Hello everyone,
I would appreciate some clarification regarding an important issue.
My primary task is to upgrade our corporate Alfresco Community installation from version 5.2.0 to version 26, while migrating all departments, documents, business processes, and other existing data and customizations.
As I understand it, this upgrade will most likely require several intermediate steps—for example, upgrading from version 5 to version 7, then from version 7 to version 23, and finally from version 23 to version 26.
If my understanding of the process is correct, each iteration will involve migrating the repository and database, resolving compatibility issues, and fixing any errors that arise. This would make the system temporarily unusable during the upgrade process. For this reason, we created a separate server containing a sandbox copy of our Alfresco installation, where I can safely perform upgrade-related work without affecting the production instance, which is deployed on another server.
However, I also regularly receive support requests concerning the existing production version. These requests include modifying business processes, fixing errors, and implementing other changes. To troubleshoot and test such changes effectively on the current version, I also need a testing environment that closely mirrors production.
This creates the following dilemma: since I need one testing environment for supporting the current production version and another environment for performing the upgrade, would it make sense to maintain two separate test servers?
In other words:
One test server that mirrors the current Alfresco Community 5.2.0 production environment and is used for troubleshooting, investigation, bug fixes, and testing modifications.
A separate test server dedicated exclusively to the multi-stage upgrade and migration to Alfresco Community 26.
I understand that this is a fairly general question and that the answer may depend on each developer’s preferred workflow. Nevertheless, I would greatly appreciate advice based specifically on Alfresco’s architecture, upgrade process, and recommended practices.
