Need advice on upgrading Sugar from Version 4.2 to Current Version 6.0

[ralphmas]

Good Morning,

I am new to the SugarCRM World. I am currently systems Admin for a Company that has implemented SugarCRM through LunarPAges.com. They currently have Version 4.2 of SugarCRM which is very old one. They want me to upgrade and Migrate the entire Database to a Server with CentOS on our DataCenter.

I need your support and guidance on how to proceed with the Upgrade to Version 6 from Version 4.2, what is the approach that I will need to follow or upgrade path if any ? any documentation or tutorials that can help me ?

Keep in mind that I have the DB on 4.2 and this need to be migrated on a Server on our end.

Also if you are an expert on this matter and want to help me send me your honorary so I can consider hiring you for this process. rmas@masxort.com

Thank you for your support.

[westbay]

the best practice i'd follow is:

- download the baseline Sugar 4.2 code (CE, Pro, whichever that you're using) and do a compare against the current installation. this will help you identify what code may have changed (ie. studio changes, custom code changes, etc.) and potentially what custom changes you'll need to carry over to the 6.0 version

- if there are only studio change differences, i would practice (with a copy of your production instance) in using the sugar patches and upgrade wizard that will take you all the way to 6.0. these patches can be found in the downloads section of the Sugar website.

- if there are custom code changes, this will take more work/time in identifying what these changes are, the functionality so that you can test and confirm they're working once you upgrade, and how they might fit into the Sugar 6.0 architecture.
- make note of the files that are different and save those files off separately (will be used to do compares later)
- use the patches to upgrade up
- do final compares against the newly upgraded instance with the files that you saved off that have custom changes; there will most likely be significant merging activities here

Obviously, it's a little more complex than what I've detailed above. However, these are major steps in the process to do any type of upgrade, regardless of how many versions you're going through.

I hope that helps.

[westbay]

also, another alternative you can do (if there aren't that many custom code changes) is to start with a fresh new 6.0 installation, and perform a data migration from your 4.2 instance into your 6.0 instance. this may be a cleaner solution since you'll have multiple patches and upgrades to perform.