There are a couple of approaches to doing an upgrade. What is best for you comes down to how mission critical your Iguana interfaces are and the amount of effort you want to put into the upgrade process.

Mission Critical Systems

1. Use a test environment:
   • First deploy a new version of Iguana in a test environment
   • Validate that there are no issues with your interfaces
   • You may wish to do a period of parallel running in the test environment
2. Consider parallel running for Iguana in the live environment:
   • You need to do a second (separate) install of the new version of Iguana on the production server
   • This will require a manual install
   • You will need a new license key for this install even though it is on the same machine
3. Advantages of parallel running in the live environment:
   • Parallel running requires more work but carries the least risk
   • Gives you time to validate channels on the new version of Iguana in a live environment
   • You can run one or more channels in parallel until you prove it is safe to turn them off in the old instance

     Tip: if the overhead of running all channels in parallel is too high, just work on a subset

4. To transfer your configuration to the new (parallel) Iguana instance, there is one key folder to copy over:
   • IguanaMainRepo which is the repository containing all the Translator source code, VMD files and configurations.
   • Optionally, you can copy the log files

     Note: For more information about transferring Iguana to a new machine, see how to transfer Iguana to a new system and how to backup and restore Iguana.
     

5. For older channels using VMD files and python modules you must ensure that these files are still available.

Non-Critical Systems

1. Check that the Iguana license Maintenance Expiry Date is current (Settings > License Entitlement), see: How to check if the Maintenance Expiry Date has expired before doing an upgrade.
2. Backup Iguana before upgrading
3. Upgrade Iguana:
   • For Windows do an automatic upgrade to upgrade to the new version of Iguana
   • For Linux and Mac the only upgrade option is a manual upgrade
4. We also recommend:
   • Before you upgrade configure all channels so they do not start automatically
   • Test channels individually after the upgrade, before setting them back to auto-start
5. After upgrading you should refresh the browser cache, or you may see some very odd bugs. Usually F5 is enough.

Committing Changes to Source Control

When upgrading to a new version of Iguana, you must first ensure that you have no uncommitted changes in your scripts. If you forget to commit changes to source control before upgrading, Iguana will not start post-install. If you have forgotten this step and find yourself stuck, use the following work-around to access the software:

1. Stop the Iguana service.
2. In the Iguana working directory, locate the “edit” folder.
3. Rename the “edit” folder (for example, “edit_old”).
4. Restart the Iguana service.