Koha Upgrades

When will my Koha upgrade take place?

We have an annual upgrade cycle running from April each year.

We upgrade our customers to the xx.11 (November) Koha release. Our Koha package may also include more recent additions which we feel would benefit our customers.

Staff from the Infrastructure Team will be in touch by email to let you know when your upgrade will take place. We will give you as much notice as possible to help with planning. If the date is not suitable please let us know.

If you have a test server we will agree dates for both upgrades. The test server upgrade typically takes place four weeks before the live upgrade to give you time to test workflows and new features.

How long will the upgrade take?

This depends….we will give you an indication of the expected downtime when we confirm the upgrade date with you. We will also let you know what time the upgrade will start.

Upgrades are typically performed between 8am and 1pm, with the majority of the work completed within a two hour window in that period.

Downtime will be kept to a minimum but some downtime is unavoidable due to the need to reindex your records. We will add a maintenance page to the OPAC during the upgrade.

Please note, it may be necessary to update the operating system on the server at the same time as your upgrade and this may take additional time. You will be informed of this in advance.

What support will be available?

A member of the Infrastructure Team will be responsible for your upgrade and will be your main point of contact.

A member of the Customer Services Team will send out documentation and will also be on hand to check over your upgraded system.

All communication regarding your upgrade will be managed through our dedicated upgrades inbox – upgrades@openfifth.co.uk.

What preparation is required?

Make sure that staff are aware of the upgrade and the likely downtime. Staff will need to record transactions manually while the upgrade takes place (and add them to Koha once the upgrade is complete).

We will add a maintenance page to the OPAC for you but you may wish to add a notice to the OPAC beforehand to alert users to the downtime.

If you have a test system we ask that you make good use of the testing period to make sure your workflows are not affected. See Test upgrade section

Test upgrade (for customers with a test system)

If you don’t have a test server skip to What happens on upgrade day?

Before your test system upgrade we will provide you with the following:

- Access to a shared document for recording any testing feedback
- Release notes and resources related to changes and new features

On the day of your test upgrade the Infrastructure Team will ‘refresh’ your test system with a live database copy and carry out the upgrade. They will inform you when this is complete.

Library staff then have a period of time (usually about 4 weeks) to check over the test system and log any feedback.

- A suggested list of checks are given below; we can provide a more detailed testing plan on request.
- Library staff should focus particularly on customised areas of the system.
- Record all your feedback / issues found on the shared document and keep a look out for updates as we might ask for clarification or ask you to re-test an issue.

What happens on upgrade day?

The Infrastructure Team will have provided an approximate completion time. They will notify you if anything unplanned occurs which will cause a delay.

When the upgrade is complete we will run some standard checks and in the case of customers with a test system we will apply any changes that have been noted in the feedback.

We will inform you when the upgrade is complete and you can start using Koha again.

- We have provided a list of checks that you should run through immediately after the upgrade. See the Upgrade Checks section below.
- You will need to process any transactions that you have recorded manually during downtime.

If you spot any immediate problems please raise these with the team at upgrades@openfifth.co.uk otherwise you can log any issues on the Open Fifth Helpdesk as normal.

Upgrade checks – OPAC

Open Fifth will run some standard checks on your system following the upgrade but you should also confirm that your core workflows are functioning correctly.

This list is not exhaustive, please carry out as much checking as you can, particularly on areas of customisation.

- Has the OPAC content and styling updated correctly? If you use custom CSS and/or jquery this can sometimes need tweaking following an upgrade.
- Consider taking screenshots of your OPAC before the upgrade if your OPAC is customised.
- Can you search and retrieve catalogue results in both basic and advanced searches?
- Do search results and the detailed view of catalogue records display correctly?
- Check the main features that your users interact with. For example, are Lists present? Does your self-registration form look correct?
- Can you login to the OPAC? If you use single sign-on, is this working?
- And finally…don’t forget to check out what is new in your upgraded version. Keep up to date with our latest blog posts for more details.

Upgrade checks – staff interface