REDCap System Upgrades
REDCap Prod needs to be upgraded at least once quarterly. There are times when more frequent upgrades are required due to bug and security fixes that the technical support deem severe enough to upgrade sooner. The upgrade generally takes less than one hour, however, the preparation for the upgrade is a multi-week process.
REDCap Version Release Selection
Vanderbilt releases new versions of REDCap nearly every Thursday of the year. WashU REDCap is on the Long Term Support (LTS) branch of the REDCap software. This means that all but 2 version releases per year are bug and security fixes (patches). Two version releases per year are a new LTS branch based off the Standard Version which comes with new features.
The REDCap Administrator checks version releases on Thursdays and attends the REDCap Consortium meeting on Fridays. When critical and major bug or security fixes are included in a release, the administrator discusses with the REDCap Tier 3 team to determine if an upgrade should happen sooner than the regular quarterly schedule.
Upgrade Process
The upgrade process should begin 2-4 weeks before the upgrade. If the version is a new LTS branch, begin closer to 4 weeks in advance to allow extra time for testing of new features. Upgrades consisting of only bug and security fixes can be completed in 2 weeks.
Once the REDCap Administrator and Tier 3 team have determined the upgrade version, follow these steps and general timeline on this page (link to subpage where table is moved to)
Put this table on the overview page
| Location | Description | Time before upgrade | Role | Current Team Member | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dev Ops | Create Tickets for upgrade | 2-4 weeks | REDCap Admin | Chris Sorensen | ||
| REDCap Consortium | Download Software - Attach to dev ops ticket | 2-4 weeks | ||||
| REDCap Dev | Upgrade REDCap | 2-4 weeks | Software Engineer | Suhas Khot | ||
| REDCap Dev | DB Configuration Changes* | 2-4 weeks | Database Administrator | Warren Thomas | ||
| REDCap Dev | Core Tests | |||||
| REDCap Dev | External Module Automated Tests | |||||
| REDCap Dev | Manual Testing | |||||
| REDCap QA | Upgrade REDCap | |||||
| REDCap QA | DB Configuration Changes* | |||||
| REDCap QA | Core Tests | |||||
| REDCap QA | External Module Automated Tests | |||||
| REDCap QA | Manual Testing | |||||
| REDCap QA | Email QA Testers | 2 weeks minimum | ||||
| EMMA | Notify All Users | 2 weeks minimum | ||||
| Teams | Go-no-go message | 1 day | ||||
| Teams | Team Reminder | Day of upgrade | ||||
| Teams | Meet at 8 p.m. | Night of upgrade |
Current Upgrade
We are currently upgrading from version 15.0.10 to 15.0.22.