Upgrade with AEM 6.5 LTS - are service pack updates needed?

[andychiu_conrad]

Hi community,

we are currently running AEM 6.5.21 on premise and are planning to support Java 17 and upgrade our AEM with 6.5 LTS.

I already read, that 6.5 LTS already includes SP 22.

But as we were kicking off this topic, we wondered if we need to or can update AEM with the newest service packs in the future, such as the upcoming SP23.

Thanks in advance

Best Regards

Andy

[lukasz-m]

Hi @andychiu_conrad,

I think you should first upgrade to SP22 or higher, one of pre-upgrade activity is to:

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Make sure that you have installed the required index definitions released with AEM 6.5 Service Packs provided until AEM Service Pack 22 at a minimum. (Refer to AEM 6.5 servicepack release notes for more information).

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https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-65-lts/content/implementing/deploying/...

Base on above, I think SP23+ will also be fine in terms of setup supported for upgrade to AEM 6.5 LTS. But I would not treat SP23+ as a hard requirement for this process.

[andychiu_conrad]

Thanks @lukasz-m for the reply.

So based on what you explained our process should look like this?

• update 6.5.21 with Service pack 22
• upgrade with 6.5 LTS

or should we do

• upgrade 6.5.21 with 6.5 LTS (which should have SP22 included according to this: Current Release Notes for Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 LTS.)
• then update with Service Pack 23

Or am I misunderstanding, that the explanation here Current Release Notes for Adobe Experience Manager 6.5 LTS means 6.5 LTS only supports Service pack 22 until now (since SP 23 is not released yet)?

[lukasz-m · Accepted solution]

Hi @andychiu_conrad,

I would say the first/below approach is correct:

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• update 6.5.21 with Service pack 22
• upgrade with 6.5 LTS

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I do not think SP23 will be compatible with AEM 6.5 LTS, I mean to install it on top of AEM 6.5 LTS.

You can expect separate set of SPs for LTS version. So for some period of time, in parallel there will be SPs for AEM 6.5, and additional SPs dedicated for AEM 6.5 LTS which may have different number/version. But those SPs will not be exchangeable between AEM 6.5 and AEM 6.5 LTS.

Hope this is bit more clear now

[andychiu_conrad]

Thanks @lukasz-m 

It's more clear now ... we will continue with your mentioned approach.