Python upgrade
With the new Juniper release, the platform is upgraded to Python 3 and Django 2.2 and Python 2.7 support is completely removed. Perform a triage of all xblocks currently used by your instance and check for compatibility with Python 3 and Django 2.2. If they don't already support python 3 and django 2.2, an upgrade is recommended. For example, xblock-vimeo xblock upgrade.
Upgrade of custom branches
edx-platform
If using a custom edx-platform branch for your deployment, identify the code drift with the corresponding upstream branch. Ensure that these are compatible with python 3 and django 2.2 to add them to your new custom branch that is based on juniper.
configuration repository
There have been some changes made in the juniper release of the configuration repo (e.g. https://github.com/edx/configuration/pull/5691 https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/pull/22416 ). If you are overriding the configuration variables for your deployment, check if the variables being passed to the ansible playbooks are changed in the juniper release and update accordingly.
JWK (authentication) setup
The JWT Cookies require JWK setup. This was disabled in Ironwood. The generate_jwt_signing_key LMS management command can be used to generate these keys.
Mongodb upgrade
Mongodb needs to be upgraded from 3.2 to 3.6. To do so, you should first upgrade to 3.4, and then to 3.6. Here are the official instructions for a standalone node:
3.2 → 3.4: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/release-notes/3.4-upgrade-standalone/
3.4 → 3.6 https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/release-notes/3.6-upgrade-standalone/
In a nutshell, here are the necessary steps:
Upgrade to 3.4
Set the feature compatibility version:
mongo --eval 'db.adminCommand({ setFeatureCompatibilityVersion: "3.4" })'Upgrade to 3.6
Set the feature compatibility version:
mongo --eval 'db.adminCommand({ setFeatureCompatibilityVersion: "3.6" })'
Juniper defaults to SCRAM for the authentication mechanism. if a different authentication mechanism is being used, it can be specified for forum, the only affected service, by using the FORUM_MONGO_AUTH_MECH configuration variable. https://github.com/edx/configuration/pull/5755 https://github.com/edx/cs_comments_service/pull/316
MySQL upgrade
Check the versions of databases and other services used by your instance for Juniper supported versions (e.g. MySQL-5.7, mongo-3.6). If using an older version, upgrade is recommended.
Devstack
edX devstack now supports running multiple releases. In order to use this on your devstack, pull the latest master and simply replace the container reference commands like:
docker [exec|run|...] edx.devstack.<service>
with calls to docker-compose:
docker-compose [exec|run|...] <service>