Upgrading ClinSpark
New ClinSpark versions are released several times a year. Customers are encouraged to update to each new release. This ensures the customer receives the benefit of all new features and bug fixes, and also minimizes risk from upgrading by ensuring that upgrades are each a relatively small jump.
The ClinSpark documentation site will provide focused documentation identifying new features and changes. This supports training of staff and validation activities.
Here is an overview of the upgrade process:
Temporary VAL Instances
We anticipate our customers' need to perform training and validation activities on a new release. To support this, customers can request via a service desk (JIRA) ticket a VAL instance pair of the new release.
This VAL instance is a short lived instance. It will be a clone of the PROD pair, with the upgraded version (build) applied. As such, is it expected to be a full preview of what the users will actually see once they accept the upgrade into PROD.
This diagram shows how the VAL instance pair fits from a timeline perspective:
Note that the VAL instance will have some simple scrambling logic applied to the volunteer data to obscure PHI.
Requesting VAL Instances
Customers request to begin the upgrade process through the service desk. In the ticket, please include the following information:
The version number and build to deploy to VAL instances
The start date for when validation will begin
The target end date for when validation will be completed
Whether SSO is required to be configured in the VAL instance
Details for a lab test environment will be available for use in validation, if applicable
Please request the VAL pair only when there is an intent to devote resources to validation activities. Typically VAL instances should be required only for a few weeks/months.
Day of PROD Upgrade
Once validation has been completed by the customer, the customer can schedule a timeframe where the upgrade can be applied to PROD Main/Test instance pair. All PROD upgrades are coordinated through the service desk.
Customers request to begin the PROD upgrade process by submitting a service desk ticket. In the ticket please include the following information:
The version number and build to deploy to PROD (this usually matches the VAL version/build)
The expected date & time on when the upgrade would occur
Upgrades typically involve some downtime. Usually this downtime is no longer than 15 minutes, but the expected downtime and window size will be discussed and agreed upon with the customer during the scheduling via the service desk ticket.
It is a best practice to schedule an upgrade cycle on a day when there is minimal Data Collection activity, to minimize the risk of impact.
At the agreed upon time the upgrade itself proceeds as follows:
