Upgrade from version 3.9.3

Hello!

We are in the process of upgrading our servers and applications to newer versions. We are currently running Openfire 3.9.3 on an Ubuntu 12.04 box which also hosts our email server. The goal is to get the server upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04 and have it fully patched. I would also like to update Openfire to the latest version, as well. Our database is being run on another physical server which hosts MySQL 5.6. I had a few quick questions to hopefully get this done as smoothly as possible with limited down time.

  1. Which package do I download to upgrage? I’m assuming the openfire_4_0_2.tar.gz but wanted to confirm.

  2. Would it be more efficient to upgrade Openfire before or after the upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04?

  3. Finally, if I run sudo apt-get upgrade as well as a sudo do-release-upgrade is there any packages which I should not upgrade? Will either of these commands break Openfire by upgrading the Java packages?

Thanks!

I haven’t done similar upgrade or am very familiar with Ubuntu, but here’s my points.

  1. If you are using tar.gz now (which is just an archive which you extract and run directly from where you have extracted it to), then you can use tar.gz to upgrade. Technically i think it is possible to upgrade any type of installation with it, just by replacing the files. But if you are running with a deb package currently, i think you probably might want to stick with it. Keep in mind, that 4.0.2 requires Java 8 to run, but still requires Java 7 when installing (latter is a bug, which should be fixed for 4.0.3).

  2. Personally i would do the Ubuntu upgrade first, which may (in theory, don’t remember such reports) brake Openfire. So you won’t have to investigate two vectors of failure (is it new Ubuntu causing problems with either Openfire version or new Openfire version not working with new Ubuntu). After you have older Openfire running on new Ubuntu, you will have only one possible issue - new Openfire version not working with new Ubuntu).

  3. Not familiar enough with apt-get. So, not sure if it can brake things when upgrading Ubuntu. Feels like it shouldn’t. Though i prefer to use Oracle’s Java. Have tried this before in a test machine http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/install-oracle-java-8-in-ubuntu-via-ppa.html or i just take jre folder from Spark’s tar.gz package and put it inside Openfire’s folder (it uses internal Java, if it is present).

  4. Probably shouldn’t remind that, but… backups

Thank you! I actually went ahead and did the upgrade without any issues while still running 12.04. I will attempt the OS upgrade later this week after I get our email software upgraded on the machine. I have the installation documented so I’m hoping if it does break a fresh install will fix it.