Octopus Upgrade from 2020.50 to 2021.3.12132

[smathur]

Hi Support
We want to upgrade Octopus from 2020.50 to latest (2021.3.12132).
After comparing both the releases I can see huge list of changes with few breaking changes as well. Can you please help us with few queries.

• Should we upgrade to latest version directly or upgrade to all the interim versions one by one and test.
• Any easy backup and recovery steps
• How frequently should we upgrade Octopus
• Any recommendation or suggestion you want to give for upgrade process.

[sergei.dubovsky]

Hi @smathur

Thank you for contacting Octopus support. We have the following topic in our documentation on upgrades: Upgrading a modern version of Octopus - Octopus Deploy

The safest option in your case would be to create a cloned instance with the same version of the Octopus server as in current production: 2020.50. Then back up your instance and apply an update to the cloned instance. That would give you a platform to test changes safely.

In general, we would suggest updating to the latest version directly. Unless you discover a breaking change, preventing you from using the latest version.
The backup process is documented here and here.
On update frequency: There is no universal advice on this. If you are comfortable with frequent updates, it will decrease the risk of having a large list of breaking changes rolled into a single update. On other hand, there is a small chance of encountering a bug, introduced in the latest release. Personally, I keep all my instances up-to-date.

Please let us know if you encounter any issues with the update. The support team is here to help.
Thank you.
Sergei