Cloning & upgrade best practices

[Pintu2]

Hi ,

We are planning to upgrade all our 3 instances (DEV,TEST and PROD) from London to New York release.I have couple of options to go for upgrade and I'm not sure which one to follow :

Option 1 :

1.Clone DEV to TEST instance

2.Clone PROD to DEV insatnce 

3.Upgrade DEV instance 

4.Upgrade TEST instance

5.Upgrade PROD

In this case TEST will have a copy of DEV and DEV will have copy of PROD.The purpose of doing this is to have DEV configurations and some applications and data back up in TEST so we don't loose DEV setup completely.

Option 2: 

1.Clone PROD to DEV

2.Upgrade DEV

3.Clone PROD to TEST 

4.Upgrade TEST

5.Upgrade PROD.

In this case both DEV and TEST will have a copy of PROD.There will be no backup for DEV if we opt this.

I'm not sure which one would fall under best practice.Can any one suggest something?

Thanks in Advance

Appreciate your response.

[Allen Andreas]

Hello,

The normal process is usually where you would freeze development...allowing you to close out update sets and promote sets elsewhere for UAT and subsequent promotion to Prod. This would be done a bit before the upgrade to Dev would take place. If they can't be completed, then you'd export those update sets. Then...you would clone Prod to Dev. Cloning does not copy literally EVERYTHING from Prod and most configuration and settings on Dev...remain as they were. Then you would schedule the upgrade for Dev and proceed in that direction. Import update sets, etc. work skipped changes while under an update set to capture all choices, etc. Then clone Prod to Test, upgrade Test, promote upgrade update set you worked on Dev to Test. And then repeat again on Prod, when you're ready.

You should not do any upgrade until you are ready...so ensure Dev is "ready" before proceeding.

Please mark reply as Helpful/Correct, if applicable. Thanks!

[Pintu2]

Thanks for the response Allen.I got your point.

What would be the best case if i have to backup DEV,  if in case I have more update sets in DEV compared to PROD. Is it best to export extra DEV update sets on to desktop and re-apply update sets after DEV upgrade (or) Back up DEV update sets,Clone DEV on to TEST instance, then Upgrade DEV instance and re-apply update sets after DEV upgrade?  

[Allen Andreas]

In my opinion...it would be the way I typed out above. Because I covered that, haha.

Test is supposed to be as close to a mirror copy of Prod. So you cloning Dev to Test isn't ideal just to save a few update sets and a fear of losing config settings (which you wouldn't) and then have your environments all out of wack and different, but again, that's my opinion.

I've done my method with 3 different companies, for years, and no issues. The main key, again, is to ensure you are ready on Dev. Freeze new development, finish what you've got, if you can't, export, then clone, and upgrade.

Please mark reply as Helpful/Correct, if applicable. Thanks!

[Allen Andreas]

Glad you found my replies Helpful.

If there's anything else you need, please let me know.

If my reply helped answer your question, please also mark it as Correct.

Thanks!