Introduction

Welcome to Denodo 9! If you are currently using Denodo 8.0 and planning to upgrade, this guide will walk you through the essential steps to ensure a smooth transition. Whether you are a seasoned Denodo user or new to the platform, understanding the upgrade process is crucial to maintaining data integration efficiency and taking advantage of the latest features included in Denodo 9

Key Considerations

1. Compatibility: Denodo 9 introduces new features, enhancements, and changes to existing functionality. While upgrading, keep in mind that some VQL statements generated by previous versions may not be directly importable into Denodo 9. Syntax errors could occur, so thorough testing is essential.
2. Preparation: Before diving into the upgrade process, review the major steps involved. These include preparing your environment, addressing common tasks across modules, and ensuring compatibility with your existing setup.
3. Post-Upgrade Tasks: Once Denodo 9 is up and running, there are additional configuration steps to perform. These tasks apply to all components and help optimize your deployment.
   More information can be found in the Denodo Platform Upgrade Guide.

Remember, a well-executed upgrade ensures that your data virtualization environment remains robust, secure, and aligned with your organization’s needs.

Getting Ready

In this section, we list the preparation steps, hardware, and team required to start with the upgrade process.

Licensing

Team Required

We would like to highlight that it is recommended to do the Upgrading to Denodo Platform 9 for Administrators training course to guarantee that the teams in charge of the upgrade have the required knowledge to execute a successful upgrade.

Hardware/Instances

Cost considerations

If new cloud instances or on-premise servers are going to be created, the costs of those new instances or servers should be taken into consideration before starting the upgrading process.

Software

Connections

Security

Authentication

Timeline

The process of upgrading to the Denodo Platform 9 consists of six steps:

1. In the current installation of the Denodo Platform and the Solution Manager, install the latest update.
2. Install the Denodo Platform 9 and the Solution Manager 9 and install their latest update.
3. In the new installation, make sure to replicate the Denodo encryption key across all the installations before starting any of them.
4. In the new installation, change some settings. E.g. enable the cache if it was enabled in the previous version.
5. Export the settings and metadata of all the components of the Denodo Platform, including the Solution Manager.
6. Import the settings and metadata into the new version.
7. Test the upgraded version.

Execution

Once we have all the requirements in place we can start with the execution of the upgrade.

Team Required

Security

Authentication

Go Live

Once Denodo 9 is installed and configured and the Denodo 8 metadata has been imported into the new Denodo 9 installation we are ready to complete the final steps of the upgrade process.

Team Required

Testing

Once everything is in place and the new Denodo Platform 9 instances are up and running, executing tests against the new instances is strongly recommended.

You can review the Test the New Denodo Platform Installation section of the Denodo Platform Upgrade Guide.

Denodo provides the Denodo Testing Tool to easily automate the testing of the data.

For general testing recommendations see Testing in Denodo.

Also, execute performance tests can be performed using the Denodo Load Testing with Apache JMeter

Denodo Professional Services

As with all projects, Denodo Customer Services is available to help with the process.  Upgrading an Enterprise Platform like Denodo is not a one-evening task and requires strong planning and oversight.  The following engagements are a recommended part of every Upgrade Success Plan.

Advisory Session: New Version Features Overview

• In addition to the resources linked in this article, your team can meet with an experienced Denodo engineer to go over the highlights on Denodo 9’s new features, or to discuss specific questions around one or more specific features of interest.
• Invite your developers, architects, and/or governance teams to learn about new features that might be of value to them, or business leaders with requirements that could benefit from these features.
• This session can be repeated multiple times for different teams, or to dive deeper into various features as you plan your upgrade and any operational changes you may want to adopt with the new version.

Advisory Session: New Version Upgrade Methodology

• The most critical part of a successful Upgrade is to have a strong methodology plan that aligns well with the resources available, planned timeline, and business requirements.  In this Advisory session an experienced Denodo consultant will review these factors and recommend a Methodology that balances risk with required flexibility.

Upgrade Assessment

• The Denodo Upgrade Assessment reviews your current Production metadata to highlight specific migration requirements to provide a simplified guide for a smooth upgrade.
• The Upgrade Assessment is a strongly recommended service to ensure an efficient upgrade without surprises.

Success Accelerator: Upgrade Rollout Guidance

• For customers wanting more detailed guidance into the upgrade process, this Accelerator is a strategic engagement to provide more in depth analysis of the methodology selected, including testing plan review, with recommendations to mitigate any identified risks before proceeding.
• A completed Upgrade Assessment is a required prerequisite to this Accelerator.
• An Engagement Readiness Assistance Advisory session is strongly recommended prior to kickoff in order to ensure that all resources are in place to execute.
• An experienced engineer will guide your team through migrating the Solution Manager metadata as well as completing the upgrade on one environment (typically Development, for Developers to perform initial code review and modernization).
• Includes a cadence of technical engineer calls to continue guidance through the process.  (In addition to Account Manager status meetings.)
• Does not include creation of test plans, multiple environments, custom extension code development, nor on-call go-live support beyond standard support contract.

Open Services

• Additional assistance is available via Denodo Open Services in accordance with current services pricing.
• A completed Upgrade Assessment is a required prerequisite to be able to define an accurate Statement of Work.
• Open Services may include guidance with migrating additional environments, assistance with code modernization, test plan generation, or other tasks that a customer may lack expertise, confidence, or Partner services in executing alone.  Note that on-call support carrieds additional costs, with rates for both business hours and non-business hours.

References

Denodo Platform Upgrade Guide

Laying down the upgrade path for your existing enterprise software (On-demand) | Denodo