Symptoms

Deployment of changes to custom K2 Connect Service Object from Dev to Prod
 

Diagnoses

I have created a package and deployment package for the associated Smart Forms, Views, and Objects associated with the solution. However, the major change was made in the mapping of the custom K2 Connect Service Object Method. These changes were published from Visual Studio to the Dev environment. The changes need to be deployed to the production environment but retain the same GUID as in Dev as the remainder of the solution is expecting a Service Object with this GUID. The solution is currently in use and I need to deploy the changes without issue. We can not have any significant downtime. Also, it would be good to know how to take a backup of the current production deployment including the Service Object for quick restore in the event that something unexpected does occur.
 

Resolution

Based on the attached K2_Package_and_Deployment_PDF.pdf, SmartObjects created using K2 connect can be packaged and deployed using the Package and Deployment interface.
However, the K2 connect Service objects (in *.SVD file format) associated with these SmartObjects cannot be packaged and deployed using the K2 Package and Deployment interface.
The relevant K2 connect Service objects must be manually pre-created on the target environment before the relevant SmartObjects are packaged and deployed to the target environment using K2 Package and Deployment.
K2 connect Service objects must be deployed using the following procedure:

Option 1.
1. Pre-create the relevant *.SVD-format Service objects at the target environment by manually copying the Service objects from the source environment (on the local machine) to the target environment.
2. Open the relevant K2 connect Service objects in a new Visual Studio project. Publish the Service objects.
3. Package and deploy the K2 connect SmartObjects associated with the Service objects from the source environment to the target environment, using K2 Package and Deployment.
With this option, you will need to have VS that was installed and point to each environment separately. You can not set Prod Service Object as default unless both environments use same K2 Connect DB.

Option 2.
You can publish Connect Service Object via K2 Connect Admin Tool. Please see attached K2_solution_deployment_guide.pdf.

So to back up K2 Connect Service Object, I would recommend making a backup copy of Service Object Project that contains the SVD files and create a Package of K2 Connect SmartObject using Package and Deployment tool. In the event that you need to roll back, you can republish your SVD and redeploy your SmartObject successfully.