Automic Workload Automation

Hi.

I was wondering, and maybe I can get a statement from Automic (or anyone else "in the know") on this: With regular updates and with ZDU, is there any way to tell if I can (or can't) skip certain releases, and if so: What are the rules?

For instance, if I look at the ZDU documentation, it's not as helpful as one would hope. It says:

You can use this function to upgrade between all maintained versions by Automic. Depending on changes between your current version and later versions, you may need to upgrade to a version between your current version and the desired target version first.

If these were the 90s, and Dilbert would be all the rage, I'd be inserting a picture of a weasel here, because this part of the documentation is conviniently vague

On 2018-4-14, a new AE release popped up (somewhat surprisingly) for download. It contains some +HF4 components. For instance, should I track each and every hotfix release to be safe, thus updating my production system to +HF4 and any hotfix, and thus, possibly do an update every few days?

Or is it generally safe to say one only needs to track the third digit (12.1.1, 12.1.2, 12.1.3 ...) or even the major version (12.1, 12.2, 12.3 ...)? Is there any rule? Or is this trial and error, as the exceprt from the manual above suggest - "hey, we're on 12.0, let's try to ZDU to 12.1.1+hf4 and see if it works ...". And if it's the later: What if it doesn't work, what are the implications? Does at least ZDU have any built-in protections and will clearly say "Stop, you can't go from version x to z while skipping version y", or would the client just need to try it and possibly discover that something is eventually broken because of the chosen upgrade path?

The whole thing is of course compounded in it's severity by something I have pointed out before: The downloads section and release process is still not always obvious. It's better than it once was with pointless nightly releases, but it's still not great: 12.1.1+hf4 appeared somewhat out of nowhere, and worse, the only way you can see that there actually is a new hotfix is by scouring a manifest file that appeared five days after the download appeared, or downloading the archive and hunting for version numbers in the UNIX binaries with "strings".

Why can't the download button (or area) still not clearly say: "The current release is 12.1.1+hf4" ? I suspect many people wouldn't even realize that there is a +HF4, certainly took me a second (and third) look ...

Best regards,

Carsten

My personal opinion to this is as follows:

With regular updates and with ZDU, is there any way to tell if I can (or can't) skip certain releases, and if so: What are the rules?

Hotfixes: A hotfix fixes one particular issue or problem. If you did not run into it, you need not installing it.

Good to know. Hotfixes are inluded in the next upcoming Service pack.

I would recommend installling the service packs (and do so) if its possible ad convenient with a bit more of effort. Its not a ig thing skipping a Service pack, if you want to must be decided from the admins if there are critical issues that have to be fixed or not.

In my test systems I install every SP manually - as its much faster than running ZDU.

In my company we install service packs via ZDU but we do major upgrades as my father and my gradfather and my grandgrandfather did - manually :-)

cheers, Wolfgang

That is pretty far matching what I currently believe to be true also. Would still be nice for Automic to clarify that (and improve their download site ). Thanks!