We work hard to ensure backward compatibility between CloverDX releases as much as possible. However, it’s not always possible to combine the evolution and progress of the product with every single feature of the past. Here are a few best practices for upgrading CloverDX:
1. Ask us to help you with the upgrade. If you want to ensure the smoothest upgrade process and minimize downtime, our experts can assist you with not only the upgrade itself but also with migrating your legacy graphs and jobflows into the new version. This is especially useful for clients who are skipping a couple of versions and upgrading complex environments with lots of investment into graphs, jobflows, and configuration. Our Plus and Enhanced plans come with built-in Professional Services which are intended especially for small projects like these to keep you up-to-date, utilizing the latest best practices and keeping the headaches away. However, if you're on the Standard plan or are running out of Professional Services hours, no need to worry. Contact your account manager to arrange an upgrade assistance project with you.
2. Check “Compatibility” entries in Release Notes. When we make changes to the product that affect compatibility with earlier versions, you’ll find details about the change mentioned in the Compatibility section of the release notes as well as on the detailed list of individual changes for each release. We always try to avoid introducing major incompatibilities but if we occasionally do, you’ll find them almost exclusively on major releases. Bugfix releases typically don’t introduce issues with compatibility, but there have been cases where a fix (and the new correct behavior) was a potential source of incompatibility. We recommend checking compatibility entries for all releases on your upgrade path.
3. Upgrade Designer and Server together. We always release Designer and Server together under a single version. It's highly recommended to upgrade Server and all Designers at the same time. Although using different versions of Designer to connect to Server might work, it is not generally supported. Therefore, download both the Designer and Server you wish to upgrade to. (navigate to Download at the Customer Portal).
4. Make backups. Although none of the upgrade steps requires explicit backup, we recommend you always back up your work (mainly Server’s database, sandboxes on all nodes, and Server configuration). The upgrade process keeps all your transformations, jobflows, and configurations safe. However, as a good word of advice, it never hurts to have a backup. More information on how to use the backup files if it needs to can be found here.
5. Deploy to a test environment first. Before making any changes to your production environment you should set up an independent test/development environment where you can test the new version using (ideally) identical conditions to your prod - OS, application server, database. At this step, you can also update and test the graphs and jobs with regards to known issues and compatibility for the particular CloverDX version.
6. Plan for downtime. Upgrading Server requires downtime, so plan your upgrades in advance and let users know.
7. Perform the upgrade following these guides. Please take a look at the documentation pages and follow the instructions precisely:
Please note that if you are upgrading from version 4.8 and older, you should be aware of a new Server structure since version 4.9. By default since 4.9.0, jobs (graphs, jobflow, data services) are executed in a standalone JVM called Worker. Please pay attention to the "Configuration Changes" section in the “CloverDX Server upgrade” page which should address all necessary details.
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