server migration to new version

cloudistics

I'm working on an upgrade for our suite (bitbucket, Jira, Confluence) And i'm wondering  whats the best way to proceed. Can i stand up the newest version of each and migrate the data from the old version on the old server, or should I stand up identical versions on new boxes and upgrade the new boxes afterwards?

Dave Theodore [Coyote Creek Consulting]

Depends on which versions you are going from and to.  If your tools are fairly modern, you can probably go directly to the latest version. If they are pretty far back, you may need to do an interim upgrade to another old version, and then upgrade to the latest.  Read the upgrade notes for the product you plan to upgrade and you should find out what the upgrade path is.  Some 3rd party Apps also have specific upgrade procedures too, so it would be worth researching this for each App that you use, as well. Database versions can often have support removed for them, as well. Be sure to research the "supported platforms" (google search for this: "jira 7.12 supported platforms" for example) and make sure the database version you are running is supported.  If you're unlucky, you will need to upgrade your database too. This process varies, depending on which database technology you are using and how far back you are. It would be a good time to set up the Bitbucket Backup Client as well, if you haven't already. You need to use this to back up Bitbucket, and not just back up the home directory and DB.

As far as the process goes, I would recommend setting up a development instance that is an exact copy of your production instance.  Perform the upgrade there and identify a repeatable process that you can use during your production downtime. This also gives you the opportunity to measure the time it takes, so that you know how much down time to ask for. I would not recommend performing the upgrade on your production servers for the first time without testing.

I hope that helps!