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

Mon Feb 24 13:35:27 EST 2025

>>What is your current upgrade schedule for major releases? Do you
typically upgrade one release at a time or do you skip releases?<<

This year we are going to upgrade postgres database in April and plan to do
a major Evergreen software upgrade in the fall (October).  We are still on
3.7 and will be skipping up quite a few releases.  We are waiting for more
of the interface to be Angularized before upgrading and this will be a big
upgrade.

>>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 sometimes will backport a fix to our release or do a point release.  It
depends on what the fix is, how much our libraries want/need it, and if it
will backport cleanly. We have a test server and we do a lot of testing
prior.

>>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?<<

Yes. We used to do two major release upgrades over a Monday holiday weekend
in April and October, staying one release behind. We moved to doing a major
upgrade once a year, in the spring and point release upgrade in the fall.
Sometimes we have done a point release upgrade in Jan or Feb
holiday weekends if there are fixes that we really want in place. We
haven't done a major upgrade in some time (but have applied security
patches and other fixes) because of issues found in testing that we wanted
resolved first.

>>If your upgrade schedule is annual or even less frequent, is there any
frustration among your libraries about delays in getting new features?<<

No frustrations from libraries about delays in getting new features.
With a consortium our size we find that our libraries prefer the software
to be stable.
We do get complaints if we upgrade to a new release and the libraries
perceive a loss of functionality or workflows that require more clicks. It
can be hard with the interface rewrites, especially if done in stages and
not everything migrated over at once.

I hope that helps,
Jeanette

On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 3:06 PM Terran McCanna via Evergreen-general <
evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:

> >>What is your current upgrade schedule for major releases? Do you
> typically upgrade one release at a time or do you skip releases?<<
>
> At PINES we upgrade each February over Presidents' Day Weekend, which
> usually works out to moving two releases at a time. We give the libraries
> at least 2 months pre-upgrade testing time and we attempt to fix as many
> bugs as we can that are identified during that time. (We also do a lot of
> internal testing during that time.)
>
> >>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 usually just load specific bug fixes if we need them before the 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?<<
>
> It's been fairly stable in the 12 years I've been here. We moved it from
> MLK Jr Weekend to Presidents' Day Weekend to give us more testing and bug
> fixing time after the holidays, and our testing process tends to get a
> little better each year in small ways.
>
> >>If your upgrade schedule is annual or even less frequent, is there any
> frustration among your libraries about delays in getting new features?<<
>
> No - I think they actually prefer it only once a year because that means
> they only need to test and have extra training once a year.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 11:49 AM Lussier, Kathy via Evergreen-general <
> evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>> [image: PXL_20231003_205444966.jpg]
>>
>> Kathy
>> --
>> Kathy Lussier
>> she/her
>> Executive Director
>> NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
>> Danvers, MA
>> 978-777-8844 x201
>> www.noblenet.org
>>
>>
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>>
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-- 

Jeanette Lundgren (she/her/hers)
Executive Director, C/W MARS, Inc.

------------------------------

[image: icon] jlundgren at cwmars.org | [image: icon]www.cwmars.org

[image: icon] 508-755-3323 x 120
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