What Is Ellucian Solution Manager (ESM)?
Ellucian Solution Manager is the tool Banner 9 institutions use to install, upgrade and deploy Banner applications across environments. What it does and best practices.
What is Ellucian Solution Manager (ESM)?
Ellucian Solution Manager (ESM) is a web-based tool for managing on-premises Banner environments. It downloads Banner releases, applies database upgrades, builds and deploys Banner 9 web applications, and tracks which release of each product is installed in each environment, such as development, test and production.
Overview
ESM is the control panel for Banner upgrades. It replaced much of the manual scripting that Banner 8-era upgrades required.
What ESM does
| Task | How ESM helps |
|---|---|
| Release download | Fetches available Banner releases for your products |
| Prerequisite checks | Shows release dependencies and order |
| Database upgrades | Runs the database portion of a release |
| Application builds | Builds Banner 9 web applications, including local customisations |
| Deployment | Deploys applications to app servers |
| Inventory | Tracks installed releases per environment |
Best practices
- Keep ESM itself current, since newer releases may need newer ESM versions.
- Mirror production in a test environment and upgrade there first.
- Bundle releases by module to reduce regression cycles. See our guide to finding your Banner patching cadence.
- Record every upgrade: which releases, which environment, who approved it.
- Recompile invalid objects and run health checks after each upgrade.
Tip: Treat ESM environment definitions as critical configuration. Back them up and document them.
Frequently asked questions
ESM is mainly used by institutions that manage their own Banner environments. In Ellucian SaaS, Ellucian manages upgrades.
ESM can run upgrades, but institutions should always promote releases through test environments first and schedule production changes in maintenance windows.
Last reviewed by the ITCadence Banner team. Ellucian product capabilities vary by version and licence; confirm details against current Ellucian documentation.
