Upgrade considerations

There are a number of factors that should be considered before upgrading your installation of Semaphore:

• Read the Release Notes: Review What's new in Semaphore for changes and known issues in the version to which you want to upgrade. Progress publishes release notes for every Semaphore release.

• Verify the installation server meets the minimum specifications: New versions of Semaphore might have system requirements that differ from your existing installation. Refer to "Technical specifications" in Requirements to verify that your server has sufficient resources.

• Contact Progress Semaphore: If you are planning to upgrade your version of Semaphore, we recommend contacting Progress for pertinent information to the upgrade process, as well as to potentially arrange technical and/or information science assistance in the process. Often the upgrade process consists of more than simply installing the new software and changing version numbers in configuration files. Instead, the underlying logic of the application might have changed, requiring a qualitative analysis of the model and/or classification strategy to determine if adjustments are required.

• Upgrade all components: If upgrading to a newer version of Semaphore, note that all components must be upgraded regardless of what machine they might be installed on. For example, if you upgrade Semaphore on a server, anyone using Ontology Manager will also have to upgrade their software before they will be able to connect to any upgraded models. See "About Semaphore versions" in About this guide for further details.

• Perform a test upgrade: When planning an upgrade, we recommend that you perform the upgrade in a test environment that closely mirrors the production environment before upgrading the production environment. Thoroughly test the test environment to ensure a successful production upgrade.

• Semaphore version downgrades are not supported: Semaphore does not support version downgrades. If an upgrade needs to be backed out, do not install an earlier version over the upgraded environment. Follow the documented back-out procedure instead. See Back out a Semaphore upgrade.

• Back up your environment before upgrading: Before starting the upgrade, create the following backups:

  • Studio and KMM backups by using the Semaphore user interface.
  • A file-system backup of the Semaphore application data and configuration.

  See Back up your existing installation for detailed backup instructions.

• Use a supported upgrade path: Upgrade through the required LTS releases in the upgrade path. Innovation releases can be skipped.

  For example:

  Copy

  5.8.x → 5.12.z
  

  Do not skip required intermediate LTS releases when upgrading between major Semaphore versions.

• Prepare a back-out plan: Before upgrading, define the conditions under which the upgrade must be backed out and ensure that the installer for the previously working version and all required backups are available. See Sample Upgrade Plan and Back out a Semaphore upgrade.