Update Maintenance and Release schedule (with NC 24 ahead)

Due to some postponing of the last release all further releases has been shifted as well. Please find the new dates here (keep in mind that those are not neccessarily set in stone and hence can change again)

All app devs please take note of the important changes that will occur for/with NC24

https://github.com/nextcloud/server/issues/29914 ](https://github.com/nextcloud/server/issues/29914

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Its quite good to see a roadmap - but indeed its crazy to see that Version 23 is end of life at the end of only this year.

i really wonder why I should upgrade to 23 when 24 is due for april. its has been like that for the last couple of months, so i only just upgraded to 22 now. Wondering now if i should upgrade to get to know and use the new features or better wait just two months because some new features will again be differentā€¦ not talking about my end users, who have to learn to manage their cloud.working sometimeā€¦

Hi @lex

You should run a test instance where you check out and test new releases, apps and features. Also you should always wait at least until the first point release of a new major release is out before you roll it out to your production instance. At the same time you should follow the forum and the bug tracker on GitHub during the testing phase of a new version and also report bugs backs if you find any. With this approach you can avoid major issues with your production instance and your users will have a better and more seamless experience. And you also helping the community to make the product better, which in return will help you and everybody else who uses Nextcloud.

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sooner or later you need to upgrade to NC23 since you canā€™t skip a majorversion.
But you are free to do that later rather than sooner. I guess you have around 12 months of time to upgrade from a version that you love to the newest one. So one upgrade/year is OK. Donā€™t get wild on all the fancy new stuff which comes up with a new version. If you donā€™t need it stay with what you have and keep up with security patches.

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The advice to check out a new version in a test environment before upgrading the production server is sound and I would say necessary. And you will probably not need every new application. With time I have been less eager to try every new application.

BUT I also think that the pace of introducing new versions and leaving the older as EOL is too fast. The risk is that users are too stressed to wait for the new version to become mature before upgrading. Would it be too costly to wait at least 2 years from the introduction to EOL?

I see a possible obstacle coming when I will need to change the php-version from my current 7.3. I am a bit concerned that it may cause trouble. I donā€™t know if this will come with NC24?

It was always like that, this isnā€™t new. I usually keep a version and at the end I go through two major upgrades. So itā€™s every 9 month and in between just minor upgrades. I you jump on the first relase, you could like this even do 12 month intervals.

Currently, there are 2-3 versions maintained. 2 years means that there are up to 6 to be maintained. So every bug fix needs to be backported and tested to twice as much versions.
There were also discussions about LTE releases, but that makes the update procedures a bit more complicated (skipping major releases etc.).

Just to avoid repeating the same discussion:

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It depends on what OS you are using and how you installed Nextcloud.

If you use Ubuntu LTS and update the OS every two years to the latest LTS release , the included PHP version should actually always be supported by Nextcloud. Or you can use the PHP packages from Ondrej Sury. https://deb.sury.org/

With Debian it looks similar, although there the PHP packages tend to be a bit older. But you can install newer versions via the Debian backports repos or via the repos from Ondrej Sury if needed.

I donā€™t know how it works with RHEL based distros but there are certainly ways to install newer PHP versions too. And PHP versions in current CentOS respectively now ALMA Linux, Rocky Linux should actually still be supported by Nextcloud.

If you use appliances like the Nextcloud Snap Package, NCP, Nextcloud AIO or the official Docker containers, then this is not really an issue that you have to deal with directly.

I am on Ubuntu20 and have used Ondrej Sury for installing php. I will see. I always take a snapshot on an experimental server before doing any upgrade so I guess I will make it.

And I also use to wait some months after EOL before upgrading and can make two jumps in a row. But I had some issues to solve when I went from 19 ā†’ 21. I think it was the CollaboraOnline that had made some changes.

Small issues after updating, which may also require changes to the PHP configuration, web server configuration, database, etcā€¦ can of course happen from time to time. And thatā€™s exactley why I recommend running a separate test instance. That prevents you from unpleasant surprises and long downtimes when upgrading the productive instance.

FYI
https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/release_schedule.html is not updated with the new release dates.

You shouldnā€™t wait after it is months after EOL. In case you find problems during your upgrade, there is no way there will be a fix if you are on a unsupported version. And months after EOL, there might be some security issues not fixed (but perhaps publicly known from fixes in newer versions that havenā€™t been backported).