Uh Clem's Admin World

I completed my last mail server upgrade just now.  Yes, I am brave enough to do it on a Friday!  So all mail servers are now Domino 8.0.2.  I still have my ST, QP, and BES servers to do, but the hard part is over.

Next week I start piloting the client upgrades and the DWA (iNotes) upgrades.  Fortunately 75% of my users are DWA users only.

I'm still waiting for the 8.0.2 "revised" client to be released that fixes the bugs I mentioned here.

The first production server upgrade is always the scariest.  You are told that the directory and other system databases are backward compatible, but for some reason you are never quite sure.

I upgraded my first production Domino server this week from 7.0.3 to 8.0.2.  I must say it went amazingly smooth.  I followed the recommendations in technote 1303385.  However I did take one other precautionary step.  I disabled the replication of the directory (names.nsf) to the other 7.x servers.  Once I got the first server (the admin server of course) up to 8.0.2 I then opened up replication of the directory to the 7.x servers one at a time.  I would let it replicate, then perform an updall on names.nsf on the 7.x server.   I waited an hour between each 7.x server and gradually let the 8.0.2 names.nsf out to each of the other 7.x servers.

This went smoothly on all the 7.x servers including a Sametime server, Quickr server, and BES server.  The only minor glitch was the typeahead in email addressing was a little confused on user machines for a little while, but it straightened itself out.   I'm not quite sure why this happened since I updated the view indexes right after replication.

Once again I give the upgrade process of a major release of Domino an "A".  It amazes me every time how smooth these upgrades go.

I hope to continue to blog my progress as I role out 8.0.2 to the rest of my servers and then to my users.  Stay tuned.  Feel free to contact me directly if you are getting ready to go to 8.x and need a little input from someone who has been there.

I have my first Domino 8 server upgrade (from 7.0.3) scheduled for next week.   I have been planning to use 8.0.1, but now I hear that 8.0.2 might be out in the next couple of days.  I am considering just using 8.0.2, but one of my co-workers asked me if I'm crazy.

In the past I have waited at least 30 days after a point release to put it in production.   So why has my thinking changed?  Have I been lulled into a false sense of security with ND point releases?  The last point release that I remember being a disaster was 5.0.3, which has been, like, 7 years.

How fast are you planning to put 8.0.2 into production?