Upgrade from OnTAP 9.3 to 9.4

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

I'm planning ahead to upgrade from OnTAP 9.3 to 9.4 after we complete SnapCenter deployment, which will hopefully be in the month of April. My question is: are there any concerns around upgrading to 9.4 since it is the last release that is not "LTS" and hasn't been patched in awhile? i can't upgrade directly to 9.5 because we are still on an older vCenter version that's not compatible with 9.5. If it's preferable to go straight to 9.5 I could wait until we've upgraded vCenter. Any suggestions or thoughts?

[SpindleNinja]

Looks like 9.4 was last patched in Sept 2019, and is under limited support, so it could get patched, but...   

I think you would be better staying with 9.3 (and patching to the latest P) unless there is a feature that you NEED that is 9.4 

https://mysupport.netapp.com/site/info/version-support#ontap_svst  

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Thanks @SpindleNinja .

I've actually never skipped a version when upgrading before. In general I prefer to be incremental in my upgrades so that if there's an issue I'll know which version caused it. Having said that, this is an unusual situation since 9.4 is not under LTS.  Thanks for the suggestion!

Anyone else?

[SpindleNinja]

No problem.   I typically did just odd to odd until that changed in 9.6 and onward.  Now I have been patching to 9.6 or 9.7 depending on the customer's ask. 

[TMACMD]

At this point, I would just plain skip 9.4. If you are on 9.3, it is a easy upgrade to 9.5.

Just check the IMT before you do. If you are reporting in to ASUP, use ActiveIQ and get your semi-customized upgrade plan.

That is for the CLI usually, but helps you find anything that might be missed.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Thanks @TMACMD ! So far it's unanimous :). Anyone else?

[paul_stejskal · Accepted solution]

Well, might as well respond as well...

9.4 is either out of support or will be soon enough. Also there are plenty of fixes and patches that make 9.5 a pretty dang stable line of code anyway. I'd get off 9.3 just because there are some nice fixes in 9.5 (or 9.7 even if you run CIFS or Flexgroups) that make it run good.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Thank you @paul_stejskal !

So based on the feedback, sounds like the recommendation is to (a) finish my deployment of SnapCenter, (b) wait until we've upgraded vCenter from 6.0 to 6.5 or 6.7, and then (c) upgrade from OnTAP 9.3 to 9.5.

Thanks all!