I've been complacent with stuff that just works and it's been so long that I barely even remember how I first installed Armory and bitcoind but I think it's time that I upgrade.... I've been going through the forum trying to piece together the best practices and best routes to take in doing this but I'd like some advice. Currently I am running Armory 0.93.3 on Ubuntu 15.10 along with Bicoin Core 0.13 (v0.13.0.0-ga402396).
My first question is a confirmation that what we're essentially doing is reinstalling Armory (not bitcoind) and restoring the wallet from a backup. Am I correct on this?
There is no need to restore the wallet from a backup. Upgrading does not touch any of the data which is stored in a separate location from the install itself.
Secondly, what are the compatible bitcoind versions for each Armory version? Can any newer version of Armory always support an older version of bitcoind? My main reason for asking this is I don't like to change too much in one shot.... if I can update on component and run it for a while and then later update the next component it makes me feel a little better so I don't bury myself with problems.
You won't be able to use Core 0.14.0+ with any Armory version <0.95.1 (inclusive). This has been fixed for 0.96. Other than that, there shouldn't be any compatibility issues.
I think my last question is what version should I upgrade to? Does it make sense to first upgrade to 0.94.1 and then step up from there or should I just go directly to 0.95.1..... I saw some references to 0.95.1 having some issues but it seems that was only with bitcoind 0.14 so if I'm going to stay at 0.13.0 for right now that issue wouldn't apply to me I assume?
Just upgrade directly to 0.95.1. When you do so, you will need to go to the Armory data folder and delete the folder named "databases" inside of it since 0.95.1 has a completely different and incompatible database format from 0.93.3.