[rt-users] Why I am recommending 3.6 over 3.8 to my boss

[John Arends]

Migration from 3.6 to 3.8 is a non-issue. It is easy, and not even worth 
considering as a problem. It isn't any more difficult to move from 3.6 
to 3.8 as it is to move from 3.6.x to 3.6.y.

We were stuck on the RPM issue for a while, but I stopped caring. I 
don't trust the RPMs produced for 3.6 since they're not from Best 
Practical and their quality is unknown.

The real issue is managing all the CPAN modules, not maintaining RT.

Usually updating RHEL's Perl breaks RT, but it is easy to fix if you 
have a test system you perform all the upgrades on first.

There are too many features that we use in 3.8.x to make sticking to 3.6 
make any sense.

On 11/4/10 4:01 PM, Wes Modes wrote:
> Dear Boss:
>
> I strongly recommend going with the 3.6 version of RT.  The install takes a few minutes, and it otherwise meets all the requirements of our project.  Migration of old queues is simple.  There is cost savings in the near and long-term.
>
> There is no rpm of RT3.8 that works for RHEL (32 or 64 bit) and none seem to be forthcoming.  Someday perhaps someone will put one together, but it doesn't look like anytime soon.
>
> I CAN do a manual install of RT3.8 using the Best Practical install scripts.  It is not terribly hard.  However, the long-term costs of this are large.  The install scripts put all the binaries, configuration files, and libraries in the wrong places for RHEL/CentOS, and working outside the package manager means files could be clobbered at any time.  On the other hand, the rpms for RT3.6 use the package manager and put all the config files in /etc, all the perl modules in the perl modules dir, and the various tools in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin.  The non-standard install using the scripts creates recurring costs in the future as the system is significantly more difficult to update and harder to maintain, like by a factor of 50 (five minutes compared to 4 hours).
>
> Additionally, the cost of migration of old content from 3.6 to 3.8 is unknown.
>
> Again, I will install either RT3.6 or RT3.8 but I need you to understand
> and acknowledge the costs of the choice.
>
> Wes
>
>
> Thanks to Gary Greene for the info about his latest centos rpm build.
>


-- 
John Arends
jarends at illinois.edu
Network Analyst
College of ACES ITCS
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign