What does it take to keep Drupal up to date? i.e. how much time you spend to keep Drupal up to date - downloading and installing all the updates for modules and Drupal per week or month
Interesting. That is less than I expected just seeing that people talk about updates a lot on drupal sites. I hope we get more replies.
I use the multi install feature of drupal, so I have many domains on only one install base. As well as other sites on their own drupal install. From time to time I check recommended version of modules directly from the update status within the admin of the site which uses most of the modules, I download them from there. Then unpack them all, replace the old ones, and then I go in each sites installed on my single install base and I run an /update.php on each site.
Every website is different. Mostly depends on the number of modules installed. Multiple modules require extra care. Core updates are always quick and painless.
Updates in Drupal are meant to be painless. I update 2-3 modules and core about once a month. To update a module or core, you need to backup your site, ftp the files and run an automated update script. Usually, this is painless. That being said, I have run into a few problems with modules that cease to function with other modules once they have been updated. Drupal can be a complicated system, but once you know it, I'd say an hour a month of maintenance tops. I usually spend more time updating content then I do maintaining the site.
if you install the drush module you can automate the updates. i would really recommend this module, especially on sites with more then 30 modules
If you don’t have too many modules and you stick to modules that a solid and keep updating it is painless, I spend an hour or 2 a month. I think some people run into trouble when they use a ton of modules and they get junky ones that don’t keep up with the updates.
i use multisite as well. so once you have the typical set of modules, it does not mater if you run 1 or 100 sites.
+1 for drush u can update almost any number of drupal sites with any number of modules installed in about an hour a month, with drush and root access (wget).
Not much time at all.. I always make sure that core and my modules are up to date.. I also go in every few weeks and clear the cache(s) and sessions table and optimize the database. I have over 15,000 nodes, over 100,000 comments, and about 19,000 active members.
I spend ~half a day per month just for doing updates (I testing all updates on my local test version before applying them on production). In case if you need to move in major versions, lets say from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 - it will take more time for sure.