Sierra 4.3 Release Notes

Sierra 4.3 is currently in general release.

NOTE: Customers with Encore need to be on at least Encore 4.6 SP2 in order to upgrade to Sierra 4.2 or 4.3.  In addition, if you are not planning to upgrade to Encore 4.8 or higher after your Sierra upgrade, Encore patron account functionality will be adversely affected due to some changes with HTTPS redirection. Please contact Innovative following the upgrade to prevent any problems with the Encore patron account.

New features in Sierra 4.3

• WebPAC can display a cookie notification. The content and styling of the notification is configurable by the library. If the patron dismisses the notification, it will not display again on that device for one year. For details about cookies set by WebPAC, see Does WebPAC collect cookies?.
• The Print Templates data library for Due Slips now includes elements for the price of each item and the total price of all items on the due slip.
• Staff can search for volume records by record number (in Search/Holds, for example).
• Allow customization of fonts and colors
• Sierra Web will support 40 concurrent users
• Institutions using the Talis Reading List Management System (RLMS) can configure a bookmarklet that enables patrons to add a resource to their lists in Talis.
• Lyngsoe Intelligent Material Management System (IMMS): Libraries with interface to Lyngsoe IMMS can profile IMMS to redirect materials which would otherwise return to home location or float to instead transit to an IMMS real-time specified location
• Lyngsoe Intelligent Material Management System (IMMS): Libraries with interface to Lyngsoe IMMS can use IMMS to perform Title Paging though a /titlepaging endpoint populated for Lyngsoe
• PostgreSQL database upgraded from version 9.4.6 to version 10

API updates in Sierra 4.3

New API endpoints

• POST /patron/id/fines/ - Create a Service Charge Fee for a single patron
• GET /info/holdsConfig/ - Get Place Hold system configuration
• GET /titlepaging/reports - Lyngsoe IMMS reports related to Title Paging function, provides data only when IMMS interface is configured and active, no data otherwise

Improvements

• GET /invoices and GET /invoices/{id} - Enhanced with Fixed and Variable Fields
• GET /holdings - Enhanced with Fixed and Variable Fields & with link to associated item record
• GET /fines/ - Enhanced with new filters for Invoice Number and Patron ID & with Agency Code information
• PUT /patron/ - Update Patron notification preference
• GET /Items/Item - New request element transitInfo to request transit information for the Item record 
• All endpoints - Optional Expanding information fields for linked records

Additional Considerations

Release notes include software behavior changes introduced in the update (some may have implications for training or data review prior to upgrade), any actions library staff should take prior to or just after updating the system, and notification of new features and other enhancements included in the update.

• Sierra customers who use INN-Reach will not be able to upgrade to Sierra 4.3 at this time if the INN-Reach central server is not on the Resource Sharing 3.1 release which includes the development to support the expanded codes feature of Sierra 4.0. The Sierra 4.3 upgrade will produce an error in the prep phase if the INN-Reach central server you are partnered with is not running Resource Sharing 3.1. Please contact Customer Support if you receive this error or have any questions. 
• If you have Encore, it must also be running on Encore 4.6 SP2 or higher to support the expanded codes. The Sierra 4.3 upgrade will check for this during the prep phase and stop if your Encore server does not meet the OS or release requirement.  If you have any questions about these requirements, please contact Customer Support.
• For MyLibrary! customers and Sierra API users who also have the Patron Update Web Service, additional configuration may be necessary to enable all functions in MyLibrary! and the Sierra API.  Please contact III support if you are having trouble updating patron information using the Sierra API or within MyLibrary!.
• If you are upgrading from a version older than Sierra 3.4, the Sierra 4.3 update will enable the 2018 Sierra Fines Paid and Collection Agency feature. This was an optional feature in Sierra 3.4 and Sierra 4.0 and if you answered “no” in either previous update, it will automatically be enabled when you upgrade to Sierra 4.3.

Known Issues 

For a complete list of existing Known Issues from Sierra 2.0 through the present release, see Known Issues for Sierra (2.0-5.1)

Preparing to update your system

System Requirements

Sierra 4.3 will require Red Hat or Centos 6x or higher. During the prep phase, the Sierra 4.3 self upgrade checks for the required Operating System and Red Hat Network requirements and will fail if those requirements are not met. Details contained in Solution Article here.

Red Hat Network

Access to several repositories and new packages are needed and the upgrade process for Sierra 4.3 will automatically issue Linux package install requests for packages matching the following patterns :

• epel-release (repository)
• git
• ansible
• json-c-devel
• librabbitmq-devel
• unzip
• python-pip
• python2-pip
• wget
• erlang-solutions (repository)
• erlang
• rabbitmq-server
• logstash (repository)
• logstash
• curl

By issuing these requests automatically during the upgrade, if the system being upgraded to Sierra 4.3 is subscribed to the Red Hat Network (or has otherwise been configured to have online access to a repository of operating system packages) at the time of the Sierra 4.3 upgrade, the package additions for Sierra 4.2 will be made automatically and no action is required on the part of the library even for those libraries ordinarily responsible for operating system updates.

NOTE: The above applies to all Sierra releases since Sierra 2.2. If the system being upgraded is more than one release behind 4.2, additional package install requests may be made for packages required by previous releases. Please review the Supportal Solution Additional Egress Firewall Requirements for Sierra.

Operating System

For Sierra systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, or running a 32 bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, it will be necessary to upgrade the operating system to one of the 64 bit Linux versions above to upgrade to Sierra 4.3.
For Sierra systems running any version of Solaris as their operating system, it will be necessary to migrate from that SPARC based server running Solaris to a new physical or virtual Intel/AMD server running 64 bit Linux in order to upgrade to Sierra 4.3.

Actions staff must take

• This update consists of a Prep and a Commit Phase. The Commit phase will require approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour of downtime and a reboot of the Sierra servers (application and database). If you own an Encore server, it will also be inaccessible during the Commit Phase. A full backup (both application and DB servers) is required within 24 hours of the commit phase.  Please review your backup schedule and choose the day/time for the commit phase accordingly.
• At the end of the preparation phase, the update process checks for a successfully completed backup within the last 24 hours and will alert you of potential problems.  For customers on 5-day backup schedules, this may indicate that the preparation phase ran on a day outside the normally scheduled backup. This same check is also performed at the beginning of the commit phase. You will not be able to proceed with the commit until a successful backup is verified.
• Innovative customers can request the update via the "Updating your System" section below. Please use the same request form if your library is running a pre-2.0 Sierra version. You can check your version of Sierra by selecting 'About' after clicking 'Help' in the client menu.
• Some libraries have reported that they were unable to launch the Sierra Desktop Application (SDA) after upgrading to Sierra 2.0, SP2 and SP3. This might also be the case with Sierra 2.1-3.4 if you are upgrading from an older release (Sierra 2, SP1 or older). To avoid this problem, you should either launch the SDA using an icon, or use the "noWebStart" method of accessing Sierra. Add "noWebStart" to the URL used to launch the SDA on each affected workstation (Windows or MAC):http://[APP_SERVER_URL]/sierra/desktop/noWebStart

If the workstation launching the SDA is using "noWebStart" for the first time, the client will be downloaded and installed at that time. A workstation will only need to download the client the first time that "noWebStart" is used.

Libraries that installed Sierra in November 2012 or later had the "noWebStart" method of access set as the system default during installation. It is unlikely that these libraries will experience a problem. If you are not sure what setting is in place at your library, contact Customer Support. The easiest way to determine if there will be a problem on an individual workstation is to look at the contents of the Sierra Desktop Application folder. You should see iiirunner.exe, as in the example below. If the iiirunner.exe file is not present, you should reinstall the SDA using the "noWebStart" method mentioned above.

Updating Your System

For libraries running Sierra 2.0 SP1 or older, please schedule the installation of 4.3 with Customer Support. Submit the Sierra Update Request form.

For libraries running Sierra 2.0 SP2 or newer, you now have the ability to self upgrade via the Admin App. Please find the upgrade instructions here.

If you are a Hosted Sierra system or a Combo (single server) Sierra Training system, please schedule the update with Support. Submit the Sierra Upgrade Request form.