Ranger64511 Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 I'm gathering some information and could use some help/support. I've inherited a semi-mess of our website we are currently running version 4.3 of Invision Community. I was wondering about a few items. Is it possible to upgrade from 4.3 to 4.7.5 (Self Hosted)? While performing this upgrade (beyond third party plugins or custom built items) would the core items continue to work without issues? I am assuming yes but better to ask then not. If I did this upgrade what would the best approach be to perform it? Incremental is usually my go to for safety and rollback reasons. But could I make the big leap/jump to the latest? Can I even do incremental upgrades? What would that look like? Are we so far behind in upgrades we should just rebuild from scratch? Is it possible to export the data or re-link the data to the database (since we're self hosted?) I might have a few other questions down the road but figured this is a good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution Randy Calvert Posted January 2, 2023 Solution Share Posted January 2, 2023 (edited) Yes, it’s absolutely possible to upgrade. Make a full backup before you do anything. If you have any third party plugins, make sure they’re updated and confirm they work with PHP8. I would disable ALL third party resources and then switch to a default theme. Upgrade your server to PHP8 (required for the 4.7 releases). Use the compatibility checker once on PHP8 to make sure it meets all of the system requirements. Download the latest release from the client area (you can only download the latest version… old releases are not available). Upload the files to your site and overwrite the old ones. Go to domain.com/admin/upgrade and follow the prompts. Once the upgrade completes, go to the support section of ACP and clear the system cache for good measure. Fix your theme and add resources one at a time to make sure you know if any one specific is not compatible with 4.7 or PHP8. Edited January 2, 2023 by Randy Calvert Jim M, SeNioR-, wegorz23 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger64511 Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 4 hours ago, Randy Calvert said: Yes, it’s absolutely possible to upgrade. Make a full backup before you do anything. If you have any third party plugins, make sure they’re updated and confirm they work with PHP8. I would disable ALL third party resources and then switch to a default theme. Upgrade your server to PHP8 (required for the 4.7 releases). Use the compatibility checker once on PHP8 to make sure it meets all of the system requirements. Download the latest release from the client area (you can only download the latest version… old releases are not available). Upload the files to your site and overwrite the old ones. Go to domain.com/admin/upgrade and follow the prompts. Once the upgrade completes, go to the support section of ACP and clear the system cache for good measure. Fix your theme and add resources one at a time to make sure you know if any one specific is not compatible with 4.7 or PHP8. Thank you, that'll help a lot. On a similar note do you think it would be possible (since we're self hosted) with our license to my understanding it allows us 1 Demo/Sandbox site. Would it be possible to basically copy our production use the sandbox license to keep it going do the upgrade on that and re-direct/point as needed? I know this is kinda overkill but can't hurt to think of ways to minimize downtime or to ensure upgrades work properly before doing it in production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatsu Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 You can use a test site which must not be available to public (so protect it with htaccess or something similar). You have to set the domain here in the client area. Then you can test your upgrade as often as you want to. wegorz23 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim M Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 4 hours ago, Ranger64511 said: Thank you, that'll help a lot. On a similar note do you think it would be possible (since we're self hosted) with our license to my understanding it allows us 1 Demo/Sandbox site. Would it be possible to basically copy our production use the sandbox license to keep it going do the upgrade on that and re-direct/point as needed? I know this is kinda overkill but can't hurt to think of ways to minimize downtime or to ensure upgrades work properly before doing it in production. You can certainly use your Test URL to test the upgrade process. However, keep in mind that it can only be used privately, public access is not allowed. Additionally, if you keep your Live URL open and perform the upgrade on your duplicated live instance on your Test URL then repoint your domain, you will lose any data/content/etc... made on the Live URL during that time. You also cannot point two different software versions at the same database as it would break. The best move is to a test upgrade on your Test URL till you're comfortable and then shut down your Live URL and perform the upgrade on the Live URL. That will minimize your downtime as much as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger64511 Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 9 hours ago, Hatsu said: You can use a test site which must not be available to public (so protect it with htaccess or something similar). You have to set the domain here in the client area. Then you can test your upgrade as often as you want to. 4 hours ago, Jim M said: You can certainly use your Test URL to test the upgrade process. However, keep in mind that it can only be used privately, public access is not allowed. Additionally, if you keep your Live URL open and perform the upgrade on your duplicated live instance on your Test URL then repoint your domain, you will lose any data/content/etc... made on the Live URL during that time. You also cannot point two different software versions at the same database as it would break. The best move is to a test upgrade on your Test URL till you're comfortable and then shut down your Live URL and perform the upgrade on the Live URL. That will minimize your downtime as much as possible. Thanks, this all helps with coming up with a plan of action. Appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger64511 Posted January 18, 2023 Author Share Posted January 18, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 10:06 PM, Randy Calvert said: Yes, it’s absolutely possible to upgrade. Make a full backup before you do anything. If you have any third party plugins, make sure they’re updated and confirm they work with PHP8. I would disable ALL third party resources and then switch to a default theme. Upgrade your server to PHP8 (required for the 4.7 releases). Use the compatibility checker once on PHP8 to make sure it meets all of the system requirements. Download the latest release from the client area (you can only download the latest version… old releases are not available). Upload the files to your site and overwrite the old ones. Go to domain.com/admin/upgrade and follow the prompts. Once the upgrade completes, go to the support section of ACP and clear the system cache for good measure. Fix your theme and add resources one at a time to make sure you know if any one specific is not compatible with 4.7 or PHP8. So procedural question. Update server to PHP8 first and then run the upgrade even though the version we're on the max php version won't support PHP8 or will 4.3 support it do you know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Calvert Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 Your older version will not support PHP8. Your newer version won't support the older version of PHP however. So basically you're going to upgrade to PHP8 first. (Then use the compatibility checker to make sure your new PHP8 has all of the required modules.) That will essentially bring your website offline... however that's short term. Upload the files for 4.7.6 to your website. If your PHP8 is compatible, it will work to launch the domain.com/admin/upgrade, (login with your ACP credentials) and it will walk you through updating all of the database changes that are needed to get you to the latest version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Stridgen Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 ^ exactly this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger64511 Posted January 18, 2023 Author Share Posted January 18, 2023 Thanks for the help! Lot of questions behind the best way to do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Stridgen Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 13 hours ago, Ranger64511 said: Thanks for the help! Lot of questions behind the best way to do this. What are the questions you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger64511 Posted January 23, 2023 Author Share Posted January 23, 2023 On 1/19/2023 at 3:46 AM, Marc Stridgen said: What are the questions you have? The questions were above and were answered, got some help with doing the upgrade and they had a lot of questions some of which I could answer some of which I couldn't the one's I couldn't are listed above and answered. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Hi @Ranger64511, Glad to hear you're now rocking the latest version! If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get back in touch with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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