FDO - Flexible Deployment Option - Be mindful, it is not as flexible as you may think.

If you review the following link from Bb Help
https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/SaaS/Release_Notes/Learn_SaaS_Release_Schedule#fdo_schedule

you will notice the flexible deployment schedule for 3200 (Q2 2017) has 3 scheduled dates only:

• 18 May 2017, 5:00 PM EST
• 25 May 2017, 5:00 PM EST
• 8 June 2017, 5:00 PM EST

This presents a dilemma for me because our summer course, our ONLINE summer courses begin May 22, 2017.  When is the best time for us to upgrade?

I am comforted that 3200 is already loaded on my Test server and has already been released to those on CD (continuous delivery).  Hopefully all the problems with the version have been found and then corrected before we move.

SaaS Versioning and "Lingo"
Our Test environment had been updated to 3100.11.0 which is equal to Q4 2016 CU1
The Test environment is on CD or "Continuous Delivery".

When it came time to upgrade our production environment which is on Flexible Deployment Option known as FDO the version was listed as 3100.0.2.

That took me by surprise and I immediately re-did all of my tool testing.  In searching Behind the Blackboard, I discovered an article 000043586 which indicated my version was Q4, 2016 CU1 with 2 security patches.  

I reached out to a few Blackboard sources and learned about how that in the version numbers:
- the first 4 numbers represent the "release" 3100 = Q4 2016
- first set of number after the first decimal (3100.11.0) represents the build for CD, continuous delivery build #11
- the second set of numbers after the second decimal (3100.0.02) represents the build for the FDO, flexible deployment .0.2

The SaaS Update Schedule is located at 
https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/SaaS/Release_Notes/Learn_SaaS_Release_Schedule#fdo_schedule

Our Custom Theme is back and working great!
Thanks to the good working of Product Development, the Web Tech team, and Bb Support, we have our custom 2012 theme working great again.

As you may recall from an earlier post, in our 2012 theme we use 2 small images, one of our College logo and another is the 1x1 transparency slide to hide the plus sign "+" image on the background of the Learn environment.  

In pleading my case to Blackboard that I want to be able to "brand" my environment, they adjusted the SaaS environment so that all of us can do that now.
We made the change during our Spring Break in March and I am happy to report all is working well now.

I know this took some work on Blackboard's part and i very much appreciate their efforts to provide what we needed.  I believe this will benefit everyone.

Back posting again!
I am so sorry for not taking the time to post in recent weeks.  Work and life have been very busy.  The next few posts are all great news.
Thank you for taking time to review.  I hope you find the information in the blog helpful!