[Koha] Upgrade Koha 3.12 to 17.05

[Bob Birchall]

On 12/07/17 21:17, Mesfin Teshome wrote:
> Dear all,    Can I upgraded Koha 3.12 directly to Koha 17.05? I am currently running Koha 3.12 on Ubuntu 14.04. I will really appreciate your help and feedback on this. Thank you.Regards,Mesfin

You'll need to be very careful.

First, current versions of Koha won't run on Ubuntu 14.04, so you need 
to upgrade Ubuntu first.  Next, its a big upgrade, through 7 or 8 major 
release versions of Koha, so there is inherent risk. Before you do 
anything, take a backup.

The recommended way to install Koha is from Debian packages. See the 
Koha wiki for info - there's a page for Ubuntu. That was not the case 
back at 3.12 iirc, so that's another change you are navigating.

You need to find a way of creating your new installation without 
destroying your old one.  Otherwise you could get stuck not being able 
to go forward and not being able to go back.  Can you use a different 
device?  If so, install Ubuntu, then install Koha 16.11 or 17.05 from 
Debian packages, then install your saved Koha 3.12 database. Log in to 
the staff client and you'll get the web installer, which will attempt to 
upgrade your database to the current version.

The alternative is to do a conversion.  Export the data you need from 
Koha 3.12 and import it into a new Koha 16.11 or 17.05.

Good luck.  Its much easier to keep your Koha version up to date.

Bob Birchall
Calyx