Hi Everyone,
Just have a quick question for you guys. So currently in our environment, we have Openfire 3.6.4 running with endpoints running the Spark 2.6.0 client. My question is if I upgrade the server to Openfire 3.9.1 will the older clients work fine till I can upgrade the clients to the lastest version?
Thanks
Well, i’m not 100% sure, but i think this should work either way (upgrading Openfire to 3.9.1 first and then Spark to 2.6.3 or latest 2.7.0 builds, or vice versa). There certainly were a lot of changes in the Openfire and Spark code, but they are still xmpp server and client working by xmpp standards, so basic features should work the same. There could be some compatibility issues with file transfers or voice chat between Spark 2.6.0 and 2.6.3 or 2.7.0.
That being said, upgrade from pretty old 3.6.4 to 3.9.1 can be not very smooth (in theory it should be ok, but sometimes such version jump gets complicated while updating the database structure). You should make backup of your server before upgrading. Also try upgrading a few clients first, to see if all works as intended.
Thanks for getting back to me.
First time working with Openfire as I have inherited the server from someone else. My thought as well that they should be compatible since they all use the Jabber protocal, just some features may not work. I’m amazed at how easy the upgrade process is for it. Couldn’t believe at the first that the tiny upgrde installation guide was all there was too it. Guess I’m conditioned to always expect to have 100 page pdf’s of instructions haha.
Are you using Windows as OS for your server? In that case it is simple, just install on top of the old installation. But if you use it as a service (service is installed separately), then it maybe also useful to first uninstall the service, then upgrade, and then install the service back again. Installation of the service is covered in the installation guide. You can also uninstall it using windows sc delete command. Though service probably hasn’t been changed for years and should work ok with newer versions of Openfire, but you never know.
Yes, It’s currently running on Windows Server 2003 and I’m moving it to Windows Server 2012R2 in the near future. The database for it runs on a seperate SQL server. My upgrade plan is to update the current 2003 server to the latest version so that it applies any table or row changes or anything else like that. Then when ready to switch over point the 2012R2 server to the database that is 3.9.1 and hope everything goes smoothly.
I’ll have to double check but it may be running as a service. As noted in the guide just backup the folders it installs to and stop the service before running the upgrade and restart it. I’ll look into the delete command and it should be needed.