[Zope] Zope/Upgrading & Change Management: Suggestions?

[Jake]

Simple.

#1 Rule: BACK UP (and know you have a good back up) before you do anything.

> 1. What are some gotchas to be careful about? Where do the difficulties
> usually occur?

Some product breaks with an upgrade is the worst I have seen (4 years of
Zoping)

> 2. How can you ensure that you can revert back to the previous install?

I back up everything. Twice. And take a copy locally. And burn that to
disk (CD/DVD) and take it to work (offsite). No. Seriously, I do.

> 3. How can I check for dependencies before doing an upgrade/install?

Never been able to do this. I just install and check out.

> 4. Is it necessary to backup the Data.fs everytime you update/upgrade
> things?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Unless you like pain.

> 5. How do you keep a log of upgrades/patches?

Read the mailing lists. Read the sites. Watch Zope.org.

Basically, I try to keep the number of products I use to a small amount. I
also try to understand (fully) how they work if I didn't build them
myself.  80% of the Zope products I use, I have extended a ton to do what
I want so it makes it easier to troubleshoot. IE: SimpleURL, KnowledgeKit,
AdManager, ZUBB, Photo (and Folder), Poll, YihawDirectory.

Jake



-- 
http://www.ZopeZone.com


Nagle, Robert said:
> This is a basic question, but I'd like to hear some suggestions about
> fast, easy, and SAFE ways to do upgrading with zope and related
> products. What methods do you recommend?
>
> 1. What are some gotchas to be careful about? Where do the difficulties
> usually occur?
> 2. How can you ensure that you can revert back to the previous install?
> 3. How can I check for dependencies before doing an upgrade/install?
> 4. Is it necessary to backup the Data.fs everytime you update/upgrade
> things?
> 5. How do you keep a log of upgrades/patches?
>
> At the moment, I don't have a test/staging machine, so I'm doing changes
> on a "live machine." (That is not good, and it will soon change).
> Thanks.
>
> Robert Nagle
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