Since we can’t use auto-updating, and need to reinstall repo & db for 7, it will be very tricky to update … we literally never have any downtime.
Does 6 and 7 work side-by-side? That way we could probably do some sort of a rolling update… So 6 would still point to the old repo, but 7 would point to the new one.
cheers
laszlo
Here I just installed dl7 next to dl6. Afterwards dl6 will connect to the dl7 repository & database.
not sure if that’s something I did wrong, just installed it as it went by default.
Did try to use the dl6 mongoDB but got a message I should make a new one due to it being an older version.
For me it’s not important as there is nothing running now and can just submit the new jobs to dl7.
Just figured to let you know 
They can work side by side. They can even connect to the same database, providing that the database is running MongoDB 2.6.1 or later. We added this info to our documentation, as well as the Licensing and Compatibility forum post (viewtopic.php?f=204&t=12100):
We’re sharing a MongoDB 2.6.3 database (the version shipped with the Repository Installers) between Deadline 6 and Deadline 7 here, and we’ve been doing so for months without any issues. Just make sure to give the database a different name in the Repository installer then the one for Deadline 6 (the default in the Repository Installer includes the major Deadline version number, so if you stick with the defaults, you’ll be fine). Also make sure to install the Repository to a new location, and don’t override the old one (our installer should warn you about this if you try).
For the client, they can exist side by side with no problems. Just remember that our integrated submitters rely on the DEADLINE_PATH environment variable (Linux and Windows) and the DEADLINE_PATH file in /Users/Shared/Thinkbox (OSX) to know where the Deadline applications are, so on workstations, you will have to adjust this environment variable to switch between versions of Deadline.
Hope that helps. If you have any additional questions, let us know!
So in theory, we could do a rolling upgrade, where if a client had deadline7 installed, the env variables would get updated and the machine would start submitting to the deadline7 repository, correct?
Then we just have to make sure that the deadline 6 & 7 slave clients are both running for a while, and when full rollout is complete, turn 6 off.
Yup, that’s right. Of course, when the environment variable gets updated, any applications you would be submitting from (ie: Max, Maya, Nuke, etc) would need to be restarted to recognize the variable change, and also load the script from the v7 repo instead of the v6 one.
One tricky bit is that it’s one license so if you have 50 Deadline Licenses you can’t have both slaves running in parallel. So you’ll need to disable them to free licenses up.
I think in 7, you use 1 license on a single machine, even with multiple slave instances. Which is great btw!
Yeah, that was one of the primary motivating factors for me upgrading for Beta 1. But as I should have anticipated that doesn’t carry over between versions. 
Might make transitioning easier for people with a license server change?
You mean we can use it on the same port, just make sure the db name is different, right? Just to confirm before i destroy the company by accident
cheers
laszlo
I ran the installer on our staging server, saying “use existing mongodb installation”, and the default name. After that i connected to mongo, but i can’t see the deadline7db amongst the available databases…
edit: Ill report this as a bug