HCL Notes and Domino 9.0 Social Edition Forum

Aug 2, 2013, 8:48 AM

22 Posts

What is the point of long term use in this situation?

If you upgrade the template, that means, that you at least intend to upgrade the server. Otherwise it does make only limited sense to upgrade the template. If you upgrade the server, one probably intends to upgrade the client as well sometimes in the future. If we ask IBM to support such a configuration, we would ask them to extensively test this situation, which in my eyes is a waste of resources.

~Xagra Kikroplopoden

Aug 2, 2013, 6:46 PM

11 Posts

client/template question

Positive productive responses only please.

Otherwise, move on...

Thanks.

Linda

~Tony Nimgerover

Aug 3, 2013, 6:25 AM

22 Posts

Probably there is no answer

... because it is not intended to do so. Understanding the reasons may be the handle to give hints, so instead of aggressively reacting, give more information.

~Cheryl Opfreetherader

Aug 5, 2013, 6:25 AM

24 Posts

As Jens mentioned.

Just as Jens mentioned, the R9 template in R8 environment is not a supported configuration. It is not something that would have been tested in depth.

It is only supported as part of a migration, in so far to get the full environment finally migrated to the right release.

~Justin Deshipipulynds

Aug 5, 2013, 2:12 PM

43 Posts

Comprehensive response

Hi Linda et al,

These are the points why IBM documents support during a migration period and not permanently. Hopefully this helps put it in perspective.

TEST
The test matrix our engineering team puts together is fairly robust, and to the extent possible, automated. Some examples of our tests fall into these buckets:
BVT - Build Verification Test that run with every build during the development cycle. 100% automated
FVT - Functional Verification Test. Primarily automated and supplemented with manual tests
SVT - System Verification Test. More complex environment, cross product integration & performance testing.
Deployment Test - Real world deployment within development, IBM, and customer domains.

There are other test buckets including reliability testing. Deployment test can flesh out problems that are more data or environment dependant that we don't encounter in our existing infrastructure. There are a mix of version interop tests including in FVT but generally not build or system test. We don't expect many major issues to be encountered due specifically to mixed template, client and server versions, but it is not uncommon for some issues to escape our test matrix. Additionally, some technical issues arise that we know about that cannot be addressed without eventually upgrading the client/server to go along with template. For example, if a defect occurs with an 8.0x client with a 9.0 template but the same issue does not occur with the 9.0 client, then the issue goes away once migration to 9.0 client occurs. That is a better solution than exerting effort trying to patch the old client or exerting effort to workaround the issue in the template. Plus there are other benefits to getting the client up, see next bullet

FEATURE SET
Many of the features require the new client. Some of them exist solely in the template but a greater number rely on client code. Template code is designed as much as possible to co-exist, but there are limits. From a user experience perspective, it can be frustrating to see new features that cannot be leveraged.

SUMMARY
Mixed version is a higher area of exposure long term from a feature and defect perspective which is why we support during an upgrade only.

*Scott Vrusho* Software Release and Service Planning: Domino / SmartCloud Notes IBM Collaboration Services
	Notesmail: Scott Vrusho/Westford/IBM Notesmail:Internet: scott_vrusho@us.ibm.com