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Status Not under consideration
Workspace Instana
Categories Self Hosted
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 24, 2022

Extend Instana Server upgrade support version range to support more version jumps

Issue: For Instana server upgrade, there is a limitation that the target version can not be bigger 3 than the current version. For example, Instana 209 can be updated to 211 and 213, but can not be updated to 215.

Workaround: To upgrade from 209 to 221 you have to upgrade in steps. From 209 to 213, from 213 to 217, from 217 to 221.

Business impact: There is almost no way but reinstall Instana server under current upgrade policy.

For Instana deployed on customer site, customer will not upgrade the Instana server frequently. After one or two years, if customer want to upgrade the Instana server, then there is no way to upgrade the Instana server to latest directly. And since there are too many version released, it is not even possible to upgrade the Instana server for each release version.


Request: Extend the supported version for Instana server upgrade so that Instana can upgrade to a server released in more time period (for example, one or two years)

Idea priority Low
  • Admin
    Hubert Hesse
    Reply
    |
    Mar 31, 2022

    Also note our Version Support Policy as per https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/obi/current?topic=policies#version-support-policy

    For self-hosted releases, Instana supports the current release and the previous two monthly releases. Agent sensor releases have six months support from release date.

    Updating the version in-use may be required to troubleshoot and resolve reported problems. If you are using an unsupported version, we highly recommend that you update to the latest release.

    bold is highlighted by me,

  • Admin
    Hubert Hesse
    Reply
    |
    Mar 28, 2022

    Hi He Wu,

    I amended your original request and included the workaround of stepwise upgrades. At the moment, we are not considering this request as we can not guarantee flawless upgrades over more version jumps.

    Can you share more context around your statement: "For Instana deployed on customer site, customer will not upgrade the Instana server frequently. "

    - Can you describe specific examples where that happened or can give customer names directly to me via hubert.hesse@ibm.com, so I can understand their context better
    - Any problems in doing upgrades in steps, e.g. 209 to 213, 213 to 217 and so?
    - What keeps the customers from doing regular updates, e.g. once a month? Is it too hard, technically or organizational, i.e. maintenance windows are too hard to organize