Is it safe to update a plugin whilst staff use the site?

[Martin James]

I want to update a plugin that is disabled that we are going to re-enable once the update is complete.

Is it safe to do this whilst staff continue to read and update documentation?

[Christos Moysiadis · Accepted solution]

Hello @Martin James ,

I've done 2 plugin updates in working hours some days before, in JiraSoftware. I had some complains that Jira was tooooo slow! Nothing was broken, but after these complains i just made 2 simple decisions. 

• I don't want these complains on my desk.
• Updates/Upgrades can be done in hours, which most of the users doesn't work.

Think that these updates take just some minutes! The same will be for Confluence too if i assume right! 

Info: If the update is TOP priority ,then this is another story

Regards

CM

PS: any other opinions are welcome! :)

[Christopher Jaksch]

Hi @Martin James

@Christos Moysiadis is right.

Plan app updates out of your company's core labor time.
Additionally to Christos recommendations I'd like to add the following:

• Apps need to harmonize with each other. It happens from time to time, that app updates crash the functionality of other apps. 
  Therefore I'd recommend you to setup a test environment, so you can test all apps and its features before updating on your productive environment
• Also document your current and planned version in case of required roll-back scenarios

Best wishes
Chris
STAGIL 

[Christos Moysiadis]

The added infos from @Christopher Jaksch are extra important to have in mind @Martin James (i have them already in use). Both of them will save you time and effort and also make your job more structured and clean! 

Regards to all :)

[Martin James]

Thanks for clarifying this.

We have our test environment and we generally carry out these changes first thing in the morning.

We disabled the plugin as we were due to uninstall the tool. Now that there is a new requirement, we need to re-enable the app. We wanted to upgrade the tool first before doing this.

Out of interest, have you ever needed to roll back from an issue with a plugin upgrade? Do you create a system snapshot before carrying out the work?

[Christopher Jaksch]

Hi @Martin James ,

yes - just 1 week ago I had to find & roll back app updates made by our client due to bugs Power Scripts for Jira brought to other Jira apps (Portfolio for Jira & Xray).

This must be debugged via Jira > Manage Apps > Safe Mode, which firstly disables all apps (https://confluence.atlassian.com/upm/disabling-and-enabling-apps-273875716.html#Disablingandenablingapps-Disablingorenablingallapps(usingSafeMode))

Then enable each app one by one and check if the bug(s) reoccur on specific app enablement.

After that, deinstall the problematic app and try your last working version or at least older versions to resolve the problems.

Since app configuration & data are all stored in database, a full system snapshot is not required in my opinion.

Btw.: This could have been avoided if the team was testing the app updates on their test environment before going in productive update phase :D

Best wishes
Chris
STAGIL