Preparing for upgrades

Review this list before upgrading the Speech Suite software:

  • Ensure you have a valid license for the new Speech Suite version. To get a new license, see Get a license file.
  • Check the prerequisite third-party software and update as needed. See Install third-party software.
  • If updating the database, it is best to perform the update before upgrading Speech Suite. See Upgrading database software.
  • Download the Speech Suite installation packages. See Downloading installation packages for Linux or Downloading installation packages for Windows.
  • On Windows you can upgrade if already using Windows 2019. Speech Suite 11.0.6 and later support this version of Windows.
  • On Linux, you can upgrade from Speech Suite 11.0.9 and above. You cannot upgrade from earlier versions. (Instead, prepare a new installation of this release.) Check the release notes for operating system compatibility before starting any upgrade.
  • Back up configuration files for Speech Suite services to use as reference. You cannot restore whole configuration files because the new release might contain new parameters.

  • If you run a licensed product andLicense Manager on different hosts, you must set a parameter to point the speech product to the License Manager location. Before the upgrade, take note of the parameters and values for each speech product. After the upgrade, verify the parameters and update them if needed. If you are upgrading from 11.0.6 or earlier, the parameter that points NLEto the License Manager was moved from the NLE configuration file $MEE_HOME/config/SpeechWorks.cfg to the license.path service property.

  • If you are using Management Station:

      Note: Nuance recommends that you review the supported database versions and ensure you install the desired version before installing or upgrading Speech Suite. This is easier than updating the database after installing or upgrading Speech Suite. (See the Speech Suite release notes for database version details.)

    • Back up the mserver database. See Backing up and restoring a database.
    • During the upgrade, your previous password and password-security settings are preserved.
    • If using a MySQL database, check whether the hostname for the MySQL user account has changed since last installing Speech Suite. You might need to update the credentials for the user account. See Create a MySQL user account.
    • If you upgraded MySQL on Linux, the Connector/C library file, which Speech Server requires for statistics collection, might have moved to a different directory. Create a symbolic link to the file to ensure Speech Server can locate it. See Install the MySQL Connector/C.

    • Nuance Recognizer users—for best results, recompile binary speech grammars after an upgrade. This is not strictly required because older grammars usually process correctly in newer releases. However, mixing older and newer can reveal incompatibilities and cause errors that are difficult to trace. Recompilation is a safer and cost-effective alternative.