Clarity Upgrade path: Best practices for old versions

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

Trying to upgrade from an old version and need to determine the best supported upgrade path, what would be the recommendations?

Environment

Release : Any

Resolution

• Broadcom Support recommends to always keep up with the current versions, so you do not have to stay on unsupported versions and then do upgrade through 6-7 versions at once
• If you have to upgrade from an old version, make sure you are on the same Java version. Being on the same Java versions avoids known upgrade issues with install with multiple Java versions. 

• • • If upgrading from 15.5 or older (JDK 8), upgrade to 15.5 first.
    • Then upgrade 15.5 > 15.6.1 (JDK 11)

• • • Then do 15.6.1> 15.7.1 (OpenJDK 11) and you can use the direct upgrades to current releases starting 15.7.1. Use the Change Impact and Upgrade Guides to determine this for versions after 15.9.2.
    • 15.7.1>15.9.2 (OpenJDK 11, latest versions with securability fixes)
      
      Example:
    • If you are on 15.4.1 going to 15.9.2, do a step upgrade: 15.4.1> 15.5> 15.6.1> 15.7.1> 15.9.2
    • If you want to go all the way to 16.1.0, then after going to 15.9.2, do 15.9.2 > 16.0.1 > 16.0.3  > 16.1.0
    • If you are on a release in between, i.e. 15.5.1, then just follow the next steps: 15.5.1> 15.6.1> 15.7.1> 15.9.2

Notes: 

• You have to download the install files for each version from the Support site.
• The timing of the upgrade is not affected as each version would have to be applied anyway.
• You do not have to bring up the application between the upgrade steps. You should just remove services and start the next step. Testing in between "hops" is not recommended
• You can use the time between the steps to take a fresh database backup. This will help in case you hit an error, then you will not have to rollback all the way down to the initial version
• We recommend doing backup of the database every time you complete a "hop". This way if you face an error you will not have to rollback all the way

Additional Information

If you are unsure whether or not your version of OS/database/Java/Tomcat are supported, please check Upgrade Hardware/Software Compatibility for Clarity

References:

• Upgrade Hardware/Software Compatibility for Clarity
• Clarity Supported Upgrade Path
• Upgrade, upgrade steps, supported upgrade paths in Clarity
• Upgrade Plan Runbook Template - Best Practices for Clarity
• Clarity Upgrade path: Best practices for old versions
• Upgrade best practices (pre / post upgrade) for Clarity