Migrating the database and persisting configuration data to the database
BMC Server Automation requires all configuration data to be copied on the database. This step is performed automatically by the unified product installer. However, if you use the individual component installers for upgrade, you will have to perform this step by running the configurator utility.
The configurator performs a database migration and then persists configuration data into the database. You must run the configurator on all Application Servers and PXE servers in your BMC Server Automation environment before you upgrade the servers using the individual component installers.
Note
In the case of a Multiple Application Server (MAS) environment, perform this task on at least one Application Server if the MAS setup is on a platform other than Windows 64-bit and Linux 64-bit, so that the database migration/upgrade is successful.
Perform this task first on an Application Server (preferably an Application Server configured as a configuration server), and then on the PXE servers.
Before you begin
Before running the configurator utility on an Application server or a PXE server, to migrate configuration data to the database, ensure the following:
- The configurator utility must be run by a super user, that is, a local Administrator or Administrator-equivalent local user.
- If you have a high security level enabled in your BMC Server Automation installation, the configurator utility cannot copy the configuration data through the RSCD Agent on the remote host computers. Before upgrading, you must temporarily adjust the security level on the machines where you want to upgrade the Application Servers. After the upgrade, remember to re-adjust your security settings, based on your unique needs and the IT security policies at your organization. For more information on defining the security level, see Security planning.
- Stop any application server, spawner, or PXE server that is running on this machine.
Ensure that NSH is installed on all the PXE servers on which you intend to run the configurator utility.
Ensure that the RSCD agent service is running on this machine. See RSCD Agent Troubleshooting, to resolve any issues with the RSCD agent.
- You must disable the use of client-side certificates that secure access between Application Servers and agents or repeaters before you upgrade using the unified product installer. For more information, see TLS with client-side certs - Discontinuing use of client-side certificates.
- If you have installed the Application Server on Linux using the
-localoption, you must set the NSHDIR environment variable before running the configurator utility. For more information, see Installing components in non-default installation paths using the local flag.
Use the following command to set the NSHDIR variable:export NSHDIR=<AppserverInstallationPath>/NSH
where,<AppserverInstallationPath>is the path where the Application Server has been installed using the-localoption.
For example,export NSHDIR=/opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH
Limitations
Note that the configurator will not run successfully in either of the following cases:
- RSCD agent is running an expired license.
Network Shell is configured to run in proxy mode and communicates only with the NSH proxy server.
To run the Windows configurator utility
To run the configurator utility, you must use the unified product installer package for Windows and perform the following steps. Ensure that you have shut down all Application Servers and PXE servers before you proceed with the following steps. Perform these steps on each and every Application Server and PXE server to copy the data from blasadmin into the database.
Using interactive installation with the GUI
Download and extract the Windows installation package for the operating system level and hardware platform in a <temporary directory> on the Application Server or PXE server. The package follows the naming convention BBSA<version>-<platform>.zip, and contains the unified product installation program files.
Navigate to the
<temporary location>directory containing installation files.Run the setup.exe installation file with the
STATELESSoption. The–J STATELESS_ONLY=trueoption is necessary only for a 64-bit platform. It is not necessary for a 32-bit platform.
For example:setup.exe -J STATELESS_ONLY=trueFollow the instructions in the installation wizard to persist the configuration data to the database. After this process completes, you can upgrade BMC BladeLogic Server Automation using the individual component installer. For more information, see Upgrading using individual component installers.
Note
Start the Application Servers and PXE Servers only after you have upgraded the individual BMC BladeLogic Server Automation components.
Using silent installation
Download and extract the Windows installation package for the operating system level and hardware platform in a <temporary directory> on the Application Server or PXE server. The package follows the naming convention BBSA<version>-<platform>.zip, and contains the unified product installation program files.
Navigate to the
<temporary location>directory containing installation files.Run the setup.exe installation file in silent mode with the
STATELESSoption. The–J STATELESS_ONLY=trueoption is necessary only for a 64-bit platform. It is not necessary for a 32-bit platform.In a text editor, create an options.txt file that contains the following line:
–J STATELESS_ONLY=trueRun the following command from the
<temporary location>directory that contains the installation files:setup.exe -i silent -DOPTIONS_FILE=<full path to options file>
After this process completes, you can upgrade BMC BladeLogic Server Automation using the silent mode. For more information, see Upgrading silently using the unified product installer.
Note
Start the Application Servers and PXE Servers only after you have upgraded the individual BMC BladeLogic Server Automation components.
To run the Linux configurator utility
To run the configurator utility, you must use the unified product installer package for Linux and perform the following steps. Ensure that you have shut down all Application Servers and PXE servers before you proceed with the following steps. Perform these steps on each and every Application Server and PXE server to copy the data from blasadmin into the database.
Using interactive installation with the GUI
Download and extract the Linux installation package for the operating system level and hardware platform in a <temporary directory> on the Application Server or PXE server. The package follows the naming convention BBSA<version>-<platform>.zip, and contains the unified product installation program files.
On a Linux or UNIX machine, you must assign executable permissions to the installation files that you unzipped, by entering the following command.
chmod +x -R <temporary directory>Navigate to the
<temporary location>directory containing installation files.Note
For Linux and UNIX, you must execute the installation as a root user. Do not execute the installation file from a non-root account.Run the setup.bin installation file with the
STATELESSoption. The–J STATELESS_ONLY=trueoption is necessary only for a 64-bit platform. It is not necessary for a 32-bit platform.
For example:
./setup.bin -J STATELESS_ONLY=trueFollow the instructions in the installation wizard to persist the configuration data to the database. After this process completes, you can upgrade BMC BladeLogic Server Automation using the individual component installer. For more information, see Upgrading using individual component installers.
Note
Start the Application Servers and PXE Servers only after you have upgraded the individual BMC BladeLogic Server Automation components.
Using silent installation
Download and extract the Linux installation package for the operating system level and hardware platform in a <temporary directory> on the Application Server or PXE server. The package follows the naming convention BBSA<version>-<platform>.zip, and contains the unified product installation program files.
On a Linux or UNIX machine, you must assign executable permissions to the installation files that you unzipped, by entering the following command.
chmod +x -R <temporary directory>Navigate to the
<temporary location>directory containing installation files.Note
For Linux and UNIX, you must execute the installation as a root user. Do not execute the installation file from a non-root account.Run the setup.bin installation file in silent mode with the
STATELESSoption. The–J STATELESS_ONLY=trueoption is necessary only for a 64-bit platform. It is not necessary for a 32-bit platform.In a text editor, create an options.txt file that contains the following line:
–J STATELESS_ONLY=trueRun the following command from the
<temporary location>directory that contains the installation files:.
/setup.bin -i silent -DOPTIONS_FILE=<full path to options file>
After this process completes, you can upgrade BMC BladeLogic Server Automation using the silent mode. For more information, see Upgrading silently using the unified product installer.
Note
Start the Application Servers and PXE Servers only after you have upgraded the individual BMC BladeLogic Server Automation components.
Comments
I think "recommends" it not accurate as this is not a "recommendation" but a "must" (as the next sentence clearifies).
Hi Reinhard,
Thank you for your review comments.
I'll start cleaning these up.
Sincerely,
John
Hi Reinhard,
OK, I found you some hard evidence. I ran the setup.bin command in my 8.8 environment precisely per the documentation and the stateless configuration started to work!
Here's the screenshot.
Admittedly, the migration then almost immediately failed due to a different issue that I don't quite understand. But this is Proof of Concept.
What do you think?
Sincerely,
John
PS Here's the error that killed the migration.
What if I use the silent installation? Are there any steps I could/should enter into the options file? Would be great to have these options here in place.
Is there any way other than the silent installation to run the configuration utility on a Linux-server not running a GUI (as nearly every standard Linux-server - at least every standard Linux-server I know)? If not, this should be mentioned under "Limitations".
For upgrading I could separate the Linux-x64-installer-package but to use the configuration utility, there are some dependencies not mentioned, that prevent using this tool by just copying setup.bin and setup.jar. That's annoying.
Reinhard,
I think part of the problem is the silent installation steps are buried in a bullet point.
I broke out the 2 sets of steps - the GUI interactive installation versus silent install.
That should make the steps easier to read.
We'll publish the public version on Monday.
John
Hi Reinhard,
Last comment today.
Do you want me to create an RFE for these last 3 implementation issues you raise? I'd be delighted to. They aren't really documentation issues per se.
Make sense?
John
The "configuration-utility" still needs the unpacked RSCD-binary-package. For NO reason...
So these seem to be needed:
setup.bin
setup.jar
files/jre
files/sql
files/_template
files/_launcher