Drupal 6 end-of-life: What are your options?

The excitement of the Drupal 8 launch is yet to subside and the buzz it has created is truly phenomenal. However, the users of Drupal 6 are worried about the impact and the challenges they may have to face due to this new release. Come 24 February 2016, Drupal 6’s EOL (end of life) will be a reality and will no longer be supported by Drupal.

Let us first look at the realities you may have to face as a Drupal 6 user:

• There will be no security support or any security advisories for Drupal 6.
• Community support for Drupal 6 will be withdrawn and bug fixing in current projects, creation of new projects etc. shall cease from 24 February 2015.
• No more core commits on Drupal 6.x to the official tree shall be made available
• Project pages of all Drupal 6 releases will be flagged as non-supported

If you are a Drupal 6 site owner, you need to be aware of the fact that while the security updates would come to a stop, technically you can keep using your existing site. However, unsupported software is a tricky proposition and you surely do not want to take chances with your business, do you? You would rather work with a supported version like Drupal 8 than on a soon-to-be-taken off the shelf version.

As a Drupal 6 site owner, you need to get ready for a smooth and easy upgrade to Drupal 8 and for this ensure that you have the following in place:

• Drush 8 is necessary if you are planning the upgrade from Drush. Also the module ‘migrate tools’ is required.
• Core module Migrate Drupal needs to be enabled with a fresh Drupal 8 installation
• Source site file access is necessary.
• Access to the Drupal 6 database to the host is required.

Before initializing the upgrade from Drupal 6, it is advisable to permit every module on the Drupal 8 site for which content upgrading and configuration is required.

The Migrate module is designed to create all content types and fields as part of the migration; so you won’t have to do it manually. Also, since this upgrade will overwrite configuration on the Drupal 8 site, be sure you have not made any configurations unless the entire upgrade is finished.

Assuming that you are on Drupal 6 currently, it would make tremendous business sense to move directly to Drupal 8 that has the latest technology under its belt. Why would you want to make a short-term shift to Drupal 7 (will be provided with security updates till end of 2018) when Drupal 8 with migration feature is easily accessible?

At Zyxware, we have enabled most of our existing clients and newer ones too to make this shift to Drupal 8 and have a hassle-free and quick migration. We have the technical expertise and experience to ensure a smooth transition, without any visible impact on your business. Call us now to know more about our Drupal development services and understand the fastest way to make the change to Drupal 8 before your competitor does!

References:

Drupal 6 end-of-life announcement
Preparing an upgrade from Drupal 6 or 7 to Drupal 8
Still on Drupal 6? Here are your options!