For production upgrade, I would install on another machine and switch over using DNS changes. It would a little tricky and problematic to do it on the same server.
Yes, your custom modules should work. You will have to add your .jar files, and add the Modules as necessary to the Application.xml, which you can do through the Wowza 4 Manager now, or directly in the file as you have been doing.
i did not understand the difference. my server is working fine with 3.5.2 but it appears wowza 4 would allow me to do easier admin tasks if i upgrade. so if i am going to upgrade i guess i would go for wowza 4.
so i am correct that we install Wowza Streaming Engine 4.0.3 on the remote server and the Wowza 4 Manager is installed locally to monitor the remote server?
and am i correct that before the relatively limited monitoring was done locally using JDK?
if so, what is the install config difference between Wowza 4 Manager and JDK? I actually had issues setting up JDK and would hope there is a easier setup of the new tool