Update Questions / Concerns

Releases
1

Been using Duplicati for around a couple years now. In that time I haven’t updated the software. The software works phenomenally. I have had to recover a few files a few times and I guess the only thing I wish that were different is the speed of the recovery. Recovery can take hours depending on the size, but It’s not a game changer.

I am currently running 2.0.4.5_Beta

I have read through the information regarding all updates since the version I have. I see that since, the database has changed a couple of versions. Also, I saw an issue with databases not working after a specific update:

2019-01-30 - 2.0.4.14_canary_2019-01-30

The URL is now dead, so I couldn’t read the details.

So, I guess my question is what are the benefits to updating from the version I have? What risks are there for up updating from such an older version? Will I loose the ability to easily recover from the current backup sets?

My concern is I take an installed system that functions flawlessly and break it without any real reward. Then worst case scenario, I get a call to recover a critical file from two weeks ago and are unable to do so.

Any thoughts, feedback, comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

2

Here you go: *broken* Release: 2.0.4.13 (canary) 2019-01-29

It was this version specifically that had an issue. It’s one of the risks of using the Canary releases. Sticking with the Beta releases is the general recommendation as their stability is established before release.

Fortunately you don’t have to look at every single canary release notes (unless you really want to) as each beta release has a nice high-level summary of changes.

Here are the beta releases since 2.0.4.5:

2.0.5.1: Release v2.0.5.1-2.0.5.1_beta_2020-01-18 · duplicati/duplicati · GitHub
2.0.6.1: Release v2.0.6.1-2.0.6.1_beta_2021-05-03 · duplicati/duplicati · GitHub
2.0.6.3: Release v2.0.6.3-2.0.6.3_beta_2021-06-17 · duplicati/duplicati · GitHub

That’s a valid concern… if it ain’t broke, why fix it? You could mitigate much of the risk by backing up your sqlite databases before you upgrade.

Personally I keep up with the latest beta release, installing them out over the course of a week or two across all my machines.