Symptoms
When performing upgrade from K2 blackpearl 4.6.4/SmarForms 1.0.6 to 4.6.9 upgrade process fails for K2 SmartForms on database configuration stage with the following error logged in SmartForms installer trace log:
Logged Error: SqlException.Number != -2, so not handling it as a timeout. SqlException.Number = 6355. Exception: Conversion of one or more characters from XML to target collation impossible
This error is non-recoverable and requires database restore to return your K2 environment back to working state.
Diagnoses
As noted earlier the following error logged in SmartForms installer trace log:
Logged Error: SqlException.Number != -2, so not handling it as a timeout. SqlException.Number = 6355. Exception: Conversion of one or more characters from XML to target collation impossible
Next it is possible to see that SourceCode.Data.Form_1_0_8.upgrade.sql script also failed with exception – “Conversion of one or more characters from XML to target collation impossible”.
This error message related with the fact that K2 database in the target environment was created with unsupported collation, e.g. SQL_Latin1_General_CP1251_CI_AS. The only supported collation for K2 database is Latin1_General_CI_AS as stated in official documentation:
http://help.k2.com/onlinehelp/K2blackpearl/ICG/current/webframe.html_Microsoft_SQL_Server_2008__Reporting_Services.html
To reiterate, SQL and Reporting Services Operational requirements for K2 are following:
Case sensitive databases are NOT supported.
The following collation setting is required: Latin1_General_CI_AS
The above collation setting is required for all K2 Databases and also on SQL service instance level as K2 makes extensive use of temp tables in the tempdb – which inherits its collation from the masterdb – which inherits its collation from the SQL Instance.
Resolution
This error with failing SmartForms 4.6.9 upgrade is a known issue logged internally (“K2 SmartForms Installer fails on upgrades with Conversion of one or more characters from XML to target collation impossible”) and it happens only in case your K2 database has unsupported collation. This issue is addressed in 4.6.10 release and there is also updated 4.6.9 SmartForms installer available upon through support request.
