Level Up Your Sitecore Site: Upgrade to the Latest Sitecore and Container Images

In the dynamic world of digital technology, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. As a Sitecore user, this translates to keeping your platform up-to-date with the latest Sitecore features, security patches, and performance optimizations. While upgrading might seem daunting, the benefits outweigh the initial hurdles, and Sitecore's Docker images offer a smooth and efficient transition. This article delves into the compelling reasons to use and upgrade to the latest versions of Sitecore and its Docker images.

💪The Power of Sitecore

Sitecore, a leading digital experience platform, consistently offers solutions that personalize the user experience. The latest version of Sitecore brings enhanced features that provide superior performance, robust security, and improved scalability. 🔝

🎩Cutting-Edge Features

Each new Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) and Experience Manager (XM) release brings a wealth of innovative functionalities. From personalization enhancements to headless capabilities, you unlock advanced tools to deliver compelling experiences for your audience.

🔐Enhanced Security

Outdated versions harbour vulnerabilities, leaving your site susceptible to attacks. The latest version of Sitecore has been consolidated with advanced security measures to protect your website from potential threats. Upgrading grants access to the latest security patches, significantly bolstering your defences against evolving threats. 🔝

🚀Performance Boosts

New Sitecore releases often come with performance optimizations, leading to faster loading times, improved scalability, and a smoother user experience. It uses advanced caching strategies and database optimizations to ensure your platform can handle increasing traffic and user demands effectively.

🏗️Modern Architecture

Newer versions align with modern software development practices, employing microservices and cloud-native architectures. This translates to increased flexibility, maintainability, and easier integration with other systems.

Additionally, it gives you the freedom to use Sitecore Composable DXP in order to implement integration capabilities using Sitecore Connect (a low-code and no-code integration platform built on Workato). These offerings help you share data with any internal or external systems or any other Sitecore's Composable DXP product, like Sitecore Send or Sitecore CDP, from your Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) and Experience Manager (XM). 🔝

🎢The Advantage of Sitecore Docker Images

Docker has revolutionized the way applications are developed and deployed. Docker images for Sitecore bring the power of containerization to your Sitecore experience.

📌Simplified Deployment

Docker images simplify the deployment process. Docker images encapsulate your entire Sitecore instance with all its dependencies, enabling consistent and repeatable deployments across environments. No more configuration headaches, just smooth transitions every time. This means you can get your Sitecore website up and running in no time. 🔝

🤑Resource Optimization

Docker containers are lightweight and isolate applications, leading to optimal resource utilization and cost-efficiency, especially in cloud environments.

🗺️Consistent Environments

With Docker, you can ensure consistency across multiple development, testing, and production environments. This means less time spent on setting up environments and more time spent on developing great digital experiences. 🔝

⚖️Scalability and Isolation

Docker allows you to scale your application services independently. Each service runs in its own container, ensuring that it is isolated and has the resources it needs. This means your Sitecore website can handle more traffic and deliver better performance.

🧑‍💻Simplified Development

Developers gain a consistent environment to work in, regardless of their local machine configuration. This accelerates development, promotes collaboration, and reduces troubleshooting time. 🔝

🛠️Upgrading Your Sitecore Docker Setup

In this article, we'll focus on steps and issues facing upgrading the Sitecore Custom Docker image setup. However, for a comprehensive upgrade roadmap, my previous blog post on the Sitecore Upgrade Process blog series offers valuable in-depth guidance, as well as for the Sitecore Container Upgrade. Explore my previous post How to upgrade Sitecore Containers setup. 🔝

Let’s come back to the current topic of upgrading the existing Sitecore Custom Docker image. I am upgrading the Sitecore Container image from the old version to the latest Sitecore 10.3.1 image (ltsc2019). 🔝

Upgrading your Sitecore Docker Container setup to the latest version of Sitecore required some analysis and validation, and I tried to cover the high-level steps in this Sitecore Container Upgrade flow diagram:

During the upgrade of Sitecore Docker Container setup, you may have to re-run the setup many times because of the changes to the Sitecore Docker images, and I faced the following issue: 🔝

ERROR: for traefik Container "xxxxxx" is unhealthy. 
ERROR: for xdbautomationworker Container "xxxxx" is unhealthy. 
ERROR: for xdbsearchworker Container "xxxxx" is unhealthy. 
ERROR: for cortexprocessingworker Container "xxx" is unhealthy. 
ERROR: Encountered errors while bringing up the project.

I was getting this error when i started validation of the Sitecore XP1 and Sitecore XM1 topology, so first i identified the dependencies of the Sitecore services and executed the following command for Sitecore CM role: 🔝

docker container inspect <Container Id>

I picked up the IPAddress value from the Networks attribute, accessed the URL http://[IPAddress]/healthz/ready, and got the following output:

Server Error in '/' Application. 
Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 
Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 
Source Error: 
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below. 
Stack Trace: 
[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.] 
   Sitecore.Nexus.Licensing.NexusLicenseApi.HasModule(String name) +146 
   Sitecore.XA.Foundation.Multisite.Providers.SxaSiteProvider.GetSiteList() +71 
   Sitecore.XA.Foundation.Multisite.Providers.SxaSiteProvider.InitializeSites() +109 
   Sitecore.XA.Foundation.Multisite.Providers.SxaSiteProvider.GetSites() +17 
   System.Linq.<SelectManyIterator>d__17`2.MoveNext() +264 
   Sitecore.Sites.SiteCollection.AddRange(IEnumerable`1 sites) +220 
   Sitecore.Sites.SitecoreSiteProvider.GetSites() +257 
   Sitecore.Sites.DefaultSiteContextFactory.GetSites() +252 
   Sitecore.XA.Foundation.Multisite.SiteInfoResolver.get_Sites() +59 
   Sitecore.XA.Foundation.Multisite.Pipelines.Initialize.InitSiteManager.Process(PipelineArgs args) +84 
   (Object , Object ) +8 
   Sitecore.Pipelines.CorePipeline.Run(PipelineArgs args) +1267 
   Sitecore.Pipelines.DefaultCorePipelineManager.Run(String pipelineName, PipelineArgs args, String pipelineDomain, Boolean failIfNotExists) +235 
   Sitecore.Pipelines.DefaultCorePipelineManager.Run(String pipelineName, PipelineArgs args, String pipelineDomain) +21

The above error pointed to the licence issue, and then I verified 🕵️ the Sitecore license, and it was valid. 😟

Then I started comparing it with other Sitecore branches and found the difference in Sitecore Licence Mounting (HOST_LICENSE_FOLDER) instead of using SITECORE_LICENSE, where we set the Sitecore licence variable to store the Sitecore licence file in the form of a Base64-encoded string. 🔝

In this case, i updated the:

• Init.ps1: commented on the command that generated the Sitecore licence Base64-encoded string

• .env file: added the Sitecore License folder location in the environment variable HOST_LICENSE_FOLDER

• Docker compose file: Configure the docker compose files for a mounted license file instead of using SITECORE_LICENSE, and for this, used the HOST_LICENSE_FOLDER under the volumes and SITECORE_LICENSE_LOCATION in the environment of the Sitecore container services. 🔝

You can check the change log at Upgrade to Sitecore 10.3.1-ltsc2019 for more details

In Sitecore upgrade process, I've learned that the sometimes need to execute the up script multiple times due to missing configurations, hidden dependencies, or unforeseen glitches might be the reason behind this iterative attempt. Don't worry, each execution is a learning step, bringing you closer to your upgraded haven.

Treat each run as a feedback loop. Scrutinize the logs, decode cryptic messages, and seek guidance from the Sitecore documentation or the vibrant Sitecore community. 🔝

Remember, persistence is key! 🙏

🔦Conclusion

Upgrading to the latest versions of Sitecore and its Sitecore Docker Container images is a strategic move that can significantly enhance your website’s performance, security, and scalability. Stay competitive in the ever-evolving digital world by harnessing the power of Sitecore and Sitecore Container images. Upgrade today and take your digital experience to the next level.

I hope my recent explanation about the exciting benefits of upgrading to the latest Sitecore version, leveraging powerful Sitecore containers, and the detailed Sitecore container upgrade execution flow helped you navigate the process clearly. 🔝

🙏Credit/References

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