Hi,

My first entry here, as I am new to Limesurvey installations/upgrading. But I am faced with the following: we have an install with version 2.57.1, that's been running for a year or so. But we've been thinking that the postponed upgrades might be direly needed, perhaps also from security point of view.

Can problems be expected if we'd upgrade to the latest version 3.9.0?
With surveys (and their data) currently present in the old install.

I have seen the www.limesurvey.org/forum/installation-a-...g-from-2-65-to-3-7-3 topic
That gives some info (though still: I have not performed a limesurvey upgrade myself before; and our host only hosts; does not/cannot do upgrades - not my choice, but I didn't work here yet when that decision was made).
But I'd like to be sure no existing surveys will be broken in the process. So many changes have been made since version 2.57.1...

Is it even advisable to do such an upgrade, or are there no great problems to be expected?
Of course the existing surveys are important for the respective programs using them.


thnx!

so many security release since 2.57...
you should have updated a while ago.

There are several discussions about upgrading. The major change from 2.5x to 3.x that you will definitely have to face is the change of templates or themes how they are called now. The approach has changed, so the themes/templates from previous versions will not work with 3.x. If you don't have any custom themes, this will not be relevant for you. If you have custom themes you will not be able to use them with 3.x. Probably the easiest way would be to create them new on the new twig engine.

Now regarding the surveys and potential problems: No one can guarantee 100% that there won't be problems or hickups. Depending on the amount of surveys and users you have, you might consider a parallel installation of 3.x and move everything there.
For bigger installations this can be tedious, then I would run another approach. I assume that you have a test environment and a production environment anyway. So you can try the update first on the test environment and test the surveys. If everything works, you can do the update itself.

@LouisGac:
You are absolutely right.
However, I've only worked here for a short time now (and the webhost only seems to host this, not manage updates and stuff).
So I'm trying to salvage the situation now.

@holch:
Thanks for your reply.
- I've been thinking of a clean install. But as far as what I read, transferring surveys from the old environment to the new one, including all data, may be an issue all by itself. If possible at all?
- I'll have to inquire about all surveys running, and the importance of them. If we start with a clean slate, that would be the easiest, i think
- unfortunately there is no separate test and production environment. Again, this all was setup way before I got here. Would it be possible to clone the current install to then function as test environment?

If there is no test environment, I would clone the current installation.

I am a big fan of clean installations, because you can get rid of a lot of old slag, that isn't really that necessary. But it always depends on your specific environment. If you have a lot of users and a lot of surveys, then it might be a lot of work to transfer this to the new installation.

What you can do is to copy the database and then install the new version over this. It should update the database to the latest version and you should have all surveys, users, etc. Then you can see if things work out for you and do the upgrade on the production server.

Ideally you do the update when there is as little traffic on the installation as possible. Don't do it during the fieldtime of important surveys. Let them run out or even just slow down. In my experience, 2-3 days after sending the invites response is slowing down considerably.

Thanks for your swift reply. I have to discuss these options here with the stakeholders of the surveys.