Performing the upgrade
This topic describes how to upgrade the BMC Network Automation application server, remote device agent, and the associated components.
Before you begin
- Read the hardware and software system requirements in System requirements.
- See What's new for information about new features and other related topics.
- Ensure that you have performed the tasks mentioned in Preparing for upgrade.
Upgrading the application server
A typical upgrade is performed by running the BMC Network Automation installer. Perform the procedure appropriate to the OS used on your computer:
Notes
- If you want to change from internal to external authentication, or from external to internal authentication as part of the upgrade process for your application server, see Switching authentication type.
- During an upgrade of the application server, the installer upgrades the database schema. If you want to preserve your existing database, you must perform a silent upgrade with the
-J SKIP_DB_UPGRADEoption. For more information, see Preserving the application server database. - If any of the routers that manage endpoints in your environment are defined with multiple IP addresses, you need to enable the Alternate Addresses dynamic field once the upgrade is complete. See Enabling the Alternate Addresses dynamic field.
Switching the authentication type
This section describes how to switch the authentication type used by your BMC Network Automation application server during an upgrade.
Switching from local to external authentication
If you have been using local authentication for your site and you want to switch to external authentication (Active Directory, LDAP, RADIUS, or TACACS), perform the following tasks:
Note
After switching from local to an external authentication method, an existing local user would be unable to log on to BMC Network Automation.
- Run the BMC Network Automation installer on your application server, and during the upgrade process select the external authentication option.
- When the upgrade is complete, log on to the BMC Network Automation system.
Switching from external to local authentication
If you have been using external authentication (Active Directory, LDAP, RADIUS, or TACACS) for your site, and you want to switch to local authentication, perform the following tasks:
- Run the BMC Network Automation installer on your application server, and during the upgrade process select the local authentication option.
- When the upgrade is complete, use the reset password script (reset_password.bat for Microsoft Windows, reset_password.sh for Linux) to reset the password for all users.
These scripts are in the BCAN_HOME\tools directory. See Understanding tools and scripts for more information about this script. - Log on to the BMC Network Automation system.
You are prompted to change your password.
Preserving the application server database
You can control how the BMC Network Automation installer treats an existing database only during silent upgrade. By default, the installer upgrades the database schema. You can use the following command-line options to alter this default behavior:
Command-line option | Description |
|---|---|
| Skips the backup, deletion, and restore of the database during an upgrade Note:
Warning: You must back up the database before using this option. Otherwise, you risk losing your database data. Common use case of this option: When you want to re-run the installer to change installation parameters (for example, to switch method of authentication) you can save time by using this option. This procedure skips some of the database steps and makes the upgrade process run faster. |
| Skips the database upgrade step You can use this option with an embedded or remote database. Common use case of this option: If you have a High-Availability setup with multiple servers, the upgrade process updates the database on the primary server. You can use the |
You can use either or both the command-line options in a silent installation. For more information about silent installation, see Running the installer in silent mode.
Upgrading the remote device agent
If you are upgrading the application server, you must also upgrade all remote device agents to the same version as BMC Network Automation.
A typical upgrade is performed by running the BMC Network Automation installer. Perform the procedure appropriate to the OS used on your computer:
Upgrading an embedded PostgreSQL database
BMC does not recommend using the BMC Network Automation embedded PostgreSQL database as the BMC Decision Support - Network Automation data warehouse database because this database is not maintained (backed up, restored, or upgraded) and is removed during the BMC Network Automation system upgrades, thus resulting into the data loss for BMC Decision Support - Network Automation. Using an embedded PostgreSQL database as a data warehouse database also results in poor performance.
In case you have used the embedded PostgreSQL database as the data warehouse database, back up the same before upgrading BMC Network Automation and then restore the same after upgrade. Later, you can migrate the BMC Decision Support - Network Automation data warehouse database to a dedicated standalone PostgreSQL database server. For information about backing up and restoring an embedded PostgreSQL database, see Maintaining the database.
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