You will need the base V15 version which is LP2 and move up from there.

Are there any restrictions on setting up a local database instance for the above Astea installation?

(for testing purposes) 

you can set up Alliance DB at any location you want.

Thank you very much @BorisShvets !!

I recommend installing the full Publisher higher than 15.0 LP2.  There were fixes that required reinstalling publisher (starting with 15.1 HF5).  I know 15.3 came with a full Publisher installer but don’t recall if 15.4 did.

As for the pre-requisites, this is covered in the pre-planning guide that comes with the installation.  Pay attention to granting the service account used for the app pools full access to the AsteaShare location. 

Even though most of the modules have transitioned to the Web Employee Portal fully, not all have.  For example the Dispatch Console and Customizer.  Thus why you need to install Publisher so you have an Astea Browser Employee Portal.

@Phil Seifert so can I straight away install astea publisher 15.3 without installing older versions of the publisher? assuming the astea alliance installation was done in the proper order? (15.0 LP2 upwards)

Yes, when you install the full version, you generally also need to uninstall any previous versions first.

@Phil Seifert Thanks !!

For development environments, you can have multiple full-versions installed; but to have multiple instances with different service pack levels, you will need to first install the base package and then install the upgrade package.  The last instance installed is the one that gets upgraded.  Otherwise, you will have to modify the install path in the registry to ensure the correct version is upgraded. @Pranavan Paranthaman, I believe I covered this topic with you during training, but if you’d like, I can re-post here.

@Andrew D'Antonio thank you and please do share the post here if you have time, I think it will benefit other members as well.

When you install Alliance V15, there is an option to install a separate instance if a previous version is already installed. (This option is only available in the FULL release).

Once installed, the following registry key is updated with the install path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Astea\15.0\AsteaAlliance\InstallPath

Running upgrades will upgrade this specific instance.  For example, if this registry value is C:\Program Files\Astea Alliance 15.0\ and I run the 15.4.0.0 upgrade, the instance in this location will be upgraded to 15.4.0.0.

If there are multiple instances installed, you will need to modify this path to re-point to the path of the instance that you need upgraded.

This only applies to environments.  It is not typical for customers to have multiple instances of a specific version installed.