Planning for Alteryx system upgrade from version 2023.1 to version X (not decided)

[PeterPerera]

Hi 

We are planning to upgrade our DEV and PRD Alteryx installation (single node in both environments)

from v2023.1 (support expires May 2025) to vX (target version to be decided)

We are considering following two upgrade options 

A : 2023.1 to 2023.2 (support expire Nov 2025)

B : 2023.1 to 2024.1 (support expire May 2026)

Please provide some suggestions on upgrade options mentioned above. Or any other target version is better and safe?

FYI : We have some heavy workflows including machine learning workflows. Additionally some Gallery workflows trigger through Tidal scheduler (using python scripts) also.

[jrgo]

Hi @PeterPerera 

Only way to know whether one version is safer than another is to test your workflows on both. 2024.1 has some nice features around asset management and DCM functionality. It's also on it's 4th revision to patch up bugs found since it's initial drop date so it may be fair to say that it's safe, but I know there could be some stigma on upgrading to the latest.

That said, no one here knows the details of your system environment or the type of workflows it's running or external assets it's depending on.

Good thing is that you have a DEV server that you can use to evaluate the version that works best for you. In any case, have a good backup/reversal plan in place. System snapshots (when AlteryxService is stopped) is a quick way to undo but also strongly recommend doing a proper Mongo backup (mongodump) if the snapshot restore fails for whatever reason.

[TheCoffeeDude]

You should also test your connectors and Python code (if any). There's a Python version change in all versions and some libraries may cause compatibility issues with your existing code.

I prefer smaller version upgrades - 2023.1 to 2023.2 to 2024.1.

[tcheng]

We upgraded from version 2022.3 to 2024.1 and encountered an issue with MongoDB. Otherwise, there has been zero issue with this version upgrade.

[PeterPerera]

Thanks everybody for sharing valuable info/tips. Today I went through the Known Issues section related to 2023.2 and 2024.1. 

2023.2 : help.alteryx.com/release-notes/en/release-notes/server-release-notes/server-2023-2-release-notes.html#known-issues-6624359

2024.1 : help.alteryx.com/release-notes/en/release-notes/server-release-notes/server-2024-1-release-notes.html#known-issues-6806533

As many said, I think it is always safer to move with shorter steps. So we thinking 2023.2 is a better target version. 

	Embedded Python	R	MongoDB
2023.1	3.8.5	4.1.3	4.2
2023.2	3.8.16	4.2.3	6.0
2024.1	3.10.13	4.2.3	6.0

However,  I am concerned on following known issues (highlighted) related to 2023.2. How can I address this?

[tcheng]

Depending if your Alteryx servers are physical or virtual, I would go with version 2024 instead and revert back if needed.

[TheCoffeeDude]

For 2023.2.1.7 - I haven't encountered TCPE-796 issues with large XLSX files (yet). As for the schedule forecast - that's been a hit or miss for me so I've stopped depending on it. 

I'm upgrading my environment to 2024.1.x at the end of this month. I'll have more input for you then if you still want it.

[PeterPerera]

Thank you all again for valuable info, recommendations and tips. We most probably will go for 2023.1 to 2023.2 upgrade path. 

TheCoffeeDude yes pls share your experience (upgrading to 2024.1) here and definitely will be be helpful anyway.  

[TheCoffeeDude]

@PeterPerera I performed the upgrade from 2023.2 to 2024.1 last Thursday. Things observed:

• The controller migration appeared to be ok but the gallery (application servers) would not start. There is a known issue with migrating the users collection to 2024.1. I had to create a P1 support ticket and needed the Alteryx support team’s assistance to continue with the upgrade.
• Removing all of the old connectors (ex. SharePoint, Tableau, and OneDrive) and installing the 2024 specific connectors took awhile but with a lot of help, it was done fairly fast.
• Some internal teams did not test their code against the new Python version. They were blocked until they could fix their code.

Other than those issues, not much screaming from the user community (yet). The upgrade to 2024.2 will occur in mid to late January.

[PeterPerera]

Thanks TheCoffeeDude sharing your upgrade experience. Very valuable. I assume you kept the MongoDB as the metadata DB and did not switch to SQL server.