[Koha-devel] Upgrade db to v19.11

[Paul A]

I have the possibility over the next month or two of examining the 
upgrading Koha from 3.8.24 to 19.11 (latest stable release.)  We have 
the hardware available, but have a couple of questions before I plan the 
workflow:

a) database migration? I have looked at the schemas, and am worried that 
there are substantial changes. Our production servers contain some 
250,000 items. We are not a lending library, so have no concerns with 
that side of library management -- only with pure cataloguing, for which 
we use over 100 custom reports, 900 "sources", ten customized biblio 
frameworks, etc -- how best to proceed? Is there a script (or multiple 
scripts) that would do it?

b) server software? does "pure" Debian (which we have never used in 
production) have advantages over Ubuntu LTS (with which we are extremely 
comfortable)?

c) We normally build from tarballs, but have received some criticism in 
the past. The reason is that once we have a server locked into 
production, we never (major security excepted) touch it; our 3.8.24 has 
now been running for 1,467 days without rebooting, and "if it ain't 
broken, leave it alone."  Is the final installation package/tarball 
identical using the different methods?

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Season's greetings,
Paul