Preparing to upgrade to 23.1

For detailed upgrade steps, see Upgrade steps.

• Decide if you are going to do a rolling upgrade, and if so, which model. See About rolling upgrades.
• Review the release documentation for important information related to this upgrade.
• Review the Additional upgrade considerations for information specifically related to upgrades.

• Make sure your origin version (Upgrade origin version) When upgrading Venafi Trust Protection Platform from the currently-installed version to a newer version, the currently-installed version is referred to as the origin version. is on the latest patch (upgrade may be required).

  Venafi strongly recommends that you update to the latest patch of your source version before you upgrade to 23.1.

  The Venafi Updater utility enables you to apply maintenance updates to your current version of Venafi Trust Protection Platform™. It does not support product upgrades to newer product releases.

  For more information, see Updating the latest patch.

• Review and update your internally-documented upgrade playbook.

  Many customers have an internal "playbook" developed with Venafi Professional Services with instructions and policies you need to follow for upgrading your Venafi servers. See if there are new options available or new requirements that need to be documented in your playbook. Review this entire chapter, and compare with your playbook to see where updates may be necessary.

• Schedule a maintenance window.

  Most customers use a change management process that requires a scheduled maintenance window for making changes to the production environment. Your change management process may include creating a change request with documents potential risks, as well as risk-mitigation steps you will take to ensure all affected people are aware of the change.

  Usually these change requests require an approval process, so give yourself plenty of lead time if these requirements apply to you.

• Download Trust Protection Platform version 23.1. For specific steps see Downloading the latest version of Venafi Trust Protection Platform.

• If you are using an answer file, you may need to update it before upgrading. For details on the current answer file schema, see Creating and using answer files.

  We recommend you create a new answer file using version 23.1 for use in scripted installations and upgrades.

• Upgrade and test in non-production environments.

  Especially when you plan to change features, or if current feature deprecations affect your environment, we highly recommend that you test the upgraded version of Trust Protection Platform against a recent copy of your production database to identify any issues before you go live.

  WARNING!  Never use your production database in lower environments (dev, test, sandbox, etc.)! Always use a recent copy of your production database in lower environments.