What is the best way to upgrade Magento

Question

So I need to upgrade Magento from 1.1~ to 1.6~

The main reason I need to do this is because all the order fullfillment extensions require a newer version. http://www.xtento.com/magento-extensions/magento-order-export-module.html

What is the best/most effective way to do this? Any recommended extensions that would work well?

I'm a complete n00b at Magento so the more detailed the help the better!

Answer 1

There are two main approaches for upgrading Magento:

1. Incremental upgrade
2. Implement again Magento and import data from older version

Incremental upgrade

You can upgrade from 1.1 to 1.2, then to 1.3 and so on... One thing to keep in mind is that from Magento 1.1 alot of things changed. Deactivate all your extensions installed on Magento 1.1 (most likely will not be compatibile with later versions).

This is a long process and requires lot of time and attention because all kinds of errors will be triggered (data inconsistency, table alters that will not work and so on). Migration from Magento 1.4.1.x to Magento 1.6 and then to Magento Professional took us couple of weeks. In this case steps were: Magento 1.4.1 - 1.4.2 - 1.6.

Implement again Magento and import data from older version

You can do a fresh Magento 1.6 implementation, implement again the theme and import data (products, customers, orders - you will need an extension for this).

More info: Upgrading Magento - Magento wiki

Answer 2

Upgrade from 1.5 to 1.6 like the following ( SSH Based ):

• First, take database backup then whole magento directory for restore process.
• Go to magento directory.
• chmod 550 .mage/ // Set permission to mage tool
• rm -rf /var/cache/* var/session/*
• ./mage mage-setup .
• ./mage config-set preferred_state stable
• ./mage list-installed
• ./mage list-upgrades
• ./mage install http://connect20.magentocommerce.com/community Mage_All_Latest --force
• php shell/indexer.php reindexall
• find . -type f exec chmod 644 {} \\;
• find . -type d exec chmod 755 {} \\;