Guidance Needed for Upgrading DHIS2 from 2.39 to Newer Version (2.40+) on Microsoft Server

Support - Assistance technique
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Dear DHIS2 Community, @Gassim

I hope you are doing well.

@HawraaSweidan and I would like to seek your guidance regarding upgrading our DHIS2 instance.

Currently, we are running DHIS2 version 2.39 on a Microsoft Windows Server environment, using Tomcat 9 . We are planning to upgrade our system to a more recent and stable version (preferably 2.40 or later ).

Our team at the Ministry of Public Health – Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (IT Department) is planning to carry out this upgrade internally.

We currently have two main servers that we intend to upgrade. As part of our approach, we are planning to start with our training server first in order to test and validate the upgrade process before applying it to the production environment.

We would appreciate your support and advice on the following:

  • Is there a comprehensive step-by-step guide or official documentation for upgrading from version 2.39 to 2.40 or newer?
  • Are there any specific recommendations or best practices for this type of upgrade (especially on Windows Server with Tomcat 9)?
  • Are there any known issues or important considerations when upgrading between these versions?

We have reviewed some general documentation, but we would appreciate confirmation or additional guidance to ensure a smooth and safe upgrade process.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Best regards.

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Hi @jounyabass

Thank you for your patience! I hope you, Hawraa and all your team are doing well.

Let me start by the most important part:

Windows Server is not officially supported (i.e. works but not officially):
* The official guides support Ubuntu/Linux [installation guides]
* The Server Administration - Administration-du-Serveur > DHIS2 on Docker deployment doesn’t work directly on Windows Server
* You might still find guides online but they’re not always up to date and they’re not monitored by the team (including security wise).

[In short, I would recommend considering a strategy to move to the free and open-source Linux OS. This is a general recommendation; however, you’re aware of your infrastructure and what it needs] So skipping the part where I add this recommendation, considering that everything is managed.

Here are some important guidelines for upgrades/updates:

  1. DHIS2 Upgrade Guide for System Administrators: this is a very important resource. It’s the 100% number 1 page to read before anything else (make sure to check the 12 steps table at the end as well).
  2. When upgrading to any version, it’s important to go over the release & upgrade notes. These are always linked in the release announcement topic posts. See ‘upgrade notes’ in release. The upgrade notes contain important steps for the admin to perform before upgrading to a higher version. For example, dhis2-releases/releases/2.40 at master · dhis2/dhis2-releases · GitHub

Please make sure to always keep backup and it would be great if you can test the upgrade in a test instance (a clone of the production instance) before upgrading the actual production instance.

Additionally, remember to check the software compatibility versions [which are also mentioned in upgrade notes]:

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(docs source)

Thanks for still posting in the CoP and starting this discussion. Hopefully it will be helpful for others as well. I know I also shared from the docs, so my question is if you have any specific questions? Or if you attempt this but face technical challenges, please post back and give us an update. :slight_smile: