Gitlab to latest version

Hi,
We are using Gitlab version 13.2.3 and would like to move to the latest version 13.12.2. As per documentation I see is that I will need to install each and every version in between. Is that true? or that is true only if you want no downtime? . We are okay with downtime. Can I install 13.12.3 directly on top or do we need to apply other patches in between. Any help is appreciated in this regard.

Also , if I need to setup a Test environment ( since we have just 1 environment (prod)) , is there any documentaion for this? Any recommendations on this.

Thanks

according to this, since you are above 13.1.11 then you can go directly to the latest version.

As for test environment, just set it up like a normal server, doesn’t make any difference in terms of whether it is prod, dev, test, or whatever you want to classify it as. CPU/RAM specs will need to be as per the minimum requirements.