Steps to update from 2.2.7 to 3.0.6

[sjbforpresident]

Hi all,

The firm I work at would like to upgrade their current version of OTRS from 2.2.7 on a Linus server to 3.0.6/7 with ITSM on either a Linux or Windows server. This is because we would like to take advantage of some of the reporting features in newer versions of OTRS and possibly build a customer portal for making and viewing tickets in the IT department.

Before we can do this, we face a number of challenges. Firstly, the member of staff who put our installation of 2.2.7 on the system is no longer with us, and did not leave a whole lot of documentation behind. Secondly, he installed OTRS on a Linus server, but none of the remaining members of staff know as much about Linux as he did. Thirdly, since we're making such a big leap from 2.2 to 3.0, I believe it will be a very long upgrade path to get our database of tickets onto the new system.

So here are some of the options that I can think of. Please, if anyone has any improvements, refinements or alternative suggestions, feel free to make them. I will probably be making quite a few posts on this forum as I learn the ins and outs of upgrading OTRS.

Option 1:
Take an image of the existing OTRS server, and on a test machine or virtual machine, go through the upgrade paths for OTRS as documented in the admin manual. Once I have worked out a process that works, document it and then do this on the production system. This has the disadvantage that it is still on Linux, and I am no expert here.

Option 2:
Export the existing database to a dedicated Windows virtual machine that will be solely used as an OTRS server. This will not be too expensive, as we are a charity and get very cheap licences from Microsoft. Again, go through the upgrade paths to 3.0 before installing ITSM.

These are very, very basic outlines, so if anyone can help me flesh them out into a workable process, that would be much appreciated. I know I haven't included a lot of detail about our current systems, so if more detail is needed, please let me know and I'll find out.

Thanks very much

[ferrosti]

I did this a couple of months ago on our IT OTRS.
Changing from Linux to Windows is said to be possible, but 2.2 to 3.0 change codepages to default to UTF-8. I´d be aware of failures regarding this.

The Linux tutorials and the UPGRADING file is quite straight and should give you a clue of what has to be done.
I did it almost the same way as you mentioned. I first followed the instructions on a backup machine, then I automated the process and ran it on our live system. Documentation should also do it, but we have had lots of modifications which I deinstalled first and therefor automated all of it.

In your case I would setup a second machine and run the upgrade on this one as a test and documentation example. As soon as all errors from upgrading are corrected you´ll be good to go on the live system.

[sjbforpresident]

Thanks ferrosti. When you went from 2.2.7 to 3 did you go straight there, or did you install 2.3-2.4 along the way? I'm getting lots of errors since our old install came from a Debian package

[ferrosti]

You cannot upgrade straight from 2.2 to 3.0. You´ll have to take the whole upgrade path from 2.2 over 2.3, 2.4 to 3.0. Depending on your DB size this may take a couple of hours even when it is automated.

Doing this it is VERY important to follow all steps in the UPGRADING file, especially running some of these commands as otrs user, not as root. Read the files carefully!

Some things one should have an eye on:
- Make sure you have enough coffee available
- Deinstall packages first, since these might not work on the newer system, elsewise make sure there is a compatible version for the new framework. In this case work with DB backups in between every single upgrade.
- Uncustomize installation. Due the fact that OTRSs theme framework changes at least twice, your themes will not be usable any more. Edit your user preferences table and reset all theme values to default. Make sure that your config also defaults to OTRSs default, not your custom theme!
- In case there are customizations done to your OTRS installation, run 'diff' on these files and see what has changed to implement this code in the latest version in case it is still needed.

Have fun upgrading.

[sjbforpresident]

Thanks for that. I'm just about to embark on this journey now, so fingers crossed.

Just so I can report to my manager, what should I tell him as to why you can't just upgrade straight? Is it because the themes and config are so far removed? What's to stop me from doing a straight upgrade and ditching all my themes and config files and starting again with them, and just recreating the database using the DBUpdate scripts that are included with the tar?

[ferrosti]

I tried it all and I can tell it just won´t work.
Frameworks in between versions are not 100% compatible, so the upgrade scripts from version 2.3 do not work when you already have a 3.0 installed and vice versa.
There are several changes to DB structure that need step by step updates, since some would just be left out, especially on customer user table.

Your themes will not work on 3.0, not even with some changes. It will be way easyer AND FASTER to redesign it completely from scratch.

[MichaelR]

Maybe it is just easier to dump the database, download the sysconfig etc... and start fresh, with the database upgrade scripts?

[ferrosti]

We have discussed that above.
This is not possible, since the upgrade scripts partially depend on their respective framework.

My upgrade was still running when I left my office. I can tell more about automation tomorrow.

[MichaelR]

We have discussed that above.
This is not possible, since the upgrade scripts partially depend on their respective framework.

I'm talking about the database upgrade scripts, only thought they were dependent on the database schema?

[crythias]

no, not just database. Some config files need to be configured, too...
http://source.otrs.org/viewvc.cgi/otrs/ ... iew=markup

Basic steps: stop processes, backup, overwrite, set permissions, db upgrade sql in steps, db update perl file, db update post sql,
rebuild config, delete cache, restart services.

I suggest that you'd 2.2 -> 2.3
sql, pl, post. sql
2.3->2.4
sql, pl, post. sql
2.4->3.0
sql, pl, post. sql

(if you don't understand what I said, read the link again).

with each step verified, or go straight to 3.0, up to you. backup backup backup, both the mysqldump and the full otrs directory.

[ferrosti]

with each step verified, or go straight to 3.0, up to you

Straight to 3.0 is not possible. At least the script for customer data backend will fail. There are a bunch of fields added and Salutation is renamed to Title, etc. And this is only one table.
The upgrade scripts will partially fail in case you upgrade the framework from 2.2 to 3.0 first and run the upgrade path in batch, due the fact that some methods have been renamed or dependencies are not met.

My upgrade script threw a couple of minor errors last night, but I´ll keep you posted. Importing a backup from my live system is 6h and upgrade is 3.5h atm on 60GB of data, 300k tickets and 3.2m t_history, so this takes quite a while. I must admit, that my backup connection is rather slow.