I was just having the same issue (as I had had in the past).
For the first time ever, though, I just managed to have a smooth upgrade to 2.8.9.
What I did:
MAKE SURE TO DO ANY BACKUPS AND TEST-RUN THE PROCESS AND DOUBLE CHECK FOR ANY POSSIBLE ERRORS. USE THESE EXPLANATIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK
[!] OpenX requires a file-path to the old installation in
order to complete the upgrade (it basically checks the plugins
in the old version and then re-installs them in the new
version). So you should always upgrade by having a clean/new installation directory, and not replace the current installation with the new openx files.
- create new database (openx_new) and give the database user permissions
to the new database (don't forget to give access to LOCK TABLEs)
- dump the current database and load into the new one
mysqldump -uUSER -pPASSWORD openxdb_old –skip-lock-tables > FILE.sql
mysql -uUSER -pPASSWORD openxdb_new < FILE.sql
- unzip the new openx files in, eg, /openx_new
- copy the configuration file(s) and any banner/image files you may have from the old to the new directory
- adjust the configuration file in the new directory so it points to the new database created above (openxdb_new)
Here comes the switch:
- flip the directories:
mv /openx /openx_old
and mv /openx_new /openx
; now the new files are in the directory /openx and the old ones in /openx_old.
- go to the admin page of openx (eg, http://www.example.org/openx). After logging in, the installation/upgrading process should kick in.
- it may ask for some minor changes in the file permissions; fix them.
- eventually, it will ask for the directory where the previous
version was installed; point to the "/openx_old" directory
mentioned above. This will cause OpenX to check the plugins
and re-install them.
You're done. Hopefully.
Ref:
http://www.openxconsultant.com/blog/2010/11/how-to-upgrade-openx-ad-server/
The article offers a way to avoid any downtime, I went ahead with just a few seconds of dowtime and 10 minutes of lost statistics.