Redmine upgrade to Easy Redmine

A) Data migration

Easy Redmine on-premises runs best in Docker - a guaranteed full-stack deployment with minimal maintenance.

Therefore, the logical option is to launch your Easy Redmine image and migrate data from your Redmine.

1. Run your Easy Redmine image following these instructions.
2. Back up your whole Redmine instance (database, attachments, code).
   
3. Prepare your Redmine database into proper form.
4. After you are completely sure that the DB does not contain anything other than pure Redmine tables and data, migrate into database container.

If you find any issues with the provided instructions, do not hesitate to share them with us. We are committed to improving these resources based on feedback from the administrators' practice.

If you want to outsource this whole operation, contact our support team, who will plan the migration service to be performed by our experts.

B) In-place upgrade (legacy)

While it may seem like the simpler option, it is effective only for a very narrow use case. In most cases, it is much quicker and cheaper to migrate to a new server, as described above. Why is it so?

Easy Redmine is a complex piece of software and requires a precisely prepared environment (technological stack and other forms of dependencies). Normally, Docker takes care of everything so you don't have to. However, in-place upgrade practically means manual installation of Easy Redmine, including preparation of the whole environment. 

You may be tempted to believe you have the proper environment ready, since you are already running Redmine. But when you take a closer look at the stack required to run Easy Redmine, it becomes clear that there is still some work to do. Also, don't forget to update your Redmine to the currently supported version - check the release notes for your Easy Redmine version.

Here would be the whole process:

1. Back up your whole Redmine instance (database, attachments, code).
2. Update Redmine and your technological stack (ruby, DB server, web server, ...) to the supported versions.
3. Install the required elements missing in your current stack.
4. Download Easy Redmine zip package from Client zone.
5. Back up your whole Redmine instance (database, attachments, code) - yes, again, because now the real magic starts.
1. Pay special attention to config/database.yml, config/configuration.yml, files
2. If you have repositories mirrored, also make sure to back them up
6. Delete everything else
7. Unpack the contents from Easy Redmie zip package
8. Run commands one at a time
   
1. bundle update
   (Server requires internet access)
   
2. bundle exec rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production
   
3. bundle exec rake easyproject:install RAILS_ENV=production
4. FORCE_REINDEX_ALL=1 bundle exec rake xapian_easy_search:indexing RAILS_ENV=production
9. Restart server

Needless to say, too many things can go wrong this way. Which is the exact reason we invested so heavily in Docker - to minimize uncontrolable situations which may occur to server admins installing our application.

Summary

Easy Redmine is built above Redmine, but it would be an undestatement to say that it is a mere plugin. It is, in fact, a robust structure, which makes the upgrade from Redmine more demanding than just standard installation of a plugin. From our 15+ years of experience with hunderds of on-premises Redmine administrators, we aimed for the most low-maintenance solution we could deliver - Docker. The initial migration may seem like a hassle, but the long term benefits are undeniable.

At the same time, we do understand that companies adopt new technologies at their own pace, so the option of manual upgrade remains valid.