Walkthrough: Upgrading to version 8.7 for Linux

If you are running BMC Server Automation 8.5.x or later, and are running a 64-bit Linux platforms, you can use the unified product installer to upgrade to version 8.7.

The topic includes the following sections:

Related topics

Related topics for version 8.7 upgrades

Walkthrough: Upgrading using the configurator and individual component installers (for component-level upgrades)

Troubleshooting the unified product installer

Notes

Review the supported upgrade paths information, available in the Supported upgrade paths section below.

If your BMC Server Automation environment includes BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation, upgrade BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation before upgrading BMC Server Automation. For more information, see the following topic in the Decision Support for Server Automation online technical documentation:

Upgrading

As of BMC Server Automation 8.6 SP1, the task of running SQL Update scripts, which was necessary in the past for any upgrade to a BMC Server Automation patch or service pack, is no longer required during an upgrade. The database upgrade is now handled internally by the unified product installer, which was introduced in version 8.6.

Upgrading using the unified product installer

Note

If you are not an experienced user, see the related topics listed in the table to review the required planning information for upgrading the product.

The unified product installer automatically upgrades the database, file server, Application Server, agents, PXE server and TFTP server, and console in your environment, with certain exceptions. The checklist below walks you through the process of upgrading Windows and Linux environments using the unified product installer.

Tip

Prior to upgrading your production environment, it is best practice to test the upgrade in a duplicated environment.

Step 1: Review requirements and limitations

The first step is to review the following requirements and limitations when using the unified product installer for product upgrade.

Supported upgrade paths

Click here to review the supported upgrade paths.

BMC Server Automation supports direct upgrade from versions 8.5.xx and 8.6.xx. If you need to upgrade from BMC Server Automation version 8.3.x. or earlier, you must first upgrade to one of the following:

The latest 8.6 service pack, (as discussed in the Upgrading section of the BMC Server Automation 8.6 online documentation)
The latest 8.5 service pack, (as discussed in the Upgrading section of the BMC Server Automation 8.5 online documentation)

Afterwards, you can upgrade from version 8.5.xx or 8.6.xx to 8.7.x.

The following figures illustrate the supported upgrade paths to BMC Server Automation 8.7.x.

In the above diagrams, abbreviations are defined as follows:

BSA stands for BMC Server Automation
SP stands for Service Pack
P stands for Patch

Requirements

Click here to review the key requirements for running the unified product installer on Linux.

Category	Requirement
Product integrations	If your BMC Server Automation environment includes BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation, upgrade BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation before upgrading BMC Server Automation. For more information, see the following topic in the Decision Support for Server Automation online technical documentation: Upgrading If your BMC Server Automation environment includes BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, you need to ensure that you maintain compatibility with BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management. For more information, see the following topic in the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management online technical documentation: Component BMC product service pack and patch levels
Base requirements	Review the following key requirements. Click here to review. During an upgrade, the unified product installer automatically installs an RSCD Agent on every Application Server machine that does not already have an agent installed. If you are not interested in providing details of the required credentials, you can install an RSCD Agent manually on each of the detected machines. If you have external PXE servers in your environment, copy the appserver installation script (for example, *../installers/appserver_64/BBSA<version>-LIN64.sh) to the /tmp* path on Linux PXE Servers to use the Remote Site default option in unified product installer before you start the upgrade. NSH must be present on each Application Server machine (that is NSH proxy server, Configuration server, Job server, or PXE server). Run the Unified installer only from an Application Server system that is set up as a Configuration server (for more about this type of Application Server setup, see Application Server types). Run the installer from a computer where a Windows X server is installed. If the host computer on which you are installing the Network Shell has: A supported version of Perl installed — The Network Shell installation automatically installs the Network Shell Perl module. For information about the Perl versions that BMC Server Automation supports, see Perl support. An unsupported version of Perl installed — The installation copies files that allow you to install the Perl module after you have installed the supported version of Perl Ensure that the Bash shell is the default shell on all machines where BMC Server Automation is being upgrade.
Supported platforms	The unified installer supports Windows 64-bit and Linux 64-bit operating systems. For a complete list of platforms supported by the unified installer, see: Supported platforms for Unified Product Installer (UPI) in Supported platforms for version 8.7
PXE server upgrades	To improve performance for the upgrade of remote PXE servers, manually copy the PXE installer binary (../installers/appserver_64/BBSA88-LIN64.sh) to the PXE server prior to upgrading (for example, to the /tmp directory). The unified product installer validates the existence of the PXE installer binary under the expected location, and upgrades the PXE server during the upgrade process.
Windows X server requirement	You must run the installer from a computer where a Windows X server is installed. Follow these steps before you install the product from a computer with X server software: Start the X server software. Configure the security settings of the X server software to permit remote hosts to display X applications on the local system. Connect to the remote system where you want to install the product and start a terminal session on that system, for example, an X terminal (xterm).
Configuration objects	Upgrading to a new release can potentially create mismatches between the version of a custom configuration object, an agent, and any model objects that reference custom configuration objects. Therefore, as part of the upgrade process, you must distribute the latest versions of the custom configuration objects that are not included as part of an RSCD agent. The product installation is automatically upgraded to the appropriate version when you upgrade the agent. However, you must upgrade any custom configuration objects that are not included with the agent by running a Distribute Configuration Objects Job. Configure this job to target servers to which custom configuration objects need to be distributed. For a list of those objects that are included as part of an agent installation and those that are not included with the agent and require distribution, see Custom configuration objects. To upgrade custom configuration objects Click here to see the steps for upgrading custom configuration objects. Run an Update Server Properties Job on the agents you have upgraded. For more information, see Creating Update Server Properties Jobs. If you are not upgrading all of your agents at this time, make copies of all component templates, BLPackages, Snapshot Jobs, and Audit Jobs that reference custom configuration objects that have dependencies on agents running earlier versions. You must maintain a version match between component templates, BLPackages, Snapshot Jobs, and Audit Jobs and custom configuration objects and agents. The objects that you copy in this step are the objects that you can use to maintain the version match. If you upgrade to the latest version of BMC Server Automation and you are using BMC Server Automation for virtual environments, you must immediately update the RSCD agent on the system used for the integration and add the new configuration object version for the integration. For example, for the vCenter server, you must upgrade the RSCD agent on either the Windows vCenter server or the AMO proxy and add the new VMware configuration object to the vCenter server object in BMC Server Automation. To ensure that all configuration-object-based assets within existing content are upgraded, run an Upgrade Model Objects Job that targets any component templates, BLPackages, Snapshot Jobs, or Audit jobs that you want to upgrade. For more information about the Upgrade Model Objects Job, see Creating or modifying Upgrade Model Objects Jobs. Note: Do not run the Upgrade Model Objects Job against the copies of objects that you created in step 3. If you open an existing component template, BLPackage, Snapshot Job, or Audit Job that references a custom configuration object and a later version of that custom configuration object exists, the system displays a message saying it will automatically upgrade the referenced custom configuration object. To maintain a version match with an earlier agent, close the component template, BLPackage, Snapshot Job, or Audit Job without saving. After executing the Upgrade Model Objects Job, display the results of the job run to see which assets were successfully upgraded and which were not. If you find that certain assets were not automatically upgraded, you must upgrade them manually. Perform the following steps: Open the object (template, package, or job). Manually remove the asset of the earlier version and add the asset of the latest version. Save the object. To upgrade virtualization configuration objects Click here to see the steps for upgrading virtualization configuration objects. The Upgrade Model Object Job is not supported for upgrading virtualization configuration objects. To upgrade configuration objects that you distributed in prior versions, complete the following steps: Import the new version of the virtualization configuration object (for example, the VMware vCenter configuration object). Restart the RSCD agent on which the configuration object is distributed. This step is a prerequisite for successful upgrade of the configuration object on the target server. Run the Distribute Configuration Objects Job to distribute the configuration objects to the target agent (see Distributing configuration objects). To identify the configuration objects that failed, run the Upgrade Model Objects Job on all jobs, templates, and BLPackages that reference the configuration object. After the Upgrade Model Objects Job completes, open the objects for which the job failed. Remove the parts that are marked as failed and add new ones from the upgraded configuration object. Upgrading to a new release can potentially create mismatches between the version of a custom configuration object, an agent, and any model objects that reference custom configuration objects. Therefore, as part of the upgrade process, you must distribute the latest versions of custom configuration objects for the custom configuration objects that are not included as part of an agent. The installation are automatically upgraded to the appropriate version when you upgrade the agent. (See Custom configuration objects for a list of those objects.) You should upgrade any custom configuration objects not included with the agent by running a Distribute Configuration Objects Job. The job should target servers to which custom configuration objects should be distributed.
Potential issues	Click here to review a list of potential issues you can encounter during an upgrade. Upgrade to version 8.6 or later does not grant the DBMS_LOCK privilege to user - Before you start upgrading from a previous version to BMC Server Automation 8.6, ensure that the BMC Server Automation user is granted the DBMS_LOCK privilege. This privilege is required for carrying out a handshake between BMC Server Automation database and the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation ETL during database clean up. You can use the SYS user to grant the DBMS_LOCK privilege by entering the following command: `GRANT EXECUTE on DBMS_LOCK TO <User>` Upgrade to version 8.6 or later disables PropertySync - As of BMC Server Automation version 8.5, the PropertySync feature has been deprecated. During migration of the database, PropertySync is disabled and the migration results table displays the migration warning: PropertySync has been changed from true to false. Please contact BMC Support for further assistance. Upgrade to version 8.5 or later deprecates the Provision provisionDevice BLCLI command. Earlier releases supported the `Provision:provisionDevice` command. This command has been deprecated. BMC recommends that you use the `ProvisionJob:createProvisionJob` command instead. Upgrade to version 8.6 or later causes Citrix XenServer Provision Jobs to fail - After an upgrade from BMC Server Automation version 8.3 or earlier to BMC Server Automation version 8.5 or later, existing Citrix XenServer Provision Jobs fail (QM001706976). Failed jobs display the error message: com.bladelogic.om.infra.mfw .util.BlException: Proxy cannot be null, Error: Proxy cannot be null. To work around the issue, open the Provision Job in the content editor. On the Server Settings panel, browse the Server Properties option to select or create a valid agentless managed object (AMO). Audit performed with snapshots captured using earlier versions of the RSCD agent can fail - When capturing data from target servers, version 8.6.00 of BMC Server Automation skips IPv6 addresses and masks. After an upgrade to version 8.6.00 oe later from version 8.3 or earlier, an audit performed with snapshots captured using older versions of an RSCD agent can fail if the targets had IPv6 enabled.
Certificate issue	If your id.pem certificate was created with a key size of 1024 bits (or less), you will need to regenerate it with a higher key size (2048 or higher). This is due to a change in the FIPS requirement for minimum key length (now 2048 bits).

Limitations when using the unified product installer

Category	Description of support or limitation
Multiple Application Server (MAS) environments	The unified product installer only supports upgrade of an homogeneous MAS environment, that is, either all Application Servers run on Linux 64-bit operating systems or all run on Windows 64-bit operating systems.
"Mixed" Application Server/database environments	The unified product installer supports upgrade of "mixed" Application Server/database environments (for example, Linux Application Server + Microsoft SQL Server database). The UPI does not require the database or the file server operating system to match the operating system of the Application Servers.
PXE servers	For PXE servers to be upgraded by the unified product installer, they must be: Up and running. Running the same OS as the Application Server. If your environment includes hybrid PXE servers (that is, PXE servers not running Windows or Linux), you must perform a workaround for the upgrade Click here to see the workaround. Stop the hybrid PXE server / TFTP server. Run the unified product installer. The installer ignores the PXE server, as it is in a stopped state. The installer upgrades the rest of the infrastructure, with the exception of the hybrid PXE server. Once the unified product installer has completed the upgrade, run the configurator utility on that PXE server. See Migrating the database and persisting configuration data to the database. Upgrade the PXE server according to the instructions in Upgrading the Provisioning System. Copy the global.property file from the Application Server to the /br/deployments/ directory on the PXe server. Restart the PXE server.
Upgrade scenarios	The unified product installer *does not support* the following upgrade scenarios: 32-bit Windows or 32-bit Linux machines Solaris SPARC machines Upgrading the BMC Server Automation Console (RCP client). Uninstall the older version of the console and install the new version on a different host. Application Servers installed with the -local flag, that is installed in a self-contained directory structure.

Step 2: Prepare the environment for upgrade

Perform these tasks in order. Many steps are prerequisites for other steps that occur later in the process.

Back up the BMC Server Automation database. The data upgrade occurs in place. If, for any reason, it should become impossible to complete the upgrade, the only way to restore the database to its pre-upgrade state is from the backups.
Ensure that the following components are up and running:
- All Application Servers
- PXE Server
- RSCD agents on Application Servers, PXE servers, and file servers.
- RSCD agents installed with the –local option on Application Servers, PXE servers, and file servers.
Back up the installation directories for all Application Servers and PXE servers. The default installation locations are:
- Application Server: /opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH
- PXE Server: /opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH
  If you are upgrading the PXE server, follow the upgrade instructions for Windows or UNIX, to prevent loss of configuration settings.
Note that the user who installed the earlier version of the product might have changed the installation directory from the default location, so ensure that you have the right location. If your current installation is already an upgrade from a previous version, the paths might be different, due to differences in these locations in earlier versions of BMC Server Automation. If you do not know the installation location for BMC Server Automation components view the contents of the /usr/lib/rsc/HOME file (on Linux or UNIX) or the %WINDIR%\rsc\HOME file (on Windows).
Back up the BMC Server Automation file server storage location. For example, copy the entire contents of the storage location to a directory other than the current storage location.
Ensure that there is an agent installed on the Application Server. For agent installation on Linux or UNIX, use the -local option (as discussed in Installing components in non-default installation paths using the local flag). Similarly, if an RSCD agent and NSH are not already installed on the PXE server, install them now.
If you are not running the UPI/Application Server installer directly from a graphical desktop on the Application Server host, you must forward the X Window GUI to another system w/ an X Server or use silent mode to install the Application Server (Windows).
The most common method to set up forwarding in a secured environment is to tunnel the X Window connection over an SSH connect between the X Server (your system) and the X Client (the Application Server in this case). Review your SSH client’s documentation for specific instructions, but generally:
1. Set up the SSH client to forward the remote display across the SSH connection.
2. When you log on to the remote system, set the DISPLAY environment variable to ‘localhost:11.0’ (for example).
3. Your system must run an X Server. For Windows, you can use MobaXterm (which is also an SSH client), Xming, Xmanager, Exceed, and so on. Linux supports X Server natively.
Ensure that the following 32-bit and 64-bit required package is installed:
- For RHEL 7: libncurses
- For versions earlier than RHEL 7: libtermcap
Ensure that you have 4 GB on disk with temp space and 4 GB on disk with installation directory.
Ensure that you have disabled the NSH proxy on all Application Servers in the environment to avoid failure during upgrade. To disable the NSH proxy, run the following command on the NSH client:
secadmin -m default -p 5 -T encryption_only -e tls -appserver_protocol clear
This command temporarily removes the appserver_protocol=ssoproxy entry from the default line in the secure file (in the rsc folder).
Note: After the upgrade completes, remember to add this entry back into the secure file. You can use the following command:
secadmin -m default -p 5 -appserver_protocol ssoproxy

Related topics: (See these topics for additional upgrade considerations and supported upgrade paths)

Preparing for a Linux or UNIX upgrade using the unified product installer

Minimum software requirements, especially Requirements for 32-bit and 64-bit libraries when installing on Red Hat Linux using UPI

Step 3: Download the files

Download and extract the installation files to a temporary location.

Download the BBSA<bsaversion>-LIN64.zip file (which contains the unified product installation program files) and the BBSA<bsaversion>-RSCDAgent.zip file (which contains the RSCD Agents for all supported platforms) to the host computer of the Application Server that was set up as a configuration server.
Extract the zip files. For example:
unzip BBSA<bsaversion>-RSCDAgents.zip -d /tmp/BBSA<bsaversion>-RSCDAgents
unzip BBSA<bsaversion>-LIN64.zip -d /tmp/BBSA<bsaversion>-LIN64
Copy the rscd folder from inside /tmp/BBSA<bsaversion>-RSCDAgents to <temporary_location>/Disk1/files/installer/ before running the unified product installer. The unified product installer uses the RSCD installers while installing or upgrading BMC Server Automation in your environment.

Step 4: Run the unified product installer on the Application Server

Step	Description
Run the unified product installer on the Application Server.	The unified product installer automatically upgrades the database, file server, Application Server, agents, PXE server and TFTP server, and console in your environment, with certain exceptions (see . To run the unified product installer the Application Server Make sure that the RSCD Agent, Application Server, and PXE Server are running. Navigate to the temporary directory that contains the installation files. If you are on a Linux machine, you must assign an executable permission to the installer file (setup.bin) by entering the following command: `chmod +x -R <temporary directory>` Run the installation program (setup.bin for Linux) Follow the instructions in the installation wizard and click Next. Enter your Authentication profile credentials to proceed with the upgrade procedure. Note that only secure remote password (SRP), LDAP, or Domain Authentication type profiles can be used with the unified product installer. The unified product installer program displays the different types of servers that are present in the BMC Server Automation environment and their count. If the unified product installer was successful in connecting with all servers, click Install to proceed with the upgrade of all BMC Server Automation components that are present in your environment. About the Discovered BladeLogic Server Automation Infrastructure screen If any of the remote servers do not have an RSCD Agent installed, the wizard first displays a list of those servers, and you must decide whether to manually install RSCD Agents on these servers or to provide connection details for enabling the unified product installer to perform the installation of an RSCD Agent on each of the servers. If you are running one or more PXE servers, the installer detects and lists them as part of your infrastructure. The unified product installer upgrades the PXE servers as part of the upgrade process. The checkbox for the Remote Site field controls how the PXE server installer files are copied to the PXE server, as described below. Remote Site field selected (default) - Assumes that you have previously manually copied the PXE installer binary (../installers/appserver_64/BBSA87-LIN64.sh) to the PXE server prior to upgrading (for example, to the /tmp directory). The unified product installer validates the existence of the PXE installer binary under the expected location, and upgrades the PXE server during the upgrade process. This option is the faster of the two, in terms of performance, and is recommended for PXE servers that are on a different LAN/WAN. Remote Site field cleared (not selected) - Assumes that you want the installer to copy ../installers/appserver_64/BBSA87-LIN64.sh file to the PXE server (for example, to the /tmp directory). De-select the Remote Site option if the PXE server is on the same LAN/WAN as the Application Server. However, this option is typically much slower if thePXE server is on a different LAN/WAN than the Application Server. Note: If problems arise during the upgrade, the on-screen error messages contain instructions and guidance to help you troubleshoot the problems, and further information is available in the log files. For a list of log files written during the upgrade process, see the Troubleshooting section. Related topic: Upgrading on Windows using the unified product installer
Upgrade the console.	To upgrade the console If you had not enabled the BMC Server Automation Console Upgrade Service check box or if you are having the installation on a Linux platform, you need to manually upgrade the Console by running its individual component installer, see Upgrading the BMC Server Automation Console. Related topic: Upgrading the BMC Server Automation Console
Upgrade components that were not upgraded	After the unified product installer completes the upgrade, you must manually upgrade any components that meet the following criteria. You can perform this step anytime after the upgrade. NSH clients on non-Application Server host computers - Use the instructions in Upgrading the Network Shell on Linux and UNIX. PXE and TFTP servers that reside on separate host computers - When you upgrade a PXE server on a different subnet than the target server, you need to copy the installation files to the remote machine and upgrade the remaining servers manually, as described in Upgrading a PXE server on Linux or UNIX. Upgrade any agents that you may have that fall into the following categories. Agent on an online or offline patch repository Agent on a basic/standard repeater Agent on a VMware vCenter server. You must upgrade the agent on the vCenter server before you try to use the vCenter integration or the updated VMware configuration object push. For more information, see Setting up a VMware vSphere environment andDistributing configuration objects. Related topics: Upgrading the RSCD agent on Linux and UNIX
Run the Update Model Objects Job.	For custom configuration objects to work reliably, the version of the custom object should match the version of the agent. You can perform this step anytime after the upgrade. Run an Update Server Properties Job on the agents you have upgraded. For more information, see Creating Update Server Properties Jobs. If you are not upgrading all of your agents at this time, make copies of all component templates, BLPackages, Snapshot Jobs, and Audit Jobs that reference custom configuration objects that have dependencies on agents running earlier versions. You must maintain a version match between component templates, BLPackages, Snapshot Jobs, and Audit Jobs and custom configuration objects and agents. The objects that you copy in this step are the objects that you can use to maintain the version match. If you upgrade to the latest version of BMC Server Automation and you are using BMC Server Automation for virtual environments, you must immediately update the RSCD agent on the system used for the integration and add the new configuration object version for the integration. For example, for the vCenter server, you must upgrade the RSCD agent on either the Windows vCenter server or the AMO proxy and add the new VMware configuration object to the vCenter server object in BMC Server Automation. To ensure that all configuration-object-based assets within existing content are upgraded, run an Upgrade Model Objects Job that targets any component templates, BLPackages, Snapshot Jobs, or Audit jobs that you want to upgrade. For more information about the Upgrade Model Objects Job, see Creating or modifying Upgrade Model Objects Jobs. Note: Do not run the Upgrade Model Objects Job against the copies of objects that you created in step 3. If you open an existing component template, BLPackage, Snapshot Job, or Audit Job that references a custom configuration object and a later version of that custom configuration object exists, the system displays a message saying it will automatically upgrade the referenced custom configuration object. To maintain a version match with an earlier agent, close the component template, BLPackage, Snapshot Job, or Audit Job without saving. After executing the Upgrade Model Objects Job, display the results of the job run to see which assets were successfully upgraded and which were not. If you find that certain assets were not automatically upgraded, you must upgrade them manually. Perform the following steps: Open the object (template, package, or job). Manually remove the asset of the earlier version and add the asset of the latest version. Save the object. Related topics: Upgrading custom configuration objects Creating or modifying Upgrade Model Objects Jobs
Upgrade Compliance Content.	Perform an over-the-top installation of the new Compliance Content add-ons. You can perform this step anytime after the upgrade. Related topic: Installing and configuring Compliance Content add-ons