This article is the first in a series discussing Who, What, Why, and How Drupal 8 sites can upgrade to the upcoming Drupal 9 release. A future series will discuss upgrading Drupal 7 sites.
Drupal 9 has been released, and with both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 scheduled for end-of-life (EOL) in November 2022, it’s time to think about whether to upgrade Drupal sites to the new version. Upgrading to newer versions in the past was a significant replatforming effort that required a substantial investment and a non-trivial release window.
The Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 upgrade is different, though; this is the first major version upgrade that’s reputed to be as simple as a minor point release. Can it really be that simple? Who should upgrade to Drupal 9?
The Easy Path: Upgrading from Drupal 8
Organizations that are already on Drupal 8 are several steps ahead in upgrading to Drupal 9. One of the biggest benefits of upgrading to Drupal 8 is that the platform and core code of Drupal 8 form the basis for Drupal 9.
Drupal 9.0 doesn’t introduce any new features or new code, so sites that are on the final Drupal 8 point release are essentially ready to upgrade to Drupal 9.0. No big lift; no major replatforming effort; no content migration; just a final audit to make sure the site doesn’t rely on any deprecated code or outdated Composer dependencies.
Sites that have kept up-to-date with Drupal 8’s incremental updates (see Andrew Berry’s article Drupal 8 Release Planning in the Enterprise) should be ready to go when it comes to core code. Many sites are already using automated tools or workflows to keep them up-to-date on code deprecations for contributed and custom modules. Ideally, you have been continuously replacing older versions of contributed modules with versions that have removed deprecated code, removing deprecated code in your custom code, and dealing with any Composer dependency conflicts. If so, the upgrade effort for your site should be relatively simple. The same is true if you rely on widely-used and well-supported contributed modules and have little custom code.
If you have custom code and use less widely-used contributed modules, but you’ve been paying attention to code deprecations in your custom code and the readiness of your contributed modules, you’re probably in a good position to upgrade. If you have strong test coverage and aren’t relying on any deprecated third-party dependencies, you’re in even better shape. You shouldn’t see substantial changes from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9.0, so even custom code is likely to work without issue as long as it doesn’t rely on deprecated functions or methods that are removed.
The caveat is that if your custom code or contributed modules rely on older versions of Composer dependencies that are deprecated in Drupal 9 in favor of newer versions, you may need to do some refactoring to make sure that code works with the new third-party dependencies.
Can you stay on Drupal 8 past its EOL?
There should be no reason for anyone on Drupal 8 not to upgrade to Drupal 9. There will be a small window of time until November 2022, during which the last Drupal 8 release will be supported with security updates. That allows time to make the necessary changes to move to Drupal 9. But after that, you’ll need to make the switch.
When Drupal 6 reached its end of life, there was a Long Term Support (LTS) program, which made it possible to stay on Drupal 6 past its EOL. There is an LTS program for Drupal 7 and Lullabot is an approved vendor for this program; however, there will be no Long Term Support program for Drupal 8 because the upgrade path from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 is much easier.
If you don’t make the move, you’ll be on your own to deal with security updates and other maintenance and bug fixes for your Drupal 8 code. And that would likely be more expensive and time-consuming than just doing the upgrade.
Prepare to upgrade or start considering alternatives.
With the Drupal 9 upgrade being relatively uncomplicated for sites already on Drupal 8, it's easy to recommend that those sites upgrade. The main question is when, and what other options do you have? Later articles in this series will delve into more detail about how to prepare for the upgrade.
Thanks to the Lullabot team for contributing to this article and to Dachary Carey for drafting it.