[Evergreen-general] [External] Tell us about your upgrade schedules!

Fri Feb 21 14:41:50 EST 2025

Hi Kathy,

Gina, Elizabeth, and I did a conference session last year on scheduling upgrades and what Bibliomation, PaILS/Spark, and BC Libraries Cooperative do - https://youtu.be/3snbbNN8-x4?feature=shared

  *   What is your current upgrade schedule for major releases? Do you typically upgrade one release at a time or do you skip releases?
     *   We generally do one major release a year and skip a version.  This year is atypical as we didn't upgrade last year due to moving our servers and so we're jumping from 3.11.1 to 3.14.4 in April.  We prefer to go to at least X.1.
     *   We've often upgraded to the most recent release available though that has presented issues for us in the past when the release schedule has changed or when releases have been delayed.
  *   Do you typically perform point release upgrades in addition to major upgrades? Do you just load bug fixes as you need them? Or do you do both (or neither)?
     *   We've done both over the years, really depends on the circumstances.  We generally try to avoid doing point releases due to the work required around testing and training but sometimes it has made more sense than backporting a bunch of fixes.  Ideally we go live with a version of Evergreen that doesn't have anything major that we'll need to patch ahead of our next upgrade.
  *   Has your upgrade schedule changed over the years that you've been on Evergreen? If so, how has it changed and what factors influenced your decision to make those changes?
     *   Our upgrade window moves around year to year.  It depends in part on when it makes most sense to have downtime, the Evergreen release schedule, and what else is going on that year (migrations, other projects at the Co-op, staff vacations, etc.) to ensure we have an adequate testing, training, updating resources (docs and videos) window.
     *   We used to always do a long weekend due to the amount of time we were offline but in recent years we've found that unnecessary as we're generally offline for less than 24 hours which has given us more flexibility for picking a date.
  *   If your upgrade schedule is annual or even less frequent, is there any frustration among your libraries about delays in getting new features?
     *   I'll echo Benjamin, we hear more frustration from our libraries when new features don't work (or existing ones break) with an upgrade. I suspect many of our libraries are unaware of upcoming features until we start promoting them ahead of an upgrade.
  *   Our upgrade webpage is here: https://bc.libraries.coop/support/sitka/evergreen-3-14-upgrade/
     *   We'll be adding a 3.14 preview page next week to coincide with our first upgrade webinar.  Generally we just do a What's New in Evergreen webinar plus new/updated resources but this year we're doing webinars for acquisitions and the reporter as well due to how much has changed between 3.11 and 3.14. (If anyone is interested we now post all our webinars to YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdwlgwBNnH4q9cGZ9VXh131RRteFo7ddC.  Acq should be up by the end of next week and the general what's new should be up mid March.)

Hope that helps,

Jennifer
--
Jennifer Pringle (she/her)
Co-op Support - Training Lead
BC Libraries Cooperative
Toll-free: 1-888-848-9250
Email:jennifer.pringle at bc.libraries.coop
Website: http://bc.libraries.coop

Gratefully acknowledging that I live and work in the unceded Traditional Territory of the St'at'yemc Nations.

From: Evergreen-general <evergreen-general-bounces at list.evergreen-ils.org> On Behalf Of Murphy, Benjamin via Evergreen-general
Sent: February 21, 2025 10:46 AM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group <evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org>
Cc: Murphy, Benjamin <Benjamin.Murphy at dncr.nc.gov>
Subject: Re: [Evergreen-general] [External] Tell us about your upgrade schedules!

Our consortium upgrades annually in the fall and we typically skip a version (3.11.3 to 3.13.5 for instance.) We usually install the target version on a test machine in early summer and then invite staff in consortium libraries to kick the tires over the summer so we can make/seek patches to issues and prepare solid training of what to expect. We have a mailing list (Basecamp group) targeted specifically to testing that we invite people to join and discuss issues they encounter. (Let me add a plug for the session at the upcoming conference about Collaborative Testing. This is something we're trying to wrap our heads around and I'm interested to hear what they have to say.) After testing over the summer, we then have webinars for the larger community to discuss and prepare for upgrade changes.

We have our upgrade documentation here: https://nccardinalsupport.org/index.php?pg=kb.book&id=10 including our working list of known but unresolved bugs.

This past year we were chasing the latest version which I don't think we're going to do again. We weren't able to test the Reporter changes in 3.13, so we got hit with a lot of tickets for bugs once it went live. Some of them we were able to chase fixes for, some we had to just report on Launchpad and hope someone took them on. This is frustrating for our users, so we're thinking about being more conservative about upgrading to the latest version. That's one of the challenges of an open source project, if you're on the cutting edge, find a bug and don't have the resources to fix it yourself, you might be stuck with the problem for a while. Your user base doesn't always understand that.

"Do you just load bug fixes as you need them?" We did one "mini-upgrade" in spring a few years back, but generally we have to be offline for ~36-48 hours for an upgrade, deal with training and all the other logistics so we usually just stick to once a year.

"is there any frustration among your libraries about delays in getting new features?" We've heard some excitement about new features for member library staff that are plugged into the larger Evergreen community, but we hear more frustration when new things don't work.

After our most recent upgrade, we decided as a team that we're going to treat our upgrades more like a new library migration, where we're all focused on some aspect of the upgrade for a period of time and try to be more deliberate about testing, user engagement, etc.

I'm interested to hear what other folks have to say on the topic.

Benjamin Murphy

NC Cardinal Program Manager

State Library of North Carolina

benjamin.murphy at dncr.nc.gov<mailto:benjamin.murphy at dncr.nc.gov>  | https://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/services-libraries/nc-cardinal

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Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4600

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________________________________
From: Evergreen-general <evergreen-general-bounces at list.evergreen-ils.org<mailto:evergreen-general-bounces at list.evergreen-ils.org>> on behalf of Lussier, Kathy via Evergreen-general <evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org<mailto:evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org>>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2025 11:48 AM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group <evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org<mailto:evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org>>
Cc: Lussier, Kathy <klussier at noblenet.org<mailto:klussier at noblenet.org>>
Subject: [External] [Evergreen-general] Tell us about your upgrade schedules!

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Hi all and Happy Friday!

NOBLE is reevaluating its upgrade schedule and would like to hear how other libraries / consortia handle their upgrades. Since we moved to Evergreen, we've been on a schedule to do a major release upgrade twice per year, following the community's schedule of two releases per year, and usually upgrade to the release that's one version behind the latest release. We don't typically do point release upgrades, but will load patches for bug fixes that are important to our libraries. We also hold off on upgrades in cases where we see bugs that will cause too much of a hardship for our libraries. This typically happens when an entire interface is replaced before it supports all of the features used by our libraries.

We are considering a move to a one-upgrade-per-year schedule. Under this schedule, we would skip a release to ensure we stay on a release that still receives security fixes.

Tell us about your upgrade schedules.

  *   What is your current upgrade schedule for major releases? Do you typically upgrade one release at a time or do you skip releases?
  *   Do you typically perform point release upgrades in addition to major upgrades? Do you just load bug fixes as you need them? Or do you do both (or neither)?
  *   Has your upgrade schedule changed over the years that you've been on Evergreen? If so, how has it changed and what factors influenced your decision to make those changes?
  *   If your upgrade schedule is annual or even less frequent, is there any frustration among your libraries about delays in getting new features?
Feel free to add any information about what you like or dislike about your current schedule.

Adding a #CatTax in appreciation for your feedback.

[cid:image001.jpg at 01DB8450.2DB63E90]

Kathy
--
Kathy Lussier
she/her
Executive Director
NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
Danvers, MA
978-777-8844 x201
www.noblenet.org<http://www.noblenet.org/>

________________________________

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