Upgrade process

["Karen Bracken" <KBRACKEN at riversideca dot gov>]

IUGers:

We are a fairly new Innovative library system currently running 2002
phase 3.  We know we must upgrade to appreciate various enhancements and
fixes. We had planned to purchase a test server and have III load the
new version on the test server with our data to evaluate before going
"live on a new version".  That is until we got a sales quote... It was
cost prohibitive, so now we must come up with an upgrade plan to
identify any changes to the modules from the release notes and inform
the staff of these changes prior to the upgrade.  

We are quite concerned about applying the upgrade directly to our
production system, with the only safety net being an untested system
rebuild and tape restoration.  This is clearly not good practice for
software upgrades in the private sector, so we are wondering what the
"real life" experiences have been for those who did an in-place upgrade.
 Did anything go wrong?  Were the vendor-provided time estimates for
completion accurate?  Did everything come back up when they promised? 
Did you later notice any data corruption, or anything that "just didn't
look quite right"?

Would any of you be willing to share your upgrade
process/steps/gotcha's to a successful upgrade?  Our goal is to have a
successful upgrade with informed, prepared staff.   Any information you
can provide to make this happen would be great.


Karen Bracken
Data Technician, Riverside Public Library
(951) 826-5214
kbracken at riversideca dot gov