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

Fri Feb 28 09:02:21 EST 2025

Hello all –

  *   What is your current upgrade schedule for major releases? Do you typically upgrade one release at a time or do you skip releases?
We do one upgrade per year, in November. We skip one release so that we stay caught up. So in 2024 we went from 3.11 to 3.13.

  *   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)?
Both! Our hosting provider handles this, and is typically very amenable to requests to add things in for us. We have a monthly maintenance window and update both our production and main test server with bugfixes and/or point releases each month as appropriate.

  *   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?
I believe we’ve always done Fall upgrades, but the timing varies, and we did skip a couple years one time, which we do not recommend.

  *   If your upgrade schedule is annual or even less frequent, is there any frustration among your libraries about delays in getting new features?
Sometimes, if we have paid for development and they have tested and then have to wait 6+ months to use the feature. But when asked if they would prefer 2 big upgrades a year, they tend to be understanding.

Thanks!
Katie

From: Evergreen-general <evergreen-general-bounces at list.evergreen-ils.org> On Behalf Of Jeanette Lundgren via Evergreen-general
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2025 1:35 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group <evergreen-general at list.evergreen-ils.org>
Cc: Jeanette Lundgren <jlundgren at cwmars.org>
Subject: Re: [Evergreen-general] 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?<<

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<mailto: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<mailto: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.

[cid:image001.jpg at 01DB89BF.78BA8490]

Kathy
--
Kathy Lussier
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Executive Director
NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange
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[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/O2HbneBYFPxEfnxnrw7ITv9-LTX6V-7QPm3Zzg74s-2mJjVeRwt_Y_3QmhwSrADcTptgwsP8rjSWPD3Z1WjcJ7hRQEIJIRU7_tcc0-ExwRiQZsDxSCgzQj21HXvxdNEe-0tzDqeoAVZDLkya34jhz24]

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

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