There was a few changes on this last version (1.5.1), that will in special speed up activation.
you can also use the network-health-detection to determine when a broker needs to shut down to avoid split brains: http://activemq.apache.org/artemis/docs/1.5.1/network-isolation.html Regarding the update path, you can certainly update the ARTEMIS_HOME instance when upgrading within minor version (1.5, 1.5.1, 1.6 should be ok). When you move to 2.0 you will need to export the data and import. (it could work, but no one is doing any extensive work to make sure the same journal will be compatible between 1.x and 2.x). a Major version usually means some compatibility can be broken. did I miss answering anything here? I think this covers your questions.. let me know if you still have questions.
