Sitecore Upgrade : Guide For Sitecore 7.5 To Sitecore 8.0

GETTING THE FILES

In order to upgrade from Sitecore 7.5 to 8.0, you will need to head over to dev.sitecore.net and download a few files.

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1. Sitecore 8 Upgrade Guide
2. Sitecore XP 8 upgrade package
3. Sitecore 8 Config Files and scripts.zip
4. Sitecore Update Installation Wizard 1.0.0 rev. 150619
5. Configuration File Changes
6. Sitecore 8.0 Installer

BACK-UP

Before you upgrade any Sitecore project, also make sure you make to backup all the things up.

Back up the core, web, master, and reporting databases. Back up your webroot. 

In life, things go wrong and they will... so making sure you can roll back your database and webroot will make your life a lot easier.

INSTALL SITECORE UPDATE INSTALLATION WIZARD 1.0.0 REV. 150619

The first thing you need to do is install the 'Installation Wizard' package. In your Sitecore instance, go to the Sitecore desktop (www.website.com/sitecore/shell/). You can open the installation wizard, from

Start → Development Tools → Installation Wizard

Select Sitecore Update Installation Wizard 1.0.0 rev. 150619.zip from your local hard drive, click 'Next' and follow the instructions to install it. 

You may need to override some of your existing files so click yes to overriding objects.

RUN SQL SCRIPTS

In Sitecore 8 Config Files and scripts.zip you should see two folders, the SQL scripts are in the Upgrade scripts folder. 

You will need to run a few scripts:

Core_80_UpdateTableLinks against the Core, Web, and Master databases

• Analytics_80_PreInstall against the reporting databases. 
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• When you run the reporting script you will need to change the database name in the line below, to your local reporting instance:

USE [Sitecore_Analytics];

PRE-CONFIG CHANGES

In the web.config delete this line:

<processor type="Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.PageEditorHandleNoLayout,Sitecore.Kernel" />

In Sitecore.Analytics.config, set Analytics.Enabled to false, like this:

<setting name="Analytics.Enabled" value="false" />

Change the filename of Sitecore.Forms.config to Sitecore.Forms.config.disabled

BACK-UP YOUR FILES

You have made a good process. It is at this point things can go wrong. To prevent from having to re-follow the steps listed above again, back everything up again! If you need to apply an upgrade to the production site later this tip will save you time!

ISSUES ENCOUNTERED

As mentioned, this is where things can go wrong

The first time I tried to run the installer I pretty much instantaneously hit this error 'History path is not set. 

This error was down to my stupidity and not following the official installation guide properly. 

I hadn't installed the Sitecore Update Installation Wizard 1.0.0 rev. 150619.zip file first. After installing this patch, the installer happily carried on.

INSTALL THE UPDATE

To install the update, log into your Sitecore instance and go to this Url:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitecore/admin/UpdateInstallationWizard.aspx

From the upgrade wizard, select Sitecore 8.0 rev. 141212.update from your PC and click View Package Information

Click Analyze and install the package

Click Install then sit back and wait! For reference, on my local dev machine, the upgrade took about 30 minutes to complete:

BACK-UP YOUR FILES

If the upgrade went OK, it's time to back everything up again. 

This is probably my biggest tip, at each major step back all the things up.

CONFIG CHANGES

The next step is adding config. In V8 you will need to add brand new configurations in several config files. 

When upgrading a site, I usually install a default Sitecore 8.0 instance on my PC as well. 

I can then use a tool like Beyond Compare, to compare the web.config and the config files in the App_Config folder and then use the tool to copy the new config required for the upgrade to work into my upgraded webroot.

The main config files that I need to update with the new config were:

• web.config
• connectionstring.config
• command.config

Everything else for this site was left as the default setting. If you have disabled any modules, like WFFM (by adding the disabled extension at the end of the filename), don't forget to revert everything.

NOTE: One new technology that was introduced in version 8, is PhantomJS. 

PhantomJS is used by the screenshot tool in the personalization and testing modules. Make sure this is installed and working. This is a good time to do that!

TESTING AND FIXING

At this stage, your website should load and you should be able to navigate around your website and log into Sitecore successfully. 

At this stage, I would recommend clicking links like the Experience Optimization and Experience Analytics buttons on the dashboard to make those tools are also working. 

If your site is using any additional modules like WFFM, then this is the time to upgrade them. Before running any upgrade, always remember to back everything up.

After any Sitecore installation or upgrade, you will need to rebuild your search indexes and link database. 

Also, do a smart publish on your homepage item.

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