware Server, organize TKS based on Sites, and perform CRUD operations on objects such as Channels, Devices, and Tags.

Active-Active Clustering – Added ability to further improve the ThingWorx Platform's stability by giving you a full scale. This also provides enhanced operability and flexible deployments.

ThingWorx Container Support – Further commitment to ThingWorx Docker and the ability to containerize your infrastructure. Paired with clustering, this gives you the ability to quickly add nodes or manage your whole infrastructure in an agile fashion.

Composer/Mashup Builder – Further improvement on web component widgets by enhancing Bindings, Properties, Theming, and Undo/Redo to increase developer productivity. From a visualization standpoint, we revamped our charting framework to increase responsiveness in charts, subsequently improving the ability to see charts on a mobile device or tablet.

Thing Groups – We have created flexible hierarchies for asset populations by regions, models, customers, authorizations, and more.

ThingWorx Flow Updates – Improved security of flows within the platform and third-party systems with Delegated Authorization.

ThingWorx Analytics – Improved AI features to create predictive models that include confidence intervals and optimize analytic models based on the cost of prediction errors.

ThingWorx Edge – Consume Rich OPC-UA models through Kepware, ThingWorx, and Microsoft Azure IoT. We also broadened edge capabilities with new extensions for the Java SDK, including improved Android support.

Factory Talk Historian Connector – Rockwell Automation's Factory Talk Historian Connector can now connect to ThingWorx, giving you the ability to create ThingModels and represent alarms/events into ThingWorx automatically.

JAVA SDK 7.0 – Supports Android API versions 19 through 22. It can be used with an IDE that supports Java-based development. Proxy settings can be configured for all examples provided with the Java SDK, including Android applications.

02. Review Roadmap

Drive autonomous IOT system behaviors and manage distributed workloads via Solution Central
Enhance query, streaming, enrichment, and rule processing
Deploy and manage applications easier with containers and orchestration tools for ThingWorx
New AI features to build improved analytic models with K-fold validation, missing value imputation, and calibrated probability scores
Digital performance monitoring to capture new insights into bottlenecks
Derive product insights and service innovation rapidly with a Product Intelligence solution

This roadmap contains forward-looking information subject to change and does not imply future commitment.

03. Why Upgrade to ThingWorx 9+

Many of our IoT customers upgrade to the latest and greatest ThingWorx release to stay up to date. The new release has updated security patches that give you peace of mind. Having a stable platform that can scale with your business needs delivers value to your end customers.

Whatever reason you decide on upgrading, PTC and partners are here to help you select the best upgrade path for you.

04. Understand Upgrade Options

When upgrading to a newer version of ThingWorx, administrators have two options for new features and enhancements into existing landscapes: in-place upgrades and migrations. Generally, in-place upgrades are applicable when upgrading to the same persistence provider. They do not require import data/entries after installing ThingWorx. Migrating includes more steps because you must export data and entities, and then import those entities and data into the new version of ThingWorx. To best assess the upgrade path for you, use the matrix in the ThingWorx Help Center linked here.

Evaluate Requirements to Upgrade

Before upgrading ThingWorx, review your existing system and determine the effects of upgrading. Be sure your hardware is ready to support the latest version. Prepare the post-upgrade work items.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Review your Customizations

Compare your Backlog

Determine Unique Production Instance Activities

When to Upgrade

PTC Product Compatibility

Determine Security and Compliance Updates

Determine Changes to Infrastructure

Select an Upgrade Option

01. Review your Customizations

Before you upgrade ThingWorx, you need to understand what is standard in ThingWorx and what your team has customized. Your customizations should have been documented by your developer when they were initially implemented. With version 9.0 and greater, there is no widget or extension depreciation from version 8.5. Please review previous versions of ThingWorx to better understand the possible depreciation of widgets or extensions.

Recommended Resources

Legacy Widgets and Layouts Help Center
Changes to ThingWorx extension support model eSupport

02. Compare your Backlog

If you have a backlog for ThingWorx, review the line items in the log before upgrading. There may be items you move around based on the new features and functionality. At this time, you want to determine if any work needs to be done before and after the upgrade. We do not recommend making changes during the upgrade.

Begin to mark new backlog items based on the features and functionality you plan to implement after completing the upgrade.

03. Determine Unique Production Instance Activities

Whether you use ThingWorx in your manufacturing plants or smart products, it is essential to think about each instance’s unique activities. Determining these activities helps you decide when to upgrade and how to test a specific instance.

It would be best if you also determined what activities need to be done while ThingWorx is unavailable. For example, suppose ThingWorx runs your factory’s machines. In that case, you need to determine if the downtime is acceptable or if there needs to be a manual intervention. Also, be mindful of:

The number of users on the instance
Critical company events
The amount of data on each instance

There are several more factors to consider when planning your upgrade.

Understanding the downtime required for each instance is critical to a smooth upgrade. Be sure to evaluate each instance’s needs and compare them against your test upgrade when the time comes.

04. When to Upgrade

Now that you have evaluated each of your production instances, you must now determine the right time to complete the upgrade. It may not be possible to simultaneously upgrade each of your instances because of the previously determined unique activities.

It is best to complete the upgrade during a slow time of year, such as late December.

You also want to consider the other PTC products you own and when they need to be upgraded. You can review the PTC Product Calendar here.

05. PTC Product Compatibility

Before you can upgrade to the latest and greatest version ThingWorx has to offer, make sure you know your path to upgrade to 9+. Check out this article on how to find the software compatibility matrix for your specific release.

When preparing for an upgrade, it is essential to consider your connections to other ThingWorx and PTC products. Take a close look at the changes and constraints from your current version to any version post 9.0, which applies to other ThingWorx products such as ThingWorx Analytics and ThingWorx Flow.

Key considerations include:

Evaluate each product's roadmap release dates, end of support, and end-of-life information. You can find this on our PTC Product Calendar.
Find and review the Software Compatibility Matrices for Creo-Windchill products.

06. Determine Security and Compliance Updates

The features available in ThingWorx 9+ can help improve your ThingWorx’s security. There is a change in the way audit data is stored in ThingWorx. Your current set up for logging data will still be available and default in the new release. You will need to actively change the configuration and update each of your customizations that use audit data. Also, you must plan to transfer your existing audit data to the new implementation.

The audit subsystem is intended to provide the information you need to answer the following questions:

Do we meet compliance requirements?
What has a rogue employee done in the system?
Who made what changes and when?

A new feature available in ThingWorx 9.0 is Thing Groups. Thing Groups are a referenceable entity type that allows for Things and Thing Groups as its members. In addition to ThingWorx’s current permissions model, Thing Groups provide ThingWorx administrators the ability to manage at scale exposure of Things to only those that require access. These are the following prominent use cases for Thing Groups:

Visibility permission management at scale - You can group Things so that only specified user groups or users can see them. Thing Groups allow for visibility permission delegation. This visibility permission delegation is enabled in the User Management Subsystem. Visibility permissions delegation will enable users to set the org on Thing Groups and have that visibility setting delegated to the Things and Thing Groups that are members of the Thing Group in which the visibility permissions were set.
Thing Groups as a building block for mashups and other applications. Application developers can leverage Thing Groups to visualize hierarchies or scope custom workflows to a specified group of Things.

The most common ways to group Things are by regions, customers, specific locations, and model number. You can learn more about Thing Groups here.

Recommended Resources

Audit Subsystem Help Center
Thing Groups Help Center

07. Determine Changes to Infrastructure

If you plan to implement High Availability Active-Active Clustering, this is a significant change to your infrastructure. Review your previously documented plan and determine the difference. Here are a few topics to consider as you create your infrastructure architecture plan:

Availability

Will ThingWorx or applications need to be available at all times?
Is downtime acceptable? Consider both planned downtime (upgrades, updates, maintenance) and unplanned (failures, outages).

Security

How will security requirements affect your infrastructure?
How will security change over time?

Scalability

How will High Availability Active-Active Clustering improve ThingWorx’s ability to scale my devices and instances?
Do we have the right amounts of server for our scaling needs?
What other changes do I have to make when configuring High Availability?

When ready, document your final changes and share them with the project team.

Recommended Resources

ThingWorx Platform 9.0 Server Sizing
ThingWorx Platform Sizing Guide eSupport
Overview of ThingWorx High Availability Clustering Help Center

08. Select an Upgrade Option

When upgrading to a newer version of ThingWorx, your administrators have two options for getting new features and enhancements into existing landscapes: in-place upgrades and migrations.

Generally, for in-place upgrades:

You do not need to delete the ThingworxStorage and ThingworxBackupStorage folders
You do not need to import data/entities after installing ThingWorx, and is applicable when upgrading to the same persistence provider

Migrating includes more steps because you must export data and entities, and then import those entities and data into the new version of ThingWorx.

Recommended Resources

Determine Upgrade Path: In-place or Migration Help Center
Using the Installer to Upgrade ThingWorx Foundation Help Center

Assemble an Upgrade Team

Understand the skill sets and experience your project team needs to upgrade ThingWorx. Determine whether your organization internally employs the right talent. Hire outside resources to bridge any gaps if needed.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Understand the Skill Sets Needed

Assemble Your Project Team

Determine Outside Resources Needed

Identify Project Stakeholders

Create a Team Communications Plan

Plan Feedback Mechanism

Determine Training Needs

01. Understand the Skill Sets Needed

Having experience implementing ThingWorx is a significant advantage when it comes to upgrading. PTC, experienced partners, or systems integrators can often fill gaps in skill sets and experience.

Although their titles may differ, you typically need the following skills to participate in your upgrade.

IT Administrator: your IT administrator maintains your organization's IT network, servers, and security systems. They'll also play a role in building and operating your IoT application.

Integrations: have a team member available to turn off and on the integrations to test and upgrade the platform. If necessary, this person would be on standby if there are any changes required to the integrations.

Application Management: this could be one or more people that handle the ThingWorx entities, code repository, and organization and management of the database backups.

Business Process: manages the business processes that govern development, manufacturing, and change management. There may be different people per business process.

Database Administrator: setup, maintenance, and management of the Source Data database, including troubleshooting, maintenance, installation, and backup of the system.

02. Assemble Your Project Team

Find out whether your organization employs people who have these skill sets. If so, ask the employees whether they can make themselves available to contribute to the project. Get their manager's approval, if needed. You can do most of the work remotely, but team members should be on-site to gather requirements and the go-live stage.

03. Determine Outside Resources Needed

Typically, organizations hire contractors or consultants to bridge skills gaps and achieve their use cases. If internal employees are non-existent or unavailable, hire outside resources. Verify that the individuals you hire have the right skills and experience to meet your project goals.

If you purchased a Success Plan from PTC, you have access to IoT experts who support and guide you. Customer Success Management can help you plan, implement, and measure your IoT initiative. Your PTC Customer Success Manager ensures you have the right mix of resources on your team. They'll help make sure each contributor has extensive experience with the ThingWorx platform and is well suited for the role. If you don't have a Success Plan, contact your sales representative.

Recommended Resources

Find a PTC Partner

04. Identify Project Stakeholders

Stakeholder support is a crucial asset throughout your IoT initiative. Cultivate buy-in at various levels of your organization, from high-level business leaders to frontline workers. Your most important stakeholder is at the executive level. Identify a well-respected, well-connected executive champion who advocates for your initiative on an ongoing basis.

In addition to the people who champion IoT solutions, you'll also need end-users to test them in the real world. Identify a manageable group of workers who tests and provide feedback on early-stage applications. These workers should represent your ideal end-users. They'll help you identify urgent fixes and opportunities for improvement before you implement ThingWorx on a larger scale.

Possible stakeholders may include:

Corporate Executives
Service Organization Leaders
IT Leaders
End Users
End Customers

05. Create a Team Communications Plan

Determine how, when, and to whom you'll communicate throughout your IoT project. Your stakeholders have different needs, depending on their role.

As you plan how to communicate with your stakeholders, answer these questions:

How frequently will you share information? Some stakeholders provide daily feedback and direction on the project, while others may get involved on a passive, less-frequent basis.
What's the best channel for that information? Emails, calls, or meetings may work for some stakeholders and not others.
What information is most important to which stakeholders? Be careful to avoid communication overload.
What do you need from your stakeholders at various points along the timeline? Establishing key milestones or successes in these communications help maintain momentum and excitement.

Keep in mind that your stakeholders' involvement and communication needs may change over the project's course. Modify your approach as you go.

06. Plan Feedback Mechanism

While it's essential to communicate, it's also imperative to listen. If stakeholder communication is only coming from one direction, you risk missing valuable feedback or opportunities to address concerns. Establish channels for soliciting and responding to feedback across your organization. Make sure stakeholders know how to get answers.

07. Determine Training Needs

Determine training needs based on the roles on your team and your chosen use case(s). We have many options to help you start building applications with ThingWorx. For example, we have courses to learn to develop in ThingWorx, manage platform security, and a course for DevOps practices, among many others.

Most courses are available through PTC University Training Central (requires a PTC account). A PTC training advisor can help you choose which courses are the most important for your team.

Document a Test Strategy

When upgrading ThingWorx, there are many tests and quality assurance tests to ensure that the upgrade is successful. Start by piloting that upgrade and create a test plan based on your findings.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Pilot the Upgrade

Determine All Areas for Testing

What to Test

Document Test Plan

01. Pilot the Upgrade

As a current licensed ThingWorx owner, you have access to download the latest version and replicate your production instance on another server. Piloting the upgrade ahead of time provides the following assurance:

End-user buy-in and support of new functionality
Firsthand experience with new functionality

While piloting the upgrade, we recommend making the environment as close to production as possible.

02. Determine All Areas for Testing

When you initially deployed ThingWorx or the last time you upgraded, a test strategy was created. Decide how you will apply that strategy to this new upgrade. Refer to the Determine Changes to Architecture, Select an Upgrade Option, When to Upgrade to modify any test scripts. Developers and device engineers work together to create a testing plan.

In general, we recommend the following testing:

Unit testing: build in a unit testing concept to allow code to be tested separately from UI testing. This type of testing is only necessary if you modify code during this upgrade. We recommend making changes to code or making backlog updates after completing the upgrade.
System testing: test the features and functionality of a collection of components defined by an acceptance criteria document.
Security and penetration testing: test for vulnerabilities, risks, and threats (always test with different uses that represent real uses)
Connectivity testing: test the edge/Kepware, products, devices/machines, and platform integrations
Migration Validation: verify the data from the previous version of ThingWorx matches in the upgraded instance.
Stress or load testing: test the stability of the solution and how it handles errors and load
User acceptance testing (UAT): test with select end-users. Very little UAT is necessary for this upgrade.
Deployment testing: verify the package works as expected on a staging server that represents a production configuration. This type of testing is required if you modify code during this upgrade.

It would help if you did additional testing that was not mentioned based on your specific solution or industry. Remember to consider security and compliance requirements at every stage for each instance.

Create a testing plan for each instance. Be sure to align testing with your existing DevOps processes. Plan to test in a QA environment that replicates your production environment as closely as possible.

03. What to Test

Verify user permissions, logins, and data

Make sure users have access to the right components within the application. Have several users login to ThingWorx in a test/QA environment. They should verify they have access to everything they need. Test the user permissions for each user group. If someone can't access a mashup or if they have too much access, change their permissions.

Also, verify that each environment shows the appropriate data for each user group. You may need to strip production data from some environments. Do this to prepare for testing, especially user acceptance testing.

Monitor the data flows, integrations, and connectivities

Implies on remote connectivity and integration
Data flow is continuous and integral

Observe and monitor the application run for 1-2 days

Measure performance impacts, load tests
Ensure smooth running of software

Verify logs, entities count, and system stats

Regular monitoring of logs for any errors/issues
Entities count to ensure if anything not missed
Overall system stats, health, and configurations

Verify all customizations & extensions

Ensure all customizations and extensions are correctly moved to the test server and are in place

04. Document Test Plan

Take some time to review your existing scripts and make sure they include the following:

Value statement
Summary of what the solution does (refer back to your use case)
Data sources and data flow
Design specification
Acceptance criteria
Test procedure
Environments and who has access to what
Security requirements
Naming conventions
ThingWorx version or release numbers
Results of quality assurance (QA) test
Performance figures - Results of Stress or load test
Revisions
Software or any third-party app

Keep your documentation brief and definitive. Your documentation provides a quick reference to help you solve issues and make faster decisions.

Adjust Adoption and Communication Strategy

Make sure that internal and external stakeholders are aware of and ready for the upgrade. Communicate their role in the upgrade and changes they should expect to see.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Understand the Impact to Each Site

Understand Impact to End Users

Document a Training Plan for Users

Create a Communication Plan

01. Understand the Impact to Each Site

The impact of each site are specific to your end-users and use case(s). Downtime during an upgrade is required, so plan for each instance to be upgraded individually. It would help if you worked with each site manager to understand their constraints and schedule appropriately.

For example, if you’re a Medical Device company upgrading multiple hospitals and clinics, consider planning multiple upgrade times to avoid all machines being down at the same time in case of emergency.

02. Understand Impact to End Users

Beyond the downtime mentioned above, your end-users should not be impacted. Mashups look and operate how they did before your upgrade. Communicate across in case of any emergency.

03. Document a Training Plan for Users

Stakeholders outside of your organization, such as your customer, do not require updated documentation from the upgrade alone. If your customers want to take advantage of the new functionality in ThingWorx to update their mashups, training documentation needs to be updated appropriately.

Those in your organization who support your IoT solution and use your ThingWorx applications rely on updated documentation after your upgrade.

Create a list of the personas in your organization who are involved in creating, supporting, and using your IoT solution. Then articulate the ThingWorx updates in the documentation required to do their jobs.

Here are some personas who may require documentation:

Developer
System administrator
Solution architect
Designer/user researcher
Application support team
Customer service
Edge implementer
Internal end users
External end users
Service organization

Consider when, how, and to whom documentation needs to be available. Once you define each persona and documentation needs, communicate this with the individuals responsible for creating documentation. Useful, timely documentation enables a successful upgrade of your IoT solution.

04. Create a Communication Plan

Create differentiated communication plans to connect with internal and external audiences. Your stakeholders have different needs, depending on their role. Consider internal stakeholders such as technicians, service management, marketing, sales, and customer service employees. External stakeholders may be vendors, your customer’s customers, or contractors.

Use these questions to guide your communication plan:

Who are your audiences?
What does each audience care most about?
What do they need to know to be successful?
When do they need to know it?
What are the existing or best channels to communicate through?
Who should deliver the message(s) for it to be effective?
How often should each audience be communicated with?
What do you need from your audiences at different points in time?
How can your audiences communicate with you?

Document your communication plans for each group of stakeholders.

Create a Rollout Plan

Compile the plans to upgrade your ThingWorx instances into one project plan.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Determine Unique Instance Activities

Create an Upgrade Schedule

Update Application Support Documentation

Document Execution Plan for Each Instance

Document Implementation and Project Plan for Each Instance

Determine how to manage your ThingWorx applications

Manage your Change Management Plan

01. Determine Unique Instance Activities

Evaluate each of your ThingWorx instances for unique activities within the application and at the potential instances. Each instance handles different types of remote assets like machines, vehicles, or refrigerators/AC. Once the organization determines a particular asset type, further instance activities could differ by:

Physical factors: type of enterprise, unit type, number of units, storage, power, location and
Environmental Factors: pressure, temperature, water, and dust
End-User Usage Factors: wearing gloves, safety gear, or moving around in the enterprise vs. viewing the application from a stationary terminal

Instance activities can also differ by the type of work environment and functionalities, such as:

Connectivity
Gateways
Network designs & browsers
Availability and data push frequency
Type of data coming in and processed
Data points & services
Application usages and peak hours
Number of end-users, stakeholders & clients accessing the applications
Devices used to access the app, such as tablets, mobile, laptop/desktop

Once you have gained important insights on each instance's uniqueness and differences, you need to note the issues that could arise and their effects like potential downtimes & outages, end-user impacts during upgrades, and finally, the backup plans and how to maneuver around ThingWorx. It would help if you planned out these factors and share them across teams.

If your instances include integration with other enterprise data sources such as IoT, CRM, and MES systems, or any third-party apps, consider how those assets may cause or be affected by downtime. Ensure your organization continues operating efficiently in case of outages, and business is not affected.

You can also gain essential insights on each instance by talking with mid-level and frontline staff who frequently use the app. They understand the current process and problems and can anticipate those well. They can also help you be sensitive to cultural norms at their location around communication, hierarchy, language, and change. For your app to deliver expected value, users need to understand and embrace technology and process changes.

Recommended Resources

PTC Community Support PTC Communities
Browse Documentation Resource Center

02. Create an Upgrade Schedule

With a clear view of the unique activities with each of your ThingWorx instances identified, begin to plan the upgrade activities, order, and schedule. To decide on the best approach, have detailed conversations with those who have a deep understanding of the specific data and systems you need to connect. This might include IT partners, system admins/integrators, stakeholders, and developers. If possible, involve someone with extensive ThingWorx knowledge.

Start with the instances that take the minimal amount of effort to upgrade and work from there. The order in which activities are to be performed might vary for each instance. Focus on an upgrade schedule that will get each of your ThingWorx instances upgraded quickly and efficiently. Determine whether each of your instances need to be upgraded around the same time or can have some relaxation around times between upgrading the instances.

Your schedule should include:

Completion dates
Phases
Milestones
Dependencies
Resources roles and responsibilities
Support management

Your Upgrade schedule should be decided and shall account for the below factors:

Depending on the availability and experience of your project team
Integrations and backup plans especially for external data and custom apps
Getting approvals and members point of view
Communication plans among the project team and stakeholders to ensure everyone is aligned
Prepare yourself for any unplanned costs and activities. Have a well-established training plan, backup plan & change management plan

As you build out the timeline, ask your project team for input. Do not forget to include change management tasks such as training and communications for each instance. Inform your adoption team of the changes as early as possible, so the training materials, documentation, and communications will be updated and ready for go-live. While preparing the upgrade schedule, check out project team members' availability in instance upgrades projects and get approvals from respective managers if needed. As part of organizational change management, you'll create a plan to communicate with the new users and the rest of your organization as well.

Recommended Resources

Browse Documentation Resource Center
Find a PTC Partner
Find Training PTC University

03. Update Application Support Documentation

Update, finalize, and document the application support process.

Outline who is the first point of contact
How to escalate potential issues
How to reach PTC Technical Support
Support Strategy
Establishing Support Organizations - roles and responsibilities

Verify with the support organization, the process is still valid, and everyone agrees to process and is ready to execute. Plan checkpoints throughout the year to ensure the process is working and improve it if necessary.

Ensure your end-users know how to get help with the ThingWorx upgrade, should issues arise. Plan accordingly, and communicate effectively. Internally, specify which teams are responsible for various aspects of the application and how they triage issues.

The support organization needs specific details about how the application has changed to promptly resolve issues, fix bugs, and promptly perform system maintenance. Whether you're using internal employees or an external resource for the upgrades, you must document the delivered solution for ease of knowledge transfer and future reference.

The project team will transfer ownership back to your designated support organization. Ensure your support organization receives training on the upgraded solution before the project wraps up. All support teams should also receive basic ThingWorx training to ensure they have a sound understanding of the core ThingWorx Platform.

04. Document Execution Plan for Each Instance

Apply the upgrade schedule to each of your instances of ThingWorx. Plan how you will approach the upgrade uniquely. The order of the activities might vary for each instance.

Determine and document the order you would like to proceed with events for each instance like first moving remote things/assets, migration of code & data files, Network -proxies and firewalls, security files, moving extensions, and customizations.

Confirm the go-live date with the project manager for each instance and accordingly plan for availability of resources, schedule training, assigning roles and responsibilities with the plan of actions, access to documentation, and communications.

Once the upgrade for each instance is performed, do evaluate licensing or contact your PTC sales representative.

Also, ensure a robust feedback mechanism. Plan feedback mechanism for each instance, voice concerns, and share opportunities you may not know or want to know. While it's essential to communicate, it's also imperative to listen. Establish channels for soliciting and responding to feedback across your organization—and ensure stakeholders, end-users know how to get answers.

Hosting a regular meeting or open house
Dedicated Phone numbers and emails
Survey or questionnaire

Create a list of the groups who need documentation to upgrade, support, and use the app. For example:

Developer
System Administrator
Solution Architect
Designer/User Researcher
Application Support Team
Help Desk
End Users

Once the plan is finalized with a detailed view of each instance documented, it should be sent for reviews and approvals from all critical stakeholders/members. Once completed, the plan is handed over to the team responsible for executing actions and is shared widely.

05. Document Implementation and Project Plan for Each Instance

You need to document how and when you will execute the upgrade. No task is too small and should be included. Everything from backups to launch tasks to training and communication plans is vital for the project plan.

This plan should include:

Specific tasks
The people responsible for tasks
When each task needs to be completed
Order of tasks
Availability of resources
Communications and approvals
Handling urgencies and potential issues
Reaching out to Support
Training – when and how
Identify most affected teams or members
Managing ThingWorx applications - System Monitoring and overall health
Feedback mechanism

PTC recommends scheduling training for various members of your Upgrade project team. Determine training needs based on the roles on your team and your chosen use case(s). If you're unsure which option is right for your organization, contact your PTC sales representative to learn more.

06. Determine how to manage your ThingWorx applications

PTC recommends that application configuration be consistent across Instances. The configuration should be maintained through a dedicated, central application management team after deployment. This team is responsible for:

Assessing and prioritizing any changes requested to the existing applications
Creating and maintaining the application roadmap
Determining the cadence in which new versions and iterations will be deployed
Scheduling new version implementations across each instance, including training for end-users and the application support team
Ensuring the application is meeting the needs of the organization
Ensuring the system is operating as it should
Responding to outages
Monitoring the existing system performance and quality
Implementing system upgrades
Managing overall health

As your organization launches additional applications to support multiple use cases, PTC recommends staffing:

A subject matter expert for each use case
An architect to oversee the entire project environment and ensure the applications are working together

Recommended Resources

Find Training PTC University
ThingWorx Developer Portal (Developer.thingworx.com)
PTC Help Center Help Center
PTC Community Support PTC Communities
Browse Documentation Resource Center
PTC Customer Success Management

07. Manage your Change Management Plan

Use your change management to execute your upgrade rollout plan.

Change management process:

Define a compelling vision and clear objectives
Ensure strong leadership and significant sponsorship
Build and maintain ownership and accountability
Align processes, organization, and culture
Involve employees
Provide adequate enablement and support
Ensure stakeholder-specific communication
Measure and monitor benefits realization continuously

Document your change management plan and share it accordingly. PTC offers change management support services to help your organization navigate change and achieve your goals faster. Contact your PTC sales representative to learn more.

Recommended Resources

PTC Support Services

Finalize Upgrade Project Plan

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Determine the Cost of the Upgrade

Receive Approval on Cost of Upgrade

Communicate Plan to Sites

01. Determine the Cost of the Upgrade

With your ThingWorx upgrade planning nearly complete, compile a final list of project costs.

Add up the final costs of:

Internal and external resources
Any potential financial impact this project could have on current operations due to outages, shortages, etc.
Any third party or non ThingWorx software & hardware

We recommend that you include a 15-20% contingency on your final budget to support unplanned costs.

02. Receive Approval on Cost of Upgrade

Take your detailed costs and final project plan back to your executive stakeholders for final review and approval.

03. Communicate Plan to Sites

Execute on the communication plans created during the Adjust Adoption and Communication Strategy step. Provide ample time between first announcement and the actual upgrade for stakeholders to understand how they will be impacted and any preparations for which they are responsible.

Acquire Equipment and Resources

Prepare your project team and equipment for an upgrade.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Secure Resources for Project

Acquire Necessary Hardware and Software

01. Secure Resources for Project

To achieve a successful upgrade, you’ll need an experienced team. Now that your budget is secured, ensure you have the right people and the right mix of resources confirmed to work on your upgrade.

If you’re using internal resources, make sure they have enough hours allocated to this initiative. Get approval from employees’ managers, if necessary.

If you’re using PTC or a trusted partner, begin sourcing providers right away and ensure they have the skills and ThingWorx experience necessary for your upgrade project.

Recommended Resources

Ensure resources are appropriately onboarded through all tools and processes, and they should be well trained in their respective domains/skills before the Go-Live.

Also, make sure resources have allocated enough time to validate the upgrade with Quality Assurance.

Most of the work can be done remotely, but it’s crucial that most team members can be on-site to gather requirements and for the “go-live” stage.

Recommended Resources

02. Acquire Necessary Hardware and Software

Ensure you have access to all the equipment you need to execute your upgrade project. If you don’t already have what you need, purchase it now. Necessary equipment may include hardware, networking equipment, memory & CPU cores, PTC software, and any required third-party software.

Be sure your hardware is ready to support the latest version. Evaluate PTC’s product compatibility matrix and product calendar.

Recommended Resources

Browse Documentation Resource Center
PTC Product Download eSupport
PTC Product Calendar eSupport
PTC Help Center Help Center

Access the Software

You will need a PTC account to download the software for your upgrade.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Access your PTC Account

Download the Software

Generate a New License

Understand the PTC Support Process

01. Access your PTC Account

If you are new to your organization or need a new account, this is how you do it: Create an account and be sure to provide one of the following numbers:

Your Service Contract Number (SCN)
Your Sales Order Number (SON)
Your Site Number

PTC will send a software order fulfillment email after your purchase is complete. That email will give you the information listed above. If you can't find the information you need, contact your sales rep or renewals.

You will need a PTC account to:

Download the ThingWorx software
Get Technical Support
Access software documentation
Generate licenses

Recommended Resources

Create your PTC eSupport Account eSupport
Get help logging in eSupport

02. Download the Software

Depending on the current version of your ThingWorx platform, you may not have a straight upgrade path to the latest version. Refer back to the Review PTC Product Compatibility task to understand your ThingWorx 9+ upgrade path. Download the version of the software that is right for you.

Recommended Resources

03. Generate a New License

Upgrading to a new version of ThingWorx requires you to update your product license. A license can be generated in 2 ways:

Connected Mode : If the server has internet access, the platform can be configured to automatically fetch and install the license using PTC eSupport Account credentials.
Disconnected Mode: If the server has no internet access, then the license must be downloaded and installed manually from the License Management Portal on PTC Support

To generate a new license, you need to follow these steps based on your specific version.

Recommended Resources

Licensing ThingWorx 8.1 and Later eSupport
Licensing Management Portal eSupport

04. Understand the PTC Support Process

PTC's support team is here to help.

PTC's eSupport Portal & Knowledge Base
Raise Unlimited Tech Support Case's
PTC Community Support
Performance Advisor to monitor product usage

When looking for help, we recommend you:

Search in PTC Knowledge Base
- Search for technical support, documentation, community posts & articles
File a Technical Support Ticket in our Case Logger
- Understanding case severities
  - Severity 0 - Enterprise System Down: A production enterprise system is down. This is the most severe severity for a Case
  - Severity 1 - Business Critical: Business is being severely impacted. Essential functions are not working, and business schedules are being severely impacted
  - Severity 2 - Business Moderately Impacted: Business is being impacted, and a solution to the problem must be found quickly
  - Severity 3 - General Question/Low Impact: Business is being slightly impacted, or the customer has a general question about a PTC product or service
- Understanding escalation levels
  - Escalation Level 1 (M1): The case is escalated to the Technical Support Engineer’s direct supervisor
  - Escalation Level 2 (M2): If you are not satisfied with the response to an issue, escalate your case the second time. The case is escalated to the second level of Technical support management.
  - 7 Escalation Reasons: Initial contact time, Regular updates on the case, Time to case resolution, Premature closing of case, Appropriate case resolution, Technical skills of support engineer, Communication skills of support engineer
Call our Technical Support or Customer Care Center. Please refer to the Customer Support Contact Page for region-specific numbers.

Recommended Resources

Getting Started with the Knowledge Base eSupport
How to 'Manage your Technical Support Case' eSupport
Customer Support Contact Page for regional numbers and hours of operation eSupport
PTC Support Services Success Services Catalog
Customer Support Guide - Using Technical Support eSupport
Performance Advisor FAQ eSupport
PTC Help Center Help Center
Subscription Renewal Contact
Find Training PTC University
Manage Support Case eSupport
Software Defect Resolutions eSupport
File Security Vulnerability Report eSupport
PTC Marketplace

Establish Testing Environment

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Backup ThingWorx

Create a Testing Environment

Validate the Testing Tools and Processes

Identify Resources Required to Validate

Turn off Non-ThingWorx Software

01. Backup ThingWorx

Watch our Expert Session on ThingWorx Backup and Recovery for best practices around:

Strategy and tools for ThingWorx application backups
Backup terminology and concepts
Drivers to define a backup strategy
Tips for executing backup in a ThingWorx instance: Tomcat, certificates, configuration and file system data, application-specific files, database

To learn more about application-level backups such as Import/Export of entities and data from the platform, review How to Import/Export Entities and Data in ThingWorx.

Review Best Practices for ThingWorx Backups, Replication, and Migration to learn more about the topic.

In case your current installation involves other complex customizations, functionalities, and installations such as SSO, High Availability, or any third-party software/hardware:

Take necessary backups of all data and configuration files
Contact PTC Technical Support or search the PTC Knowledge Base for any query

Ensure each resource working on this objective has access to the right environments and knows how to contact PTC Technical Support.

Recommended Resources

Browse Documentation Resource Center
PTC Customer Success Management
PTC's eSupport Portal and Knowledge Base eSupport
PTC Community Support PTC Communities

02. Create a Testing Environment

Create a test environment using your most recent ThingWorx backup which should be replica of production.

Make sure you know:

Which environments have been configured and who has access to them
Release numbers & software versions
- Evaluate product compatibility matrices and PTC product calendar
Naming conventions
Hardware requirements (Memory, Storage & CPU cores) in production
- Browse Documentation to check for sizing guides
The capacity you need to create an environment
How to move your backed-up code files and data files to this test server

Document your work and sequence of events followed through this process.

Be sure to contact PTC Technical Support with any questions regarding downloading software, installation, documentation, or moving code & data files to the server.

Recommended Resources

PTC Product Calendar
PTC Product Download eSupport
Browse Documentation Resource Center
PTC Help Center Help Center
PTC Community Support PTC Communities

03. Validate the Testing Tools and Processes

After the server has been prepared, the very first step is to verify licenses and functionalities.

For license

Login to Composer
Navigate to Monitoring -> Subsystems -> Licensing Subsystem Settings
In case of any issues follow these steps or reach out to PTC Technical Support

Recommended Resources

PTC recommends incorporating three levels of testing into your DevOps:

Unit testing: where you test each component independently to ensure they're operating as expected, like creating test services and executing through REST API's or manually
System testing: testing the features and functionality of a collection of components
User acceptance testing (UAT): bringing in select end-users to ensure the application is meeting their needs

Recommended Resources

Suggested testing tools, scripts & processes in ThingWorx Resource Center
Automated Testing PTC Communities
JMeter-for-ThingWorx load test PTC Communities
ThingWorx-Automated-Unit-Testing-and-Test-Driven-Development PTC Communities

04. Identify Resources Required to Validate

Identify your project team with the right capacity to validate the software on the test environment. Ensure you have the right mix of people to test the software thoroughly and completely.

Resources identified could be:

Internal team members who have both ThingWorx admin access as well as access to mashups/apps
External clients, partners, stakeholders & end users having access to only mashups applications but no access to ThingWorx composer & no admin access
Skills-based resources for automated & unit testing, preparing and executing test scripts & tools, creating test plans and validation criteria, Java, database to check for data flow and integrity, and managing source control repositories.
Other resources may be required as per the involvement of any non-ThingWorx or any third-party software.

Ensure they are available to begin testing when needed, get approvals from their managers if needed.

Test plans and validation criteria as per user's test limit should be made available to users, if possible. While testing, they should record the results and preserve for prospects.

05. Turn off Non-ThingWorx Software

Non-ThingWorx software could include:

Network layers, firewalls, and proxies
External databases
ThingWorx connected to external apps via connectors
External frameworks (Java-based or testing)
Load balancers
Source control systems like SVN or Git
Any third-party application

Monitor the impact and behavior of ThingWorx software while other non-ThingWorx software is turned off. Closely monitor ThingWorx application logs for some time at regular intervals for any issues/errors. Ensure that data flow, connectivity, and functionalities are hampered.
Run the test suites, scripts, and tools while turning both off and on the non-ThingWorx software and record the results. Resources should be evaluating the results against the validation criteria mentioned above. Any criticality, unusual behavior observed, or some observed issue we cannot avoid, alert the project members.
Ensure all dependencies are well placed, checked, and documented well enough.
Document and understand the effects of dependent non-ThingWorx software going down:

Downtimes
Preventive measures
Urgencies
End-user effects
Backup plans
Cost
Data loss

The team should always have a proper backup plan or an alternate plan to ensure dependent non-ThingWorx software gets up and running ASAP to minimize the loss.
Document and understand the effects of non-dependent non-ThingWorx software going down, i.e. the amount of data loss due to downtimes & cost. Prepare a backup plan or alternative plan to ensure non-ThingWorx software gets up and running ASAP to minimize the loss.
Backups and recovery paths should always be on top of mind.
In case of urgencies or any critical issues, resources should contact PTC Technical Support.

Once test resources feel that software is successfully deployed and the validation criteria is showing satisfactory results, inform project members/stakeholders and provide a green light for Go-Live.

Recommended Resources

PTC Marketplace
Find a PTC Partner
PTC Help Center Help Center
PTC Community Support PTC Communities
PTC's eSupport Portal and Knowledge Base eSupport
Browse Documentation Resource Center
ThingWorx Developer Portal (Developer.thingworx.com)

Upgrade ThingWorx

Upgrade your ThingWorx platform and validate the upgraded system.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Run Upgrade Process

Other Application Co-Upgrade

Migrating Extensions

01. Run Upgrade Process

Before you begin to install ThingWorx 9.x, run through the prerequisites and be sure to review materials for upgrading from the version of ThingWorx you are currently on. Refer to ThingWorx System Requirements for additional information and ensure necessary equipment, hardware, and software are acquired. PDF versions for earlier versions can be located using the Reference Documents page on the PTC Support Portal.

Determine your database before performing this installation and consider your database options. If there has been a change in the database, then follow migration for upgrades. For more information on database options, see the ThingWorx Model and Data Best Practices, ThingWorx Platform 9.0 Deployment Architecture Guide, and ThingWorx Platform 9.0 Sizing Guide.

In case of a complicated installation of current ThingWorx Software, ensure your infrastructure supports your upgrade according to the documented architecture plan. In case you need support, contact PTC Technical Support.

Do not forget to review the software/hardware compatibility and supportability factors. For example, PTC might be turning down support on some specific version of Linux OS or Azure/AWS, or PTC stopped supporting Datastax enterprise from ThingWorx 9 onwards.

The upgrade can be performed in 2 ways. Either upgrade the same current server to higher versions or install new ThingWorx software on another server followed by importing code and data entities from the previous server. Check out the limitations and scope of these from the Help Center. For example, an installer upgrade can only be performed if your current ThingWorx server version is 8.5 and above.

Send prior information to all members about when you upgrade to ensure resources are planned. Communication should be sent about planned outages and downtimes as well.

Make sure again that everything is backed up from your current server (i.e., both data and entities). Take care of dependencies. Be ready with required PTC provided extensions versions and customizations – either get it from backups or download the latest versions from PTC Marketplace or PTC Software Download page. Lastly, get approvals and acknowledgments from members and move forward with the upgrade process. Download the licenses as well.

Once the upgrade is completed, verify the software version, perform a sanity test, and evaluate licensing. Confirm infrastructure security networks, proxies, and firewalls. Beyond this plan for integrations. Should any issue arise, contact PTC Technical Support.

To access the materials within this guide, download the ThingWorx Software or get Technical Support. You will need a PTC account to enter the eSupport Portal.

Create your PTC eSupport Account

Recommended Resources:

02. Other Application Co-Upgrade

It is crucial to ensure that other partner apps are co-upgraded to compatible versions. Please review our previous step and PTC Product Compatibility to ensure that other partnered applications are compatible.

For example, if you are installing ThingWorx Navigate, ThingWorx 9 must be installed using the ThingWorx Foundation Installer before installing ThingWorx Navigate.

There are other applications to consider, such as:

Windchill or Creo
Third-party or custom applications
Side applications for the business like SSO, SDKs, EMS, CRM, HA, or ERP

Recommended Resources:

Get the verification records over compatibility factors through test server results. If your current installations involve third-party apps or complex customizations, verify the version compatibility and functionality and evaluate feedback from the test server.

Other external applications and functionalities like SSO, HA, SDK, and EMS check and validate versions for software like Ping Federate and pgpool – check for features.

After a compatibility check, download appropriate versions and proceed with upgrades.

03. Migrating Extensions

In ThingWorx 9, the migration of extensions is only required for Java extensions, and if you have the following:

Implemented lifecycle events such as initializeEntity and cleanupEntity
Maintain a local state within your implementation
Have local copies (or hard references) of other entities

Things would remain the same for other custom extensions and PTC-provided extensions as it previously was on the current servers. Extensions folders and files can be retrieved from backups. PTC-provided extensions can be downloaded from PTC Product Download or PTC Marketplace in case of higher versions.

Recommended Resources

Migrating Extensions Help Center
PTC Community Support PTC Communities

Validate Upgrade

Test and validate your ThingWorx upgrade according to your test plan. Determine if the upgrade is ready for production.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Execute Test Plan

Re-Enable Non-ThingWorx Software

Gain Acceptance from Stakeholders

Finalize Go-Live Schedule

01. Execute Test Plan

First, determine the order of site/instance. Your test plan needs to be executed as per the plan. Test your application thoroughly by deploying code from your Dev environment to your Test or QA environments. Developers should follow their processes for source control. This upgrade should not require any code changes. Be sure to complete the upgrade before making any changes to your code. Check that each environment shows the appropriate data for the tests you'll conduct. You may need to strip some production data from some environments for integration and system testing. For user acceptance testing (UAT), you should have production or production-like data available. Do count evaluations on server performances because we might have less data on test/QA servers.

Once your code is in a test or QA environment, developers execute your testing plan. Stick to the strategy you created in the planning phase. Your test plan must run through several test scenarios, like adding a new user or interacting with a Mashup with the right frequency of requests. Test every component according to the plan you made, and then compare the results between servers. Always keep security in mind at every stage.

The migration of historical data may take several weeks to migrate the large volume of historical data fully. The recommendation is to import on a rolling basis. Prioritize the data you need to understand trends or make sense of the data you're collecting going forward. If you're retiring any existing systems, migrate that data sooner. Keep in mind, the more data you migrate and store, the more it affects system performance.

Things you need to cover while testing in environments:

Verify user permissions, logins, and data
- To test user permissions, developers should create test user accounts and assign them to each one of your user groups. Use a QA environment that closely resembles production. Then log in as each of the test users.
- Verify that the test user accounts can:
  - Log in as expected
  - Access the right apps
  - Access the right data
  - Take actions in the app as expected
- Make sure your users have the same ThingWorx feature access they originally had before upgrading. They should have access to the right components. Test the user permissions for each user group. If someone can't access a mashup or if they have too much access, change their permissions. Also, verify that each environment shows the appropriate data for each user group, and there should not be any data leakage while the app is up and running.
Licenses
- Ensure that each server has valid licenses. Talk to your Account Representative or PTC Technical Support in case of any issues.
Complete unit and functional testing
- Unit-level testing verifies each piece of functionality works correctly
- Functional testing ensures the application performs the way that a user expects
- If you find any issues, consider rolling the application back to the dev environment for fixing
Confirm System performance
- Once assets are connected and data is flowing, perform various load tests to check whether system load, performance, and availability are acceptable. It's important to stress test the system. Test the user load and device input load. Simulate things to ensure the system doesn't crash under extreme conditions. Monitor and observe the system for a couple of days.
Monitor the data flows, integrations, and connectivity
- Implies on remote connectivity and integration
- Data flow is continuous and integral
Verify logs, entities count, and system stats
- Regular monitoring of logs for any errors/issues
- Count entities to ensure nothing is overlooked
- Overall system stats, health, and configurations
Verify all customizations and extensions
- Ensure all customizations and extensions are appropriately moved to test/QA servers and are in place

Remember that testing is an iterative process. Follow your test plan thoroughly to verify the new version and package. If you find issues, submit IT tickets to get support or go back to your development environment to fix them. Remember to document changes as you write and record test results. Share test results with the project team, including the Project manager, Project sponsor, System admin, ThingWorx admins, and IT team. Your test results help you determine the next steps.

If you need additional help while upgrading ThingWorx, refer back to your support options. Support is available to help you troubleshoot if you get stuck.

Recommended Resources

PTC Technical Support eSupport
Licensing ThingWorx 8.1 and Later Resource Center
License Management Portal

02. Re-Enable Non-ThingWorx Software

Determine which site/instance first to re-enable. Transition your integrations to start feeding data into ThingWorx as planned. After you turn on the integrations, verify the data is flowing from the asset/tool/system as expected. Make sure you're not receiving extraneous data. Compare the data from old systems. Data should be identical. Monitor the data for several hours before you continue through deployments. Consider security measures, network & proxies around each component layer.

Double-check your dependencies and integrations for data leakage. These shouldn't be blocking any connectivity and functionality. Ensure that ThingWorx does not go down under any circumstances, and if an outage occurs, it should be well documented and shared widely.

Verify changes to the visibility and permissions of user groups as needed and update your documentation. You may need to make changes to user groups in ThingWorx Navigate and your source system, like Windchill. If you're working on a custom app, do user acceptance testing to verify user permissions in the next step.

Once the complete system is up and running, monitor logs regularly for any errors. Understand and document the effects of enabling non-ThingWorx software like restart times, downtimes, and workarounds.

Should any issues arise, alert the project team or reach out to PTC Technical Support.

Non-ThingWorx software could include:

Windchill, ThingWorx Navigate, and Creo
Network layers
Firewalls & proxies
External database
ThingWorx connected to external Apps via connectors
External frameworks (Java-based or testing)
Load balancers
Source control systems like SVN or Git
Any third-party applications

Recommended Resources

PTC Community Support PTC Communities
PTC Product Calendar Resource Center
PTC Product Download Resource Center
PTC Marketplace
PTC Help Center Help Center

03. Gain Acceptance from Stakeholders

Have the application in a test/QA environment tested through a selected group of potential users (site managers, frontline workers, or other available participants) to ensure that the upgrade meets their needs and has not negatively impacted their experience. Share test results for all sites with your key stakeholders. Allow them to conduct a UAT of the upgrade. Ensure your app is ready for UAT to pass your integrations and system tests.

Have them review:

Can the user navigate and use the application as they expected?
Did the app function correctly during the test?
Did users see the correct data that they are expected to see?
Is the new functionality confusing?
Is there any data or functionality missing?
Were there any unexpected changes to the application?

To get the most accurate test results, complete UAT in a QA environment that matches your production environment as much as possible.

Recommended Resources

04. Finalize Go-Live Schedule

Before going live with the upgrade, determine which instances or site receives the upgrade first based on testing results. Your previously determined schedule may have changed based on the needs.

Send a reminder once again to ensure the availability of resources as planned. Re-confirm that resources have the right permissions for assigned tasks.

After you have performed all the necessary testing in the test/QA environment with satisfactory results, backups ready, and gained acceptance from key stakeholders, you can plan to finalize the Go-Live schedule. Share the plan widely.

You may get insights during testing and choose to act on them later. If the application does not meet all user needs, decide whether to pause production or launch it.

Prepare End Users

Make sure the people who support and use your ThingWorx applications are ready for go-live.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Manage Existing Documentation

Train Admins, End Users & Support Teams

01. Manage Existing Documentation

Update existing documentation with design changes. This documentation is crucial for supporting and using ThingWorx. We recommend that you document the solution as you build it. Compile the various documentation pieces your team created throughout the project.

Documentation should include:

Organization structure: changes to user groups
Application details: addition/modification to entities
Necessary end-user information: updated end-user instructions; may include credentials as well
Database files: modifications to database schema and maintenance schedule

Keeping the documentation updated will help ensure success with your ThingWorx application.

02. Train Admins, End Users & Support Teams

Provide updated training to admins who did not participate in upgrading ThingWorx. Make sure they’re familiar with the application documentation and understand the solution updates. With the right documentation and training, your support team can resolve issues quickly.

Ensure your end-users know:

How the application has changed
How the changes affect their job or role
How to get help from the support team
Where to access the updated documentation
How to troubleshoot and report errors

Inform end users when the upgrade goes live. A few weeks after deployment, follow up with them to gather feedback.

Recommended Resources

Find Training PTC University
PTC University Training Central (Trainingcentral.ptcu.com)

Go Live

Promote ThingWorx sites to production in order as planned

When you're ready to go live, promote ThingWorx application sites to your production environment. Share progress with stakeholders and update documentation. Once the app is live, notify users and teach them how to access the app.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Promote to Production

Communicate Upgrade to End Users

Complete Project Retrospective or Evaluate Complete

01. Promote to Production

When you're ready to go live, the IT team promotes the upgrade to production. This means to deploy or "publish" the app, making it available to end-users.

During this process, we recommend the following:

Communicate the timing and progress of the deployment to the project team
Identify the systems that will experience an outage and communicate with the teams who manage or monitor them for issues
Back up the systems involved in case of issues, including ThingWorx Navigate, Windchill, and other systems you're connecting with via custom integrations. If you have followed a thorough DevOps process, your work should already be backed up
If you need to troubleshoot, do not make changes to the app in the production environment. If you make changes, update your documentation. In case of any code changes, quickly run out regression test suites
Run a quick smoke test after deployment to verify everything is working as expected.
Verify licenses
Double-check integrations for any data leakage
Monitor the systems closely for a few days after deployment

Once the app is live, notify the project team and stakeholders. The application is now collecting real data, communicating with your assets, and is available for use.

Recommended Resources

Find a PTC Partner
PTC Community Support PTC Communities
Licensing ThingWorx 8.1 and Later Resource Center
License Management Portal eSupport

02. Communicate Upgrade to End Users

The person or group responsible for communicating with end-users should notify all users that the app is live and ready to use. Refer to your communication plan and follow up on any remaining communication and training items.

Make sure your end users are aware of product changes and are ready to use the new functionality. They'll need to know:

What's changing in the app
About new features
How to log in
How to use the app
How to get support or training
Where to find updated documentation
How to report issues

Recommended Resources

03. Complete Project Retrospective or Evaluate Complete

Revisit your original goals and measure the business impact of the upgrade. Gather the data you need to measure success. Evaluate complete project retrospective, metrics, and feedback to identify opportunities to improve processes, reallocate resources, or change your approach on your next project. Reviewing these results can also help you reassess and strategize the next steps. It also helps you communicate positive outcomes as you encourage others to adopt the Upgrade ThingWorx Platform success path.

Explore questions like:

Did you achieve the outcome you identified for your use case through this upgrade project?
What went well throughout the project?
What was challenging?
What did you learn?
How could you have done things differently?
What are the benefits of using new features and functionalities through an upgrade compared to the previous version?
How can you improve for the next project?
Were the test plans and rollout plans effective?
Were there any skillsets missing from the project team?
Did overall communications and training plans go well?
Was the timeline appropriate?

Provide Support

You need to monitor end-user usage, ensure smooth upgrades with no issues, and prepare your internal application support team.

Before you begin, complete these steps:

Steps on this page

Provide Go-Live Support

Transition to Long Term Support

01. Provide Go-Live Support

During and immediately following deployment, the project team and support team should be readily available to resolve any issues. Make sure the workers who support and use your ThingWorx applications are ready for go-live. These users will need permissions to access everything within the application. In addition, users should also know how to reach IT team.

PTC offers the following services to support you with your upgrade:

Dedicated Support Engineers:short term service, support, and attention for go live events or other critical milestones events. Direct phone and email access to a dedicated Support Engineer.
Technical Support Account Managers: long term service to ensure that software is running smoothly. They help manage and prioritize critical issues and project-based requirements. They will take care of onboarding tools and processes and guide you towards a successful upgrade.
Upgrade and Migration Weekend Support: very short-term service where a directly accessible PTC Support Engineer is assigned to provide a higher support level over the weekend. PTC Support Engineer will be well aware of your IT environment, project plan and scope of potential support assistance needed by your organization before the weekend activities

If you are interested in these services, Talk to a Customer Success Expert.

02. Transition to Long Term Support

After deployment, the team who implemented the version upgrade will transfer ownership to your dedicated support organization. This team will be responsible for providing technical support to your ThingWorx Admins and end-users, among other duties. Ensure the application support team is trained and prepared to resolve potential issues.

After the handoff, your support organization should never make changes to the application in production. If there is a problem, make the necessary changes on the development server, test them, and then publish them to production. Finally, note the change in the documentation.

Transferring ownership to the customer’s trained and dedicated support organization should be shared widely, referencing best practices and recommendations.

If your application is running 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, then 1-2 employees should be reachable outside of regular business hours in case of emergencies.

Recommended Resources

Prepare End Users
Talk to Renewal Advisor for Multi-Year Contract
PTC Customer Success Management
Customer Support Packages and Services
PTC Help Center Help Center
Find Training PTC University
ThingWorx Developer Portal (Developer.thingworx.com)
Licensing ThingWorx 8.1 and Later Resource Center
License Management Portal

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Product Documentation

Find detailed technical documentation on Creo+ in our Help Center

Ask the Community

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Upgrade Your ThingWorx Platform

Establish Testing Environment

01. Backup ThingWorx

02. Create a Testing Environment

03. Validate the Testing Tools and Processes

04. Identify Resources Required to Validate

05. Turn off Non-ThingWorx Software

Table of Contents

Overview: Upgrade Your ThingWorx Platform

What is a Success Path?

Discover What's New

01. New Features and Functionality

02. Review Roadmap

03. Why Upgrade to ThingWorx 9+

04. Understand Upgrade Options

Evaluate Requirements to Upgrade

01. Review your Customizations

02. Compare your Backlog

03. Determine Unique Production Instance Activities

04. When to Upgrade

05. PTC Product Compatibility

06. Determine Security and Compliance Updates

07. Determine Changes to Infrastructure

08. Select an Upgrade Option

Assemble an Upgrade Team

01. Understand the Skill Sets Needed

02. Assemble Your Project Team

03. Determine Outside Resources Needed

04. Identify Project Stakeholders

05. Create a Team Communications Plan

06. Plan Feedback Mechanism

07. Determine Training Needs

Document a Test Strategy

01. Pilot the Upgrade

02. Determine All Areas for Testing

03. What to Test

04. Document Test Plan

Adjust Adoption and Communication Strategy

01. Understand the Impact to Each Site

02. Understand Impact to End Users

03. Document a Training Plan for Users

04. Create a Communication Plan

Create a Rollout Plan

01. Determine Unique Instance Activities

02. Create an Upgrade Schedule

03. Update Application Support Documentation

04. Document Execution Plan for Each Instance

05. Document Implementation and Project Plan for Each Instance

06. Determine how to manage your ThingWorx applications

07. Manage your Change Management Plan

Finalize Upgrade Project Plan

01. Determine the Cost of the Upgrade

02. Receive Approval on Cost of Upgrade

03. Communicate Plan to Sites

Acquire Equipment and Resources

01. Secure Resources for Project

02. Acquire Necessary Hardware and Software

Access the Software

01. Access your PTC Account

02. Download the Software

03. Generate a New License

04. Understand the PTC Support Process

Establish Testing Environment

01. Backup ThingWorx

02. Create a Testing Environment

03. Validate the Testing Tools and Processes

04. Identify Resources Required to Validate

05. Turn off Non-ThingWorx Software

Upgrade ThingWorx

01. Run Upgrade Process

02. Other Application Co-Upgrade

03. Migrating Extensions

Validate Upgrade

01. Execute Test Plan

02. Re-Enable Non-ThingWorx Software

03. Gain Acceptance from Stakeholders

04. Finalize Go-Live Schedule

Prepare End Users

01. Manage Existing Documentation

02. Train Admins, End Users & Support Teams