How to upgrade Sitecore from 7.5 to 8.1 Update 3?

3
votes

I am currently trying to upgrade a Sitecore installation from 7.5 to 8.1 Update 3 and I can't seem to figure out a good process that won't take weeks and weeks. I have posted questions on other blog posts and also to the official Sitecore Community site but have not really gotten any good feedback. Here is what I am trying to do.

I need to upgrade Sitecore from 7.5 to 8.1 Update 3. To do that it looks like I need to do 3 separate upgrades:

  1. 7.5 to 8.0 Initial Release
  2. 8.0 Initial Release to 8.1 Initial Release
  3. 8.1 Initial Release to 8.1 Update 3

In addition we are using both the Email Campaign Manager (ECM) and the Webforms for Marketers (WFFM) modules. Each of those modules has its own separate upgrade instructions.

Also we have servers in 3 different environments: 1 in DEV, 1 in QA and 3 in PROD (1 CM and 2 CD)

The upgrades of Sitecore itself are long and tedious and filled with many manual steps prone to error. I am already on my 3rd attempt to upgrade my DEV site and it seems every time I do it I get about half way through and I run in to lots of errors. In addition the instructions for upgrading ECM/EXM seem to not allow you to skip to major releases. So to upgrade EXM itself I am going to have to do 10 individual upgrades!!!

I am trying desperately to figure out if there are any shorter ways to accomplish this upgrade. This is so complicated and tedious that I feel like it will take me one or two days just to upgrade the DEV site. Then another one or two days to upgrade the QA site - assuming I don't run in to any errors that I can't figure out.

Then after that I have absolutely no idea how I am going to upgrade PROD. I have a CM server and 2 CD servers. There's no way I can freeze content entry and editing for a week while I do the upgrade. Plus we have some user generated content like user registrations and order entries on the site. How can I upgrade PROD and not lose registrations and order entries and other user generated content?

I was hoping that there would be some easier way of doing a Sitecore upgrade from one major version to the next but I can't seem to figure it out. No matter what I try it is incredibly complex and manual and prone to error.

Any help is appreciated.

Corey

2
sitecoreupgradesitecore8.1sitecore7.5
Highly opinionated subject, and a "it depends" type answer, but worth a read (including the links within the article): seanholmesby.com/the-truth-about-sitecore-upgrades – jammykam

2 Answers

1
votes

One option could also be installing a new version of Sitecore 8.1 update 3 and run a database comparison tool (such as RAZL) to get across the items in your new Sitecore instance.

You could get the items across using the regular Sitecore packages although that's more time-consuming unless you automate that using something like Sitecore Ship or Courier.

You'll also need to check your code of course, any config changes you're patching in etc. still will have to be tested.

Mind you, this is not recommended practice for reasons you can find in the blogpost jammykam posted in a comment (http://www.seanholmesby.com/the-truth-about-sitecore-upgrades/)

0
votes

There's rumors of an Express upgrade tool in 8.2 that will allow you to upgrade directly from an old version. I don't have an official source, but there's a few blog posts about this, this for example: http://kverheire.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/sitecore-82-in-depth-preview-83-update.html

I believe the people who actually have more info on that are bound by NDA - so you'd have to ask Sitecore directly for more info.

If you can't wait for 8.2 - then you can also create new blank environments of a newer version and write your own processes for migrating data across. Not sure how easy this will be with EXM, WFFM, or Analytics though.