I am trying to upgrade Sitecore 9.0 to Sitecore 9.2. Couldn't find any specific way except first upgrading to Sitecore 9.0.2 and then proceed further. But, this way getting many errors related with config file. Is there any other way to upgrade directly to 9.2 verion? Any help would be a highly appreciated. Thanks.
The alternative method to 'upgrade' which I often look to is to spin up a clean install of the newer version and then migrate my old code into a new solution which will already have all the latest configs/ Sitecore base code in place.
Doing this means you can just patch your custom app config settings and ensure the Sitecore dependencies in your solution are the newer version which can often be a cleaner/simpler way to go.
There are a couple of things to consider before doing this however, such as whether you need to keep your data in XDB etc. as it would mean that you may need to look at migrating it which can be a pain and since you are looking at 9.0 to 9.2, you'd have additional services to consider as well such as Identity and may need to account for that kind of thing too.
Related
I am currently trying to upgrade a Sitecore installation from 7.5 to 8.1 Update 3 and I can't seem to figure out a good process that won't take weeks and weeks. I have posted questions on other blog posts and also to the official Sitecore Community site but have not really gotten any good feedback. Here is what I am trying to do.
I need to upgrade Sitecore from 7.5 to 8.1 Update 3. To do that it looks like I need to do 3 separate upgrades:
7.5 to 8.0 Initial Release
8.0 Initial Release to 8.1 Initial Release
8.1 Initial Release to 8.1 Update 3
In addition we are using both the Email Campaign Manager (ECM) and the Webforms for Marketers (WFFM) modules. Each of those modules has its own separate upgrade instructions.
Also we have servers in 3 different environments: 1 in DEV, 1 in QA and 3 in PROD (1 CM and 2 CD)
The upgrades of Sitecore itself are long and tedious and filled with many manual steps prone to error. I am already on my 3rd attempt to upgrade my DEV site and it seems every time I do it I get about half way through and I run in to lots of errors. In addition the instructions for upgrading ECM/EXM seem to not allow you to skip to major releases. So to upgrade EXM itself I am going to have to do 10 individual upgrades!!!
I am trying desperately to figure out if there are any shorter ways to accomplish this upgrade. This is so complicated and tedious that I feel like it will take me one or two days just to upgrade the DEV site. Then another one or two days to upgrade the QA site - assuming I don't run in to any errors that I can't figure out.
Then after that I have absolutely no idea how I am going to upgrade PROD. I have a CM server and 2 CD servers. There's no way I can freeze content entry and editing for a week while I do the upgrade. Plus we have some user generated content like user registrations and order entries on the site. How can I upgrade PROD and not lose registrations and order entries and other user generated content?
I was hoping that there would be some easier way of doing a Sitecore upgrade from one major version to the next but I can't seem to figure it out. No matter what I try it is incredibly complex and manual and prone to error.
Any help is appreciated.
Corey
One option could also be installing a new version of Sitecore 8.1 update 3 and run a database comparison tool (such as RAZL) to get across the items in your new Sitecore instance.
You could get the items across using the regular Sitecore packages although that's more time-consuming unless you automate that using something like Sitecore Ship or Courier.
You'll also need to check your code of course, any config changes you're patching in etc. still will have to be tested.
Mind you, this is not recommended practice for reasons you can find in the blogpost jammykam posted in a comment (http://www.seanholmesby.com/the-truth-about-sitecore-upgrades/)
There's rumors of an Express upgrade tool in 8.2 that will allow you to upgrade directly from an old version. I don't have an official source, but there's a few blog posts about this, this for example: http://kverheire.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/sitecore-82-in-depth-preview-83-update.html
I believe the people who actually have more info on that are bound by NDA - so you'd have to ask Sitecore directly for more info.
If you can't wait for 8.2 - then you can also create new blank environments of a newer version and write your own processes for migrating data across. Not sure how easy this will be with EXM, WFFM, or Analytics though.
The Sitecore documentation provides some pretty clear instructions on how to configure a Sitecore instance as a processing server:
https://doc.sitecore.net/sitecore_experience_platform/xdb_configuration/configure_a_processing_server
However, many of those steps require enabling/disabling of files manually on the installed server. Has anybody seen or built a patch file (similar to SwitchMasterToWeb) that can disable/enable the appropriate functionality as a patch? I would rather not touch the default Sitecore install and instead rely on automated deployment of configuration patches.
I haven't seen this as a patch and not sure if its possible to do this with just one patch (would love to be proved wrong), but for something like this I've used a Powershell script.
I set up Octopus Deploy to run a Powershell script step after deploy to disable files and change settings if patch files can't do the job.
I can highly recommend the Powercore tools for this kind of thing.
https://github.com/adoprog/Sitecore-PowerCore/tree/master/Framework/ConfigUtils
If anybody else winds up looking for this, I've posted some work up on GitHub for patch files for a variety of versions for 8.0:
https://github.com/jst-cyr/Sitecore-Role-Configs
The patches there will do the 'disable/enable/change' for authoring, delivery, or processing. I don't have one for the reporting server.
Sitecore has evaluated POC for same. At this point of time applciable for Sitecore CMS 8.1 rev. 160302 (Update-2). See here-
https://github.com/Sitecore/Sitecore-Configuration-Roles
Recently we have upgraded a project from sitecore 6.5 to sitecore 8.0 update 5, and we are now in the process to go live, but we want to migrate the data from the live environment so we can deploy the upgraded site.
We always migrate the data by serializing the items in the content tree or creating sitecore packages. Is It safe to do this, specially we will move the items from sitecore 6.5 to 8, Any potential errors might happen? Are there another techniques we can use?
I have taken this approach with an upgrade from 7.2 to 8.0 update 3 without any problems.
There was a change to the structure of the rules engine in 7.1, so if you are making use of rules in your content you might run in to a few problems. It's shouldn't break Sitecore completely, but you might have to reapply the rules.
While I'm quite comfortable with the content migration approach to upgrades, not everybody feels the same way. Here's a blog post that raises some concerns you might want to consider:
The Truth About Sitecore Upgrades
I'm planning a migration on a server from ColdFusion MX7 (Server 2003) to ColdFusion 11(Server 2012). There is a Other Server Where I need to migrate from ColdFusion 8 (Server 2008) to ColdFusion 11. Does my System effect in any way when upgrading like tags, or compatibility issues. Does anyone know which steps I should without effecting. I know about the code analyzer that we had in Cf administrator. I want to know if there is anything effected seriously when migrating.
Thanks in Advance
Kiran Kumar
The Code Analyzer helps in migrating your applications to ColdFusion 11 from earlier versions of ColdFusion. However, it checks the same for only two versions back. The Code Analyzer reviews the CFML pages that you specify and informs you of any potential compatibility issues. It detects unsupported and deprecated CFML features, and outlines the required implementation changes that ensure a smooth migration.
As far as the code compatibility is concerned, everything "should" work. However, it is recommended to check the code compatibility and deprecated tags (if any). You can refer to https://wikidocs.adobe.com/wiki/display/coldfusionen/Deprecated+Features & https://wikidocs.adobe.com/wiki/display/coldfusionen/Deprecated+tags,+attributes,+and+values.
I have briefly covered the entire Migration process here. So, will not iterate the same. Also, you can have a look at another helpful article for Migration Tweaks.
Having said that all, it's strongly recommended to test your website on the Testing/Development environment, before moving it on Production.
Hope this gives a better picture of the migration process.
I did the migration in the past, did not face important issue, as everyone have a different system the best solution would
- Backup
- Test the upgrade and see
if it's a production machine, you can copy your machine to a vm and test the upgrade there. it's may be a lot of work, but you can not know if you don't test
I am currently moving a ColdFusion 9 site to Coldfusion 11 and the way I tested it was to create a separate set of folders on the ms2013 server. I ran them side by side with a duplicate database with a different name for the test site.
I have moved sites up from 5 to 9 with few issues and the only one that really got me in ColdFusion 11 is dbtype in database functions. It has not only been depreciated but will always throw an error if found.
It also depends on how Coldfusion 11 will react to cfcs and other special tags if you use them. I don't so it was a snap.
Examples:
mydatabase
mydatabase1
mypagesfolder
mypagesfolder1
index.cfm
index1.cfm
Going live was a snap. I just renamed the folders, links*, dsn and renamed index1.cfm to index.cfm.
*Links only need to be changed if posting outside of folder and if so just the path.
Recently Sitecore 8 has released and it has came up with lot of exciting new features. So our team decided to move from Sitecore 6.6 to Sitecore 8. Before migrating, i would like to know what all things i should be having in handy. Such as, .net Framework, Hardware configuration, environment etc.
Also, i would like to know the procedure to migrate from 6.6 to 8? I, never involved in sitecore migration project before. Please suggest me some good articles or post here your thoughts.
Thanks in advance. :)
See the Sitecore Compatibility Table for the .NET Framework, SQL Server version and Windows version.
Two common approaches.
1) Follow the Sitecore upgrade path.
2) Package the content, and start with a clean install.
Currently I working on a upgrade with an scripted upgrade that follow the Sitecore path. So I can easy repeat the steps and have the latest content in the databases.
I have some of my findings put down here Sitecore update and modules this article contain also a Related links section. Such as the upgrade white paper from Varun
Depending on how 'cluttered' your existing instance is, you may also want to consider installing a fresh copy of Sitecore 8 and then migrate your data/code to avoid all the hops that would be necessary to get to 8.
May be the following blog might help. Take a look at it.
https://varunvns.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/sitecore-version-upgrade-whitepaper/
I would recommend you make a backup of your site to use as a "sandbox" for the upgrade. Copy your databases and the web root for your site to a new location and then set up an IIS site with appropriate permissions pointing to your copy, and change your connection strings in the copy to point to a copy of the databases you backed up.
Perform the update there and ensure everything is working correctly. Work slowly to make sure you are following instructions correctly and note any special actions you had to take to perform the upgrade. Once you have it upgraded, perform the same process on the "real" site.
If you work with a Sitecore partner, I would highly encourage you to discuss the process with them to learn more specifics about the risks and challenges you may encounter during your upgrade.