[Koha] Re: database upgrade

Hello,

I also confirm what Philippe said yesterday: when a library asks us to do an upgrade from a so old version, we consider it as a migration not as an upgrade: catalogue export in iso2709 and reimport into Koha, CSV export of patrons and issues, and reimport into Koha.

It's *much* easier to re-enter parameters (itemtypes, categorycode, issuing rules, notices, ...) than trying to fix all the problems that occurs with an upgrade.

Le 26/10/2026 à 22:10, Coehoorn, Joel via Koha a écrit :
> One important thing to understand about this is Koha 3.16 is from 2014:
> more than 12 years old. That's a long time, and a big part of what's going
> on is *the database itself* has changed over that time period. The MySql
> 5.7 that was new in 2014 is no longer supported (to the point of
> significant unpatched security issues!), and the versions added since have
> added language features and fixed some poor design choices (especially
> regarding NULL handling) from back then.
>
> So you may have better luck if you can find some intermediate releases,
> taking it a few steps at a time, and updating the DB as you go. Good idea
> to update your base linux and apache installs the same way.
>
> *Joel Coehoorn*
> Director of Information Technology
> *York University*
> Office: 402-363-5603 |[email protected] | york.edu
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 26, 2026 at 8:54 AM Philippe Blouin via Koha< [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Giuseppe,
>>
>> We've done that many times. Most go smoothly, some are nightmare.
>>
>> First, if the standard upgrade process doesn't work, is it because you
>> have customizations in your 3.16 database, or is it "just" a matter of
>> character set and collates brought to you by different RDBMS. Got that
>> last one this year, and it was utter madness. The latest Mariadb are
>> too stringent for some early modifications in updatedatabases.
>>
>> Sometime it's just better to dump in MARC and .csv what you can.
>>
>> But if there are caused by customizations, you should _ask an IA to
>> compare your schema with what it should be in the exact version you're
>> coming from_. Then make the changes (lose you customizations) then update.
>>
>>
>> Philippe Blouin,
>> Directeur de la technologie
>>
>> Tél. : (833) 465-4276, poste 230
>> [email protected]
>>
>> inLibro | pour esprit libre |www.inLibro.com <http://www.inLibro.com>
>> On 2026-10-25 12:27, Giuseppe Angilella via Koha wrote:
>>> Hi David,
>>>
>>>> * Do you have backups of the original database?
>>> yes, I do have a backup (and full access to mysql, where I am
>>> attempting the updates).
>>>
>>>> * Have you exported the parts of Koha that you most want to preserve
>>>> (biblio records, patrons, circulation reports, etc.)?
>>> Yes, they are in the database backup.
>>>
>>>> * Have you made screenshots of the settings and customizations that
>>>> may
>>>> not be compatible with the new version?
>>> Mostly so.
>>>
>>>> * Are you taking these actions in a test environment, on a new
>>>> server, or
>>>> on the existing server?
>>> I am performing these actions on my laptop (Ubuntu linux), where an
>>> up-to-date version of Koha is running, on a separate database. I plan
>>> to eventually scratch the old server, and install the current version
>>> of Koha.
>>>
>>> Many thanks!
>>>
>>> Giuseppe.
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