Sitecore Upgrade from 8.1 XP to 10.4 XM Scaled - Part 1

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 I have seen many questions about upgrading Sitecore from 8.1 to 10.4. I will share my experience upgrading Sitecore with tips and tricks that will help the upgrade process go smoothly.

This contains multiple parts to get started with the upgrade activity.

  • Steps for Sitecore and Solution Upgrade Checklist
  • Sitecore 8.1 Local instance setup with Solr and verification
  • Sitecore 10.4 Code upgrade issues and resolution

Steps for Sitecore and Solution Upgrade Checklist:

Solution Upgrade Checklist: 

Task

Comments / Findings

Comments

1

.Net 4.8 upgrade to all the projects in the solution

 

2

Install SQL Server 2022

 

3

.NET Core 6.0 Windows Hosting Bundle

 

4

Install Compatible Solr version for 8.1 and 10.4

 

5

Update the Nuget package of Sitecore from 8.1 to 10.4

 

6

Update the link manager, and media manager to 10.4

 

7

Validate if any custom pipeline is used and its compatibility, Upgrade it accordingly

Obsolete methods/functions if any

8

Validate Custom solr fields used and update the schema accordingly

 

9

Validate any API routes created and migrate them if needed

API routes internal

10

Check the web.config file if any direct settings are added and update using the xdt file

Compare with the prod web.config

11

Verify the commands.config if any custom commands are created.

Merge with 10.4 if any added commands in commands.config

12

update the cache items configuration in prefetch/master/web/core in file system

 

13

Verify the Custom rewrite/redirect rule used

IIS level, config level

14

Code refactoring and code cleaning

Settings, Tasks, caching, etc

15

Verify the logging mechanism available

like app insights apart from default Sitecore logs

16

Update the 3rd party integration credentials to access the features like (Google tag manager, Hotjar, maps, captcha, etc)

 

17

Verify email sending by configuring our own Gmail SMTP if the client does not provide their SMTP during development

 SMTP/GMAIL, or client one

18

Verify the custom patch dll provided by Sitecore, remove it if it is not valid, as we will be using 10.4

Proper validation

19

Verify the ignorepageurl Sitecore settings is properly configured and used

 

20

Appsettings / web.config / Redirects  config transformation

 

21

Verify all the API routes available in the solution

 

22

Obsolete function replacement with new functions

 

23

Update any dependencies as required

 

Not compatible old code related to 8.1 removal from the repo Identify external integrations.

Identify the Sitecore marketplace module. (Check it's compatible with Sitecore 10.4)

Custom config patch

Custom Solr fields

Custom Sitecore fields

Analysis of custom Cache implementation.

 24

Verify the website and resolve any errors

                    

Custom Pipelines not compatible with 10.4

Glass mapper support from 8.1 to 10.4

Verify Dynamic placeholder support from 8.1 to 10.4

Verify Dictionary

Media link manager

Verify images loading

Custom Config patch

 


 Sitecore Upgrade Checklist

 

 Tasks

Comments

1

Download the following database for upgrade activities

 

master

core

web

2

Install the XP version of Sitecore 8.1

 Sitecore 8.1

3

Install XM Scaled Sitecore 10.4

 Sitecore 10.4

4

Make sure to run in CMS Only mode by removing analytics and tracking (no xconnect, processing, reporting roles, etc)

 

5

Attach the downloaded database to the locally installed 8.1 instance (don't delete the vanilla databases)

 

6

Update the connection strings to access these databases by updating the credentials information and providing dbo.Admin access to the users

 If we cannot log in to Sitecore CMS, run the script in the core database to reset the Sitecore admin password. script provided below.

7

Verify the Sitecore works, and randomly check the items loaded without any issue

 

8

Verify any default Sitecore items got customized like rendering, settings, home, etc this is important for IAR conversion

 

9

Check if this is SXA or a normal site

Make sure of this, if we upgrade from Sitecore XP without SXA  and install Sitecore with SXA, then we  will create a problem during an upgrade

10

Check any specific site settings available in the <sites> node or in the SXA site config node

 

11

Check Experience editor is working

 

12

Check if the Custom Solr index is available to verify it is working

 

13

Update the Publishing target in Sitecore based on the connection string name, so that the publishing will work

 

14

Execute Sitecore Update Tool on 8.1 instance only

 Sitecore upgrade tool (package 1.4.1 for 8.1.0)
Tool

15

Follow the setup in the document on Page 14 for the Sitecore update tool

 Upgrade Guide

16

Upgrade Scrips for the (web, Master,   and core) databases are available from the following zip folder Sitecore 10.4.0 rev. 00XXXX (upgrade files).zip. 

On Sitecore, 8.1 instances only, Refer to page 16 from the upgrade guide to run the SQL scripts on the databases(master, core,   and web) 
Download the Database Upgrade script from the below link
Files for upgrade

19

Once validation is completed, take the upgraded database from 8.1 (master, core, web, and live)

 

20

Attach these databases to 10.4 instances, and update the connection string

 

21

Deploy the upgraded source code and configure necessary site settings like hostname, etc

In Sitecore 10.4

22

Post upgrade activity like (Rebuild index, Cache clear, Link database)

 

23

Validate the Sitecore CMS and site with Solr search

Sitecore 10.4

24

Validate the Sitecore roles and workflow

 

  

 SQL Admin Password Reset in core database:

UPDATE dbo.aspnet_Membership SET [Password]='qOvF8m8F2IcWMvfOBjJYHmfLABc=', [PasswordSalt]='OM5gu45RQuJ76itRvkSPFw==', [IsApproved] = '1', [IsLockedOut] = '0'WHERE UserId IN (SELECT UserId FROM dbo.aspnet_Users WHERE UserName = 'sitecore\Admin')

Note:

We need the update the connection string of the Sitecore 10.4 Identity server to make sure the Sitecore CMS login works without any problem.

The config file is available in the following location sc10.4.dev.local\Config\production\Sitecore.IdentityServer.Host.xml

Update the same core/security connection string to the config file like below.




Sitecore 8.1 Local instance setup with Solr and verification

Let's learn and grow together, happy programming 😊

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