[Koha] Documented process for server and instance duplication?

[David Liddle]

Hello all! I'm involved in supporting a consortium of many small libraries that utilizes a single instance of Koha on a cloud host. When a new version is released, their limited staff have to verify that all of the customizations and quirks will survive the upgrade.

To facilitate this, I would like to have a process by which I create a near-duplicate of the server on my local virtualization system, modify it to suit the new environment, and then make it available for testing the upgrade. The system can easily handle the extra load, and I have an external IP address that I can assign for access. In this way, the production system can remain untouched until we're 100% certain that it can be upgraded without affecting its important functions. I managed to do this once back in 2021, but a) I did not document all of the steps I had to take to get it working, and b) there were still details I had missed that we discovered only recently. The key changes are the library name (?) and the domain/links used.

Before I plow down this path again—this time doing my best to cover all the actions and changes that need to be implemented—I thought I'd poll the community. Who out there has a documented process that you'd be willing to share? What have you done?

With gratitude for your consideration and contributions,


David Liddle