Artifactory includes multi-version support, which enables the members of a Federation to run different versions of Artifactory, even if the version at one site includes configuration features and values that are not supported on the versions running at other sites. Thanks to multi-version support, future upgrades after 7.49.6 can be performed on one site at a time, eliminating the need for simultaneous upgrades across all locations.
Note
It is a prerequisite of the multi-version support feature to upgrade all Artifactory instances hosting Federated repository members to Artifactory 7.49.6. After this has been done, multi-version support is enabled for all versions going forward.
Whenever an instance with a new Artifactory version is introduced to the Federation, any configuration differences that are detected between the new version and older versions are reported to the user. For example, if there are new features not found in the older version, a message such as the following is displayed:
In the example shown above, the user can respond by either disabling the two new fields in the Federation member running the new Artifactory version, or by removing the member from the Federation.
If an existing feature has been enhanced with a new value that is not available in older versions, a message such as the following is displayed:
In such cases, the user can respond by selecting a value that the older versions support.
When creating repositories using the API, the process works in a more automated fashion to prevent other automated processes (such as disaster recovery) from breaking due to the Federation member that was upgraded.
If there are new features that older versions do not support, the new feature is disabled. For upgraded features, a default value is chosen that is supported on all member versions.