Best practice for fix packs?

  • 7 October 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 4 views
J

Hello,

 

what is your best  practice for installing fix packs?

We do this installations very seldom because internally we believe that we need to test "everything" before using them in a productive stage.

So in general we must find a time window when we have enough time without deploying any changes. Then we install the FP into our DEV system and test on our own (mostly the designer tools). Then we install it in our QA system and letting our users to test all their solutions. Parallel we do some PnD tests. If everything works OK, we will update our PROD system.

The whole process is long and weary because you have to wait for all users to give their OK. During that time we cannot do any changes because the PnD process only works with the same versions in all stages... (or at least that's what we believe :-))

 

Now currently we have some problems that according to K2 is solved in the current FPs but we cannot speed up our "update process"...

 

How do other users handle these problems? Do you just install the latest FPs regularly and "hope" that everything is better? Do you test at all? And if yes, what do you test? (And if not, does this work?)

 

What does K2 recommend?

 

regards,

Johann

5 replies

D

Good day JSC;


 


From a K2 perspective, I would kindly like to recommend that while doing upgrades our CUSTOMER's should take responsibility for testing solution(s) built on the K2 platform. Please always make sure to test update impacts on your solutions thoroughly. referencing: https://help.k2.com/kb002772


This should answer your question regarding best practices when deploying fix packs to a K2 environment.


Furthermore please always make sure you have a rollback plan for cases where the update installation goes wrong.
You just do it to be on the safe side with any software so that problems/issues are isolated before they have any negative impact on your business.


 


Best regards,


Dumisani


 

S
Userlevel 3
Badge +16

Hi JSC,

 

Let me give you some real advise how protecting yourself from major problems with K2 Fixpacks.

 

1) An identical dev environment is essential

2) If you use VMs, get a snapshot - but in reality this is useless because by the time K2 respond with a solution, to much time will have passed and you risk further problems rolling back to a week old starting point.

3) If you open a ticket with K2, the first thing they will get you to do is install the latest fixpack, without thinking whether it will break something in your environment.

4) K2 have a track record for removing major functionality in fixpacks without informing customers as to the reasons why.

 

I am currently going through this situation with K2 this very minute.I opened a ticket, was asked to install the latest fixpack. The fixpack 18 (deserialisation removed) completely broken the connection between K2 and Microsoft SCSM for creating job tickets which has rendered most of our forms broken.

 

Luckily, i caried all this out on my dev environment and am now awaiting a resolution to this.

 

My last point on this is, even after you've installed a Fixpack on your Dev environment, check, double-check, triple-check every type of form variation and service you use, because you'd be surpised just how easily these Fixpacks break other previously working functionality you had.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love K2 when it works, but i'm posting this so others don't have to go through the same scenarios i've encountered, over and over again with these unpredictable fixpacks.

 

All the best,

K
Badge +7

Hello  @JSC 

 

Distinguish between major and minor version updates as opposed to CU, FP and cold fixes.

 

Enlighten yourself about in https://help.k2.com/support-services/kbt129871.

J

Thanks for the asnwers so far.

Is it correct, that I can only download Fixpacks for K2 5.3 - and no CU yet? In the links it says that they come out every two months and as far as I know 5.3 is older than 2 months, isn't it?

 

I think we will stay on a "conservative" way and better live with the errors we know rather than have to live with the errors we do not know yet :-)

D

Hi JSC;


 


Yes, you are correct for now we do not currently have a CU yet, however, the release date for it should be available very soon. As we currently have near enough fix-packs for a CU to be rolled out.


And your guideline method of using the "conservative" is quite alright, however, if you have the need to install new fix-packs and encounter issues during the process, please kindly log a support ticket and our support engineers will be available and happy to assist.


 


Best regards,


Dumisani

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