Foldr 11 is the biggest release we’ve ever shipped, so it’s a fair question whether getting there needs anything special. The short answer: no. If you’re running any v10 build, updating to v11 is a normal appliance update, installed the same way as every point release before it. There’s no migration to plan and no manual steps to run.
We wanted to say that clearly up front, because v11 changes so much that it’s easy to assume the update itself must be a big production. It isn’t.
Is this like the v9 to v10 move?
No, and it’s worth being clear about the difference, because the two get confused. Moving from v9 (or earlier) to v10 was a migration: v9 ran on a Linux base that reached end-of-life, so there was no in-place path. You stood up a fresh v10 appliance and imported a config backup, and the search index had to be rebuilt from scratch (see Foldr v9 ‘Failed to check for updates’: migrating to v10).
v10 to v11 is nothing like that. It’s an ordinary update that lands on your existing appliance, keeps all your settings and data in place, and carries your search indexes forward. Same appliance, same everything, just the new version on top.
How to update
Update from Foldr Settings >> Appliance >> Updates (or from https://address_of_Foldr:5481 >> Updates), exactly as you would for any release. If you have automatic updates configured, v11 will arrive on your chosen schedule; if you update manually, you’ll see it offered in the Updates tab and can install it during a maintenance window.
You can go straight to the latest v11 build from any v10 version. There’s no stepping-stone release to install first.
If the Updates tab shows the new version available but you can’t find the details, that’s expected on an older appliance: the release notes live online at Foldr Server v10+, and the redesigned update emails that link to them ship with v11, so a pre-v11 server won’t have that link yet.
What to expect during the update
A normal point release takes a few minutes. v11 is a large feature update, so give it longer, up to an hour on a slower connection, and let it finish gracefully. Please don’t reboot or reset the appliance while it’s working. It will restart itself automatically once the update completes.
Behind the scenes the update does quite a bit of work for you: it runs the database migrations, upgrades the search platform to its latest major version (carrying your existing cores across without a re-crawl), and switches the appliance over to the new interface. All of that is automatic. You don’t run any of it by hand.
A new interface for everyone
The one change worth preparing people for is the interface. v11 retires the classic web app and Foldr Settings and replaces them with the all-new Foldr Next, so after the update everyone signs in to the new experience. Nothing is lost, but it does look and feel different, so it’s worth a heads-up to your users before you update rather than after. The Foldr Server v10+ release notes cover what’s new.
Multi-appliance deployments
If you run more than one appliance, update them in the usual order: infrastructure systems first, then the client access appliances once the database services are back up and each infrastructure node has rebooted. Stagger the infrastructure nodes rather than updating them all at once, so the first cluster member can start the cluster before the others rejoin. The Foldr System Updates article covers cluster ordering in more detail.
One thing to check first
If your network inspects HTTPS traffic (a web filter or firewall doing SSL inspection), Foldr must be excluded from it, or the update will fail its built-in signature check. Whitelist https://updates.minnow.it as needed. If you can’t exclude the appliance from inspection, we can supply updates offline via an ISO; contact [email protected] and we’ll sort it out.
Related articles
- Foldr System Updates: how appliance updates are delivered, scheduled and monitored.
- Foldr Server v10+: the v11 release notes.
- Appliance backup and restore: take a config backup before any major update.