ColdFusion 11 Update 14 OS Migration

[harishr69666423]

Currently we have servers running on Coldfusion 11 Update 14 and the windows version is 2008 R2. Our company is planning to migrate from windows 2008 to 2016. My questions are

* Does CF 11 update 14 servers support windows 2016?

* Will the migration be smooth?

* Will the application running be smooth after the migration?

* Will it affect the back end database connection?

Thank you.

[Charlie Arehart]

The answer is not a simple yes or no. There are two aspects to this question: the CF installer and the web server configuration tool, and then out of that flow other things to consider.

1) A first big question is whether you will be updating the OS in place, or moving to a new machine running 2016.

To be clear, while Adobe created a new CF2016 installer in Apr 2017 to run on Windows 2016, they never created an updated CF11 installer for that (because as you may know, once CF2016 came out, they no longer offered an installer for CF11—just like now that CF2018 is out, they no longer even offer the installer for CF2016.)

So if you are installing onto a NEW server, you could have trouble. (When I first replied here in Sept 2018, I said "CF11 won’t install" but that's not so, as Aquitaine later reported he did it successfully. The rest of what I say stands.)

But if instead you UPDATE a current Windows edition below Server 2016 or Windows 10 to that version, then of course you don’t NEED to install CF11, and won’t have that problem.  But you will now run into another problem.

2) The second issue is about the web server configuration tool. That looks at the IIS version you have installed, and if you are on a version of CF that does NOT yet support the newer version of IIS (which newer versions of Windows always have), then you will find that you can’t run the tool.

So here again, if you are updating a box already running an older Windows to Server 2016 or 10, then your site will still “work”, but if you try to use the web server config tool, it will complain that it can’t support that version of IIS.

Good news with this is that Adobe DID offer new updates for CF11 (and 10) that DID add that needed support for the newer IIS version. It was update 7 for CF11, and update 18 for CF10, as discussed here:

https://coldfusion.adobe.com/2015/11/coldfusion-11-update-7-and-coldfusion-10-update-18-are-now-avai...

But note that that post does NOT distinguish things as well as it could. Again the update supports running the web server connector (on Windows 10 or 2016) but it does NOT modify the INSTALLER for CF10 or 11 on Windows 10 or 2016. CF updates affect a currently installed CF, they do NOT affect the CF installer.

Again, only in Windows 2016 (in Apr 2017) did Adobe create a new INSTALLER for Windows 10 or Server 2016:

https://coldfusion.adobe.com/2017/04/coldfusion-2016-support-for-windows-server-2016/

So bottom line: if you update your current Windows to 2016 or 10, then CF11 or 10 will “work”. And your IIS sites will “work”. But if you try to use the CF web server config tool (to add or remove CF integration with IIS sites), that will fail until you get the update 7 (for 11, or update 18 for CF10).

And to your last point, there should be no change in “back end database connection”, as long as that DB itself is not changing. That said, again, if you move to a NEW box, then you could find DB connection problems if the DB has a firewall that prevents access to the new server, etc. That of course is not about CF and can be readily corrected.

I will say finally that if you have trouble with things, I offer CF server troubleshooting consulting (including tuning, updating, security, and more). See the consulting page at carehart.org for more. But I hope the above may be enough help you and future readers who have your question.

/charlie

[harishr69666423]

Thank you so much, Charlie.

[Aquitaine]

Hi Charlie,

Something came up for us where we wanted to see if we could get ACF11 running on a fresh install of Windows Server 2016, mostly out of curiosity to ease transition from one server host to another. I don't know if something has changed on the Windows side since the Adobe installer from 2015 is the same, but we were able to install it just fine using the "built-in development server" option -- so maybe it's wsconfig that is the problem?

All we'd do to make it production-ready is install the Boncode AJP connector (rather than use wsconfig) and configure the AJP port in Tomcat. Not an "out of the box" install but not at all difficult should anyone else come across this thread and need to do it!

[Charlie Arehart]

Thanks for the update and clarifications. I see I incorrectly overstated things in saying cf11 would "not install" on server 2016. Again I was basing that on how Adobe had created a new installer for server 2016 only for cf2016 (and not cf11).

But yep, I'd added in my point 2 how the wsconfig would be a problem also, with iis 10. And while one can indeed use the boncode connector (though not supported by Adobe), note how I'd said you would be able to use IIS 10 with cf11 after applying cf11 update 7. You may want to give that a try, before going the boncode route, just to know your available options.

I will edit my reply above to correct my mistake, in case as you say others may find this thread in the future (and if they were to stop at my first reply). Fortunately it will only require changing that one point and the rest will stand. I'll leave indication of what I changed, so that the reason for your subsequent comment will be clear to readers.

[Charlie Arehart]

One more thought on all this: I was trying to think what had led me to think the install wouldn't run. I think instead I was thinking of Cf10. I did mention above how it's update 18 did also for running the wsconfig with IIS 10.

Amd as some will recall, the original installer for CF10 (in 2012) came out with Java 6 as the embedded jvm...but also, the CF installer software (installanywhere) did ALSO come out with a check for the OS, and if it's an older version of the installer and doesn't recognize the newer OS, then the installer will fail.

BTW, there may well be different cf11 installers that could behave differently in this regard, which may be what I had in mind back in Sept.