ColdFusion 2023 Installer - Previous Serial Number Question

[Jason_:D]

I have a server that is running ColdFusion 2018.  I'm running the CF2023 installer and get to this screen:

Accrording to the official online documentation (Install the server configuration (adobe.com)) it says:

Previous Serial Number: Enter the serial number of a previously installed version of ColdFusion. Enter this number along with the serial number for the new ColdFusion installation.

Use the previous serial number if you upgrading ColdFusion from a previous version.

What I don't understand is why the Previous Serial Number text box remains greyed out and allowing no input no matter what what choices are made.  I can input my CF2023 Enterprise serial and get the green checkmark, but the Previous Serial Number remains greyed out.  I tried check the check box options which also made no difference.  I do have the CF2018 Enterprise key to provide if it would let me.  Could it be that it's because I'm upgrading from CF2018 and not CF2021?

I'm asking mainly out of curiosity because I did decide to just input my CF2023 serial and click Next and run through the installer.  Near the end of the install it indicated that it found the CF2018 instance and that it was migrating the settings.  The installer completed without errors.

[Charlie Arehart · Accepted solution]

Jason, there's good news (and a simple answer is, "you're ok"). But as always, some more context will help you and may help other/future readers.

Indeed, the very brevity of that doc page AND especially that installer screen are to blame for your confusion. Then, too you're bringing an expectation they just didn't anticipate. 🙂

First, to be clear, that second field is only there for (and need only be filled out) if you bought an "update" license for the new version, which as you may know is sold at half price--though only for those on the immediately preceding version (cf2021, in the case of cf2023.) In that case, the license key entered into the first field would detect whether it's an "update" license, and if so only THEN would it want you to enter the "old" license...and to be clear, it would ONLY accept a CF2021 license. (Good for you that you bought a full license, given you were on CF2018.)

Second, you noticed that at the end the installer launched the Admin, and on first launch it runs a "migration wizard" which did indeed detect that you had a previous CF version and offered to import those previous settings. This is where you seem to have thought it might only do that IF you put in the previous license. Nope, no need for that. 🙂 This migration wizard doesn't pay ANY attention to what was the license of the previous installation: it JUST pulls in admin settings. Yay.

So again, bottom line, you're good. And perhaps someone from Adobe might take away from this an opportunity for improvement. It's hard to know how many other people might have a similar point of confusion, yet wouldn't raise it. Good on ya' for having the curiosity (and gumption) to ask. And as you can see, we here in the community and sometimes Adobe folks as well are here to help.

BTW, if you may want to lodge a formal "feature request" that they should consider improving either that installer or the docs page, you can file that at tracker.adobe.com (which is also where folks can file CF bugs). They really do pay attention to those: they don't always implement suggestions or even fix every reported bug, but still, it's worth giving them a chance.

[Jason_:D]

Thanks Charlie for the clarification.  I figured it was something nuanced as you explained.  The funny thing is my expectation was formed by the documentation itself; which is lacking in the specifics that you provided.

Thanks again.