Drupal 6 -> Drupal 7 upgrade path

Question

I'm upgrading an installation from Drupal 6.37 to Drupal 7 and also the associated civicrm module(3.3.5). My problem is I'm not sure of a reasonable upgrade path. I've looked through the version documentation, which I find quite confusing and at times contradictory. I have full command line access to both the database and the ubuntu server via ssh.

I've found these instructions useful, although a little dated now.

If I were to use 4.2.8 a choice exists between a version for Drupal 6 and Drupal 7. With the impending demise of Drupal 6 I suspect I won't be the only person facing such a decision.

Can anyone advise on a reasonable upgrade path?

Answer 1

The instructions you found I have used several times and I think they are still valid. So, in your case first upgrade CiviCRM to a version with both a drupal 6 and drupal 7 version, then upgrade drupal and use the same version of CiviCRM. Then I'd advise to further upgrade CiviCRM to the Long Term Support version 4.6.

Answer 2

My colleague wrote those instructions and we have continued to use the same method. I would recommend upgrading to the latest version of 4.6 (Drupal 6) right away. Your version is very insecure. This might best be done in two stages.

1. 3.3.5 >> 3.4.8 to get the last and final version of the 3.x series (against which most 4.x upgrade tests were done)
2. 3.4.8 >> Latest 4.6 (Drupal 6) to get the maximum value in terms of fixed issues.

We have used this fairly recently with success. We only use an intermediate upgrade to an earlier 4.x version if something specifically fails and it can help narrow down the failure issues. Take backups before and immediately after every upgrade to make sure any and all of them can be rolled back.

Finally, when you upgrade Drupal, replace CiviCRM with the D7 code.