Upgrading web/email server...should I upgrade RT itself too?

Hi all,

We’re running RT on Ubuntu 8.04…so it’s time to get with the times. :slight_smile: A new CentOS server has been prepared for us. The database is actually running on a separate machine that is newer and there isn’t a plan to upgrade it at this point.

My question…is RT 4.0.17 itself old enough that I really ought to upgrade it as well? I’d like to minimize the amount of surprise for the users via new looks, so I’m wondering if there are any huge problems with staying at 4.0.17. I’m looking at the UPGRADING-4.2 document and I don’t see anything like “this version of RT turned into Ultron at 10% of installations”.

For context, this installation of RT is only available on our internal network, to a userbase of 10-20 people who are pretty used to RT working the way it does. They don’t use most of the fancier features of the system.
Kendric Beachey

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and contain information that may be confidential and/or legally privileged. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by reply email and delete the message. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of this communication (including attachments) by someone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. Thank you.

My question…is RT 4.0.17 itself old enough that I really ought to upgrade it as well?

Yes. 4.0.17 has published security vulnerabilities against it
(CVE-2015-1464, CVE-2015-1165, CVE-2014-9472):

http://blog.bestpractical.com/2015/02/security-vulnerabilities-in-rt.html

I’d like to minimize the amount of surprise for the users via new
looks, so I’m wondering if there are any huge problems with staying
at 4.0.17.

Upgrading within a stable series will never cause any major
user-visible UI changes, and should never break installed extensions.
Upgrades within a stable series (from 4.0.17 to 4.0.23, for instance)
are designed to be no-hassle bugfixes and security fixes.

If we feel a change has the potential to give an administrator reason to
not upgrade within a stable series, it is unsuitable for that trunk.
Please upgrade.

All of this is hopefully also made clear on release policy page:
https://bestpractical.com/rt/release-policy.html

  • Alex

Hi,

A more immediate issue I would expect is that newer versions (not to mention the switch from Debian to RPM based distros) of framework applications (Apache, MySQL, PHP, Mason, Perl etc) may have compatibility issues with your older RT installation. So yes, you may not have much choice but to upgrade anyway.