Upgrading the OTRS Framework

These instructions are for people upgrading OTRS from version 3.1 to 3.2, and apply both for RPM and source code (tarball) upgrades.

If you are running a lower version of OTRS you have to follow the upgrade path to 3.1 first (1.1->1.2->1.3->2.0->2.1->2.2->2.3->2.4->3.0->3.1->3.2 ...)!

Please note that if you upgrade from OTRS 2.2 or earlier, you must take an extra step; please read http://bugs.otrs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6798.

Please note that for upgrades from 3.2.0.beta1, an additional step 9 is needed!

Within a single minor version you can skip patch level releases if you want to upgrade. For instance you can upgrade directly from OTRS 3.2.1 to version 3.2.4. If you need to do such a "patch level upgrade", you should skip steps 9, 13, 15, 16 and 17.

  1. Stop all relevant services.

    e. g. (depends on used services):

    shell> /etc/init.d/cron stop
    shell> /etc/init.d/postfix stop
    shell> /etc/init.d/apache stop
                

  2. Backup everything below $OTRS_HOME (default: OTRS_HOME=/opt/otrs):

    • Kernel/Config.pm

    • Kernel/Config/GenericAgent.pm

    • Kernel/Config/Files/ZZZAuto.pm

    • var/*

    • as well as the database

  3. Make sure that you have backed up everything ;-)

  4. Setup new system (optional)

    If possible, try this install on a separate machine for testing first.

  5. Install the new release (tar or RPM).

    • With the tarball:

      shell> cd /opt
      shell> tar -xzf otrs-x.x.x.tar.gz
      shell> ln -s otrs-x.x.x otrs
                      

      Restore old configuration files.

      • Kernel/Config.pm

      • Kernel/Config/GenericAgent.pm

      • Kernel/Config/Files/ZZZAuto.pm

    • With the RPM:

      shell> rpm -Uvh otrs-x.x.x.-01.rpm
                      

      In this case the RPM update automatically restores the old configuration files.

  6. Own themes

    Note: The OTRS themes between 3.1 and 3.2 are NOT compatible, so don't use your old themes!

    Themes are located under $OTRS_HOME/Kernel/Output/HTML/*/*.dtl (default: OTRS_HOME=/opt/otrs).

  7. Set file permissions.

    If the tarball is used, execute:

    shell> cd /opt/otrs/
    shell> bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl
                

    with the permissions needed for your system setup.

  8. Check needed Perl modules

    Verify that all needed perl modules are installed on your system and install any modules that might be missing.

    shell> /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.CheckModules.pl
                   

  9. Schema update:

    Note: new tables created in the MySQL UPGRADING process will be created with the default table storage engine set in your MySQL server. In MySQL 5.5 the new default type is InnoDB. If existing tables, e.g. "users", have the table storage engine, e.g. MyISAM, then an error will be displayed when creating the foreign key constraints.

    You have two options: (1) you can change the default storage engine of MySQL back to MyISAM so that new tables will have the same engine as the existing tables, or (2) change the existing tables to use InnoDB as storage engine.

    Any problems with regards to the storage engine will be reported by the otrs.CheckDB.pl script, so please run it to check for possible issues.

    shell> cd /opt/otrs/
    
    # MySQL:
    shell> bin/otrs.CheckDB.pl
    shell> cat scripts/DBUpdate-to-3.2.mysql.sql | mysql -p -f -u root otrs
    
    # PostgreSQL 8.2+:
    shell> cat scripts/DBUpdate-to-3.2.postgresql.sql | psql otrs
    
    # PostgreSQL, older versions:
    shell> cat scripts/DBUpdate-to-3.2.postgresql_before_8_2.sql | psql otrs
                

    Note: If you use PostgreSQL 8.1 or earlier, you need to activate the new legacy driver for these older versions. Do this by adding a new line to your Kernel/Config.pm like this:

    $Self->{DatabasePostgresqlBefore82} = 1;
                

    Run the migration script (as user 'otrs', NOT as root):

    shell> scripts/DBUpdate-to-3.2.pl
                

    Do not continue the upgrading process if this script does not work properly for you. Otherwise data loss may occur.

  10. Database Upgrade During Beta Phase

    This step is ONLY needed if you upgrade from 3.2.0.beta1!

    Please apply the required database changes as follows:

    MySQL:
     shell> cat scripts/DBUpdate-3.2.beta.mysql.sql | mysql -p -f -u root otrs
    
    PostgreSQL 8.2+:
     shell> cat scripts/DBUpdate-3.2.beta.postgresql.sql | psql otrs
    
    PostgreSQL, older versions:
     shell> cat scripts/DBUpdate-3.2.beta.postgresql_before_8_2.sql | psql otrs
                

  11. Refresh the configuration and delete caches. Please run:

    shell> bin/otrs.RebuildConfig.pl
    shell> bin/otrs.DeleteCache.pl
                

  12. Restart your services.

    e. g. (depends on used services):

    shell> /etc/init.d/cron start
    shell> /etc/init.d/postfix start
    shell> /etc/init.d/apache start
                

    Now you can log into your system.

  13. Check 'Cache::Module' setting

    The file cache backend 'FileRaw' was removed in favor of the faster 'FileStorable'. The DBUpdate-to-3.2.pl automatically updates the config setting 'Cache::Module', but you need to change it manually if you defined this setting in Kernel/Config.pm directly. It needs to be changed from 'Kernel::System::Cache::FileRaw' to 'Kernel::System::Cache::FileStorable'.

  14. Check installed packages

    In the package manager, check if all packages are still marked as correctly installed or if any require reinstallation or even a package upgrade.

  15. Cleanup metadata of archived tickets

    Note: This step only applies if you use the ticket archiving feature of OTRS.

    With OTRS 3.2, when tickets are archived, the information which agent read the ticket and articles can be removed, as well as the ticket subscriptions of agents. This is active by default and helps reduce the amount of data in the database on large systems with many tickets and agents.

    If you also want to cleanup this information for existing archived tickets, please run this script:

    shell> bin/otrs.CleanupTicketMetadata.pl --archived
                

    If you want to KEEP this information instead, please set these SysConfig settings to "No":

    Ticket::ArchiveSystem::RemoveSeenFlags
    Ticket::ArchiveSystem::RemoveTicketWatchers
                

  16. Review (Modify) ACLs for Dynamic Fields

    Note: This step only applies if you use ACLs to limit Dynamic Fields Dropdown or Multiselect possible values.

    Now in OTRS 3.2 the Possible and PossibleNot ACL sections for Dynamic Fields Dropdown and Multiselect must refer to the key (internal values) rather than the value (shown values).

    Example:

    For the defined field "Dropdown1"  with possible values:
    1 => 'A',
    2 => 'B',
    3 => 'C',
    
    ACLs prior OTRS 3.2 should look like:
    
    $Self->{TicketAcl}->{'Limit Dropdown1 entries'} = {
       Properties => {},
       Possible => {
           Ticket => {
               # White list entries with VALUES containing 'B' and 'C'
               DynamicField_Dropdown1 => [ 'B', 'C' ],
           },
       },
    };
    
    ACLs must be modified to:
    
    $Self->{TicketAcl}->{'Limit Dropdown1 entries'} = {
       Properties => {},
       Possible => {
           Ticket => {
               # White list entries with VALUES containing 'B' and 'C' (now using KEYS)
               DynamicField_Dropdown1 => [ '2', '3' ],
           },
       },
    };
    
    By doing this change ACLs will look much more consistent, since Possible and PossibleDatabase
    sections already use Keys instead of Values, please look at the following example:
    
    $Self->{TicketAcl}->{'Limit Dropdown1 entries based in Dropdown2'} = {
        Properties => {
            Ticket => {
                # Match on the DeopDown2 KEY '1'
                DynamicField_Dwondown2 => ['1'],
            },
        },
        Possible => {
            Ticket => {
                # White list Dropdown1 entries with VALUES containing 'B' and 'C' (now using KEYS)
                DynamicField_Dropdown1 => ['1', '2'],
            },
        },
    };
                

  17. Adapt custom event handler modules

    Note: this only applies if you have any custom developed event handler modules.

    Since OTRS 3.2, the data payload for event handler modules is no longer copied into the %Param hash. You need to explicitly access it through $Param{Data}.

    Old:
    
    # get ticket
    my %Ticket = $Self->{TicketObject}->TicketGet(
        TicketID      => $Param{TicketID},
        UserID        => 1,
    );
    
    New:
    
    # get ticket
    my %Ticket = $Self->{TicketObject}->TicketGet(
        TicketID      => $Param{Data}->{TicketID},
        UserID        => 1,
    );
                

  18. Well done!