Drupal Tips: How to update Drupal core and contributed modules in your Drupal site safely

Keeping the Drupal core and contributed modules up-to-date (at least on the security updates) is one of the essential steps for keeping a Drupal site safe and secure. Running updates of Drupal modules is usually a straightforward mechanism on a Drupal site that is done right. However what will you do if you do not know how things have been built? What will you do if some of the custom modules used are tied down to specific versions of some contributed module? What if there were custom changes on the site. Here is how you can run updates on a Drupal site almost completely safely.

• Identify and document custom patches applied in the site.
• Identify and document modules requiring updates.
• Review update instructions and document special instructions for updates if any for each of the modules that have updates.
• Take a full backup of the Drupal database and files in the webroot.
• Set up the Drupal site locally to run trial update on the local systems.
• Update modules in batches and catch and fix errors in update process and document fixes.
• Rerun the full update process following documentation so that full update runs through without any errors.
• Test updated site against documentation provided for critical functionalities.
• Run an overall test of the site. Iterate over g to i until there are no errors.
• Take the live site offline.
• Take a full backup of the live site again before the updates are run.
• Run updates on live site and make custom configuration changes as required for the update.
• Take the site back online.
• Test updated site against documentation provided for critical functionalities.
• Run an overall test of the site.