LabKey provides clients with three types of regular releases, and also creates nightly snapshot builds primarily for internal LabKey use:
- Production releases. Every four months we provide a release intended for production use. Production releases are tested thoroughly and receive maintenance updates for approximately six months after initial production release. Production releases are versioned using year and month, for example: 20.3.0 (March 2020 production release), 20.7.0 (July 2020 production release), 20.11.0 (November 2020 production release).
- Maintenance releases. LabKey issues reliability fixes and minor enhancements via periodic maintenance releases. Production releases have maintenance updates scheduled every two - three weeks. Maintenance releases include a non-zero minor version, for example, 20.3.1, 20.7.4.
- Monthly releases. Every month we provide a release intended for development, testing, and staging servers. Our clients can use monthly releases to preview and test new features that LabKey has developed. Monthly releases are versioned with year and month, for example: 20.1.0, 20.4.0, 20.10.0.
- Snapshot builds. These builds are produced nightly with whatever has been changed each day. They should not be deployed to production servers. They are intended for internal LabKey testing, or for external developers who are running LabKey Server on their workstations.
We strongly recommend that every production deployment runs the most recent production release of LabKey Server at all times. Upgrading regularly ensures that you are operating with all the latest security, reliability, and performance fixes, and provides access to the latest set of LabKey capabilities. LabKey Server contains a reliable, automated system that ensures a straightforward upgrade process.
Recognizing that some organizations can't upgrade immediately after every LabKey production release, we've adopted the following upgrade policy:
- We support upgrading from production releases for two years after their initial release. For example, any installation running a 17.3 (November 2017 release) or later production release should be able to upgrade to 20.3.x; any earlier release (17.2 and before) will not be able to upgrade directly to 20.3.x.
- We discourage running monthly releases or snapshot (nightly) builds in any production environment. However, beginning with LabKey 19.1.x, we support upgrading monthly and snapshot builds for two years as well. (This is a change in policy, as of February 2020.)
The two-year upgrade policy provides flexibility for LabKey Server users. Having a window of support for upgrade scenarios allows us to retire old migration code, streamline SQL scripts, and focus testing on the most common upgrade scenarios.
The table below shows the upgrade scenarios supported by past & current releases that follow our most recent version number scheme and upgrade policy, and predictions for
upcoming releases:
| Production Release | Can Upgrade From These Production Releases | Can Upgrade From These Monthly Releases and Snapshot Builds |
|---|
| 21.7.x | 19.1.x and later | 19.1.x and later |
| 21.3.x | 18.3.x and later | 19.1.x and later |
| 20.11.x | 18.2 and later | 19.1.x and later |
| 20.7.x | 18.1 and later | 19.1.x and later |
| 20.3.x | 17.3 and later | 19.1.x and later |
The table below shows the upgrade scenarios supported for past releases that followed our previous version number scheme and upgrade policy:
| Production Release | Can Upgrade From These Production Releases | Can Upgrade From These Monthly Releases and Snapshot Builds |
|---|
| 19.3.x | 17.2 and later | 19.1.x and later |
| 19.2.x | 17.1 and later | 18.3.x and later |
| 19.1.x | 16.3 and later | 18.2 and later |
| 18.3.x | 16.2 and later | 18.1 and later |
| 18.2 | 16.1 and later | 17.3 and later |
| 18.1 | 15.3 and later | 17.2 and later |
| 17.3 | 15.2 and later | 17.1 and later |
| 17.2 | 15.1 and later | 16.3 and later |
| 17.1 | 14.3 and later | 16.2 and later |
| 16.3 | 14.2 and later | 16.1 and later |
| 16.2 | 14.1 and later | 15.3 and later |
| 16.1 | 13.3 and later | 15.2 and later |
| 15.3 | 13.2 and later | 15.1 and later |
| 15.2 | 13.1 and later | 14.3 and later |
| 15.1 | 12.3 and later | 14.2 and later |
| 14.3 | 12.2 and later | 14.1 and later |
| 14.2 | 12.1 and later | 13.3 and later |
| 14.1 | 11.3 and later | 13.2 and later |
| 13.3 | 11.2 and later | 13.1 and later |
| 13.2 | 11.1 and later | 12.3 and later |
| 13.1 | 10.3 and later | 12.2 and later |
| 12.3 | 10.2 and later | 12.1 and later |
| 12.2 | 10.1 and later | 11.3 and later |
| 12.1 | 9.3 and later | 11.2 and later |
| 11.3 | 9.2 and later | 11.1 and later |
| 11.2 | 9.1 and later | 10.3 and later |
| 11.1 | 8.3 and later | 10.2 and later |
| 10.3 | 8.2 and later | 10.1 and later |
If you have questions or find that this policy causes a problem for you, please
contact LabKey for assistance.
