Upgrading LiveWhale

Upgrade steps:

  1. Upgrading your dev server
  2. Syncing recent content to dev for testing
  3. Making changes on dev if needed
  4. Performing the upgrade

4. Performing the upgrade

After you’re happy with how everything’s working on your dev server, it’s time to schedule your prod (production) upgrade.

Scheduling

We recommend scheduling a 2-hour maintenance window and notifying editors they’ll be locked out, via email or by sending a bulletin. Typically pulling an upgrade takes between 10–45 minutes, but having some cushion time is never a bad thing.

We also suggest notifying support@livewhale.com when you’ve scheduled your upgrade window. This will help us keep an eye out in case you require any urgent support during that time.

During your maintenance window

  1. SFTP into your prod server and lock out editors

  2. Login to your prod site at /livewhale/?login (clicking “Click here if you have upgrade access” to bypass the lockout)

  3. Once logged-in, visit /livewhale/?updates_pull

  4. Double check that the page says “Production server:” and that you are pulling to your production site from your dev site.

  5. Scroll to the bottom of this page and click “Run this update”

  6. After clicking, wait a minute for the upgrade to run. After you see “Upgrade is complete” or “Server is up-to-date” click the link provided to logout (or visit /livewhale/?logout).

    Note: Some testers reported seeing a white screen here, indicating a server timeout. We’re working on that, but if you see it, simply wait 15–30 seconds and refresh and the upgrade should continue normally.

  7. Log back in to trigger any database upgrades (this may take a few minutes the first time you login after an upgrade)

  8. Go back to /livewhale/?updates_pull to double-check that there are no remaining files to pull—if any files are listed, go back to Step 5. If it says “Server is up-to-date,” continue to Step 9.

  9. Using SFTP, copy to prod any changes to /_ingredients or /livewhale/config/ that you made on dev during your testing.

  10. Once you login and confirm the upgrade has completed, you can remove the editor lockout

You’re done! Thanks for using the latest version of LiveWhale, and feel free to drop us a note to let us know how everything went for you. We welcome your feedback on the upgrade process.