We strongly encourage our sites to upgrade on a regular basis. There are several reasons why upgrading and staying on the latest version is beneficial:
1. Security: Updates often include patches for security vulnerabilities discovered in previous versions. By staying updated, your site is protected against the increasingly complex landscape of threats to your data security.
2. Performance: The latest version often comes with performance improvements, optimizations, and bug fixes, which can result in better efficiency and speed.
3. Features: Staying up to date provides your site with the latest features, enhancements, and functionalities that can improve user experience, productivity, and satisfaction. Staying updated allows you to take advantage of these advancements.
4. Support: By upgrading, you ensure access to technical support, documentation, and resources that can help resolve issues and optimize usage.
5. Bug Fixes: Updates address bugs, glitches, and errors present in earlier versions, leading to a more stable and reliable experience.
6. Enhanced User Experience: The latest version of Xetta New versions of software may include user interface improvements, usability enhancements, and other refinements that contribute to a more enjoyable and intuitive user experience.
As well as addressing strengthening security, there are several other reasons for you to ensure you are working on a recent version of Xetta including that it contains the most up to date set of features and functionality and having access to our new Browser based user tools as soon as they are released.
Because most of the day-to-day issues encountered with older versions are addressed in our most recent version you’ll enjoy a more streamlined support experience. It is also important to note that requests for specific workflows and product enhancements are not able to be deployed to older versions and will only be developed for our most recent versions.
Once you have decided to move forward with the upgrade, we’ve included our standard procedure below to ensure a seamless upgrade process.
1. Select & Refresh Non-Production Environment:
Choose either your DEV or TEST non-production environment and decide if a refresh from PROD is required. Please note that these efforts may include additional costs that need to be covered before proceeding. If this is not necessary for your site, you may proceed to the next step.
2. Upgrade Non-Production Environment:
- Contact the Customer Support Specialist Team and let them know you would like to kick off the upgrade process. Provide the team with the selected environment and advise if a refresh is needed.
- Our Team will create a Basecamp project to track all required tasks and notify all relevant stakeholders of the status of the upgrade.
- Expect a downtime of maximum of 3-6 hours on the day of the upgrade.
- Upon completion, a team member will reach out to you.
- Conduct thorough end-to-end testing to ensure all components function as expected. It Is recommended to create a comprehensive test plan and scenarios in advance for end- to-end testing. This plan should include tests for current configuration as well as tests for any new functionality the site would like to go live with after the upgrade.
3. Upgrade Production Environment:
- Once testing is complete provide the go ahead to upgrade PROD.
- Typically, PROD upgrades occur 6 to 8 weeks after the non-production upgrades.
- Expect a downtime of maximum 3-6 hours during the upgrade process.
- During this period, we can display an outage page, allowing you to specify any desired text or images.
- The team will be in communication with the site throughout the process providing updates and will advise once the upgrade is complete and ready for the site to perform their final signoff before re-opening the site to the public.
4. Upgrade Additional Non-Production Environment:
- About a week after the Production upgrade, proceed with upgrading the other non-production environment.
- We take this action to ensure that all your environments are consistently running the same version as production for any BAU support requirements.
Additional Information: All dates must be discussed with the support team in advance. If you choose to manage the upgrade independently, there are no additional fees as it’s included in the yearly hosting fee. However, should you wish to explore the managed upgrade option, please contact Darryl Anderson or the helpdesk for more details.
If your current instance of Xetta has a version number before Version 1.3.x please reach out to discuss scheduling your upgrade with the Customer Support Specialist team via support@xetta.com.