Upgrading CHIMS¶

This document describes the different types of CHIMS release, and explains how to upgrade a site to a newer version of CHIMS.

CHIMS releases¶

CHIMS is a customized version of Arches and follows a predictable release cycle of official Arches so that users can depend on stable releases of CHIMS, and can plan their upgrades to new releases.

See Official Arches Release Process page for future and patch releases.

Note

Users should always run the latest patch release for the minor release they are on, as patch releases contain important bug fixes and security updates. Because patch releases don’t include backwards incompatible changes, the upgrade process should be straightforward.

Outdated patch releases will no longer be supported after a newer patch release has been released.

Releases are announced on the Official Arches Community Forum.

Upgrading CHIMS¶

This section will walk you through the steps to upgrade your CHIMS site to a newer version of CHIMS.

Note

Before upgrading your version of CHIMS you should check that any custom templates or extensions you’re using work with the new version of CHIMS. For example, you could install the new version of CHIMS in a new virtual environment and use that to test your templates and extensions.

Note

You should also read the /changelog to see if there are any extra notes to be aware of when upgrading to the new version.

1. Backup your database¶

You should always backup your CHIMS database before upgrading CHIMS. If something goes wrong with the CHIMS upgrade you can use the backup to restore the database to its pre-upgrade state.

Activate your virtualenv and switch to the CHIMS source directory, e.g.:
```
|activate|
cd |virtualenv|/src/CHIMS
```
Backup your CHIMS database

2. Upgrade CHIMS¶

The process of upgrading CHIMS differs depending on whether you have a package install or a Docker Compose install of CHIMS, and whether you’re upgrading to a major, minor or patch release of CHIMS. Follow the appropriate one of the official Arches Upgrade Process mentioned in the Arches Forum.