Preparing to upgrade individual components on Microsoft Windows
This topic provides the information you need to prepare your environment for the upgrade process on Microsoft Windows systems using the individual component installers. It includes information about supported upgrade paths and instructions for preparing to upgrade the BMC Server Automation system.
The topic includes the following sections:
BDSSA upgrade requirement
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:
Upgrade overview
The following sections provide information about the latest builds and the supported upgrade paths.
Build information
Release | Build number | EPD version number | Release date |
---|---|---|---|
Patch 5 for version 8.7 | 8.7.00.306 | 8.7.00.005 | July 7, 2017 |
Patch 4 for version 8.7 | 8.7.00.295 | 8.7.00.004 | November 19, 2016 |
Patch 3 for version 8.7 | 8.7.00.280 | 8.7.00.003 | June 8, 2016 |
Patch 2 for version 8.7 | 8.7.00.263 | 8.7.00.002 | January 6, 2016 |
Patch 1 for version 8.7 | 8.7.00.256 | 8.7.00.001 | December 3, 2015 |
Base version 8.7 | 8.7.00.239 | 8.7.00 | September 15, 2015 |
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
Step 1: Review requirements and limitations
Prior to upgrading, it is important to carefully review the following requirements and limitations.
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: UpgradingIf 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 |
Supported platforms | For a complete list of platforms supported by the individual component installers, see: Supported platforms for individual component installers in Supported platforms for version 8.7 |
Install mode | If you are using Microsoft Windows 2003 or 2008, you must upgrade in Install mode instead of Execute mode, see Using Install mode instead of Execute mode. |
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 To upgrade virtualization configuration objects |
Potential issues | |
Step 2: Prepare the database
During an upgrade process, core data is migrated to the upgraded BMC Server Automation database. To ensure that this migration completes successfully, you must prepare your database before performing the upgrade. To prepare your database, review the following list of prerequisite tasks and perform the tasks that are relevant for your environment.
Task | Description |
---|---|
Back up the BMC Server Automation database. | You must back up before beginning the data upgrade process. The data upgrade occurs in place. If, for any reason, it should become impossible to complete the upgrade, the only way to |
(Oracle only) Checking for temp space (when upgrading from 8.3 or earlier only) | Note: If you are upgrading from version 8.5 or later, you do not need to perform this step. If you are upgrading from version 8.3 or earlier, you must first upgrade to the latest 8.5 or 8.6 service pack. Prior to this interim upgrade, you must ensure that your Oracle database has the free space required for successful data migration. To determine those requirements, use the sizing_8x_temp_undo.sql script provided by BMC Server Automation.For details see Determining sizing requirements for Oracle databases in the online technical documentation for BMC Server Automation version 8.5. (This task is not required if upgrading from version 8.5 or later). |
Remove unnecessary deployments | The migration process uses the database system ID information in the _template deployment to identify the database to migrate. In addition, Certain deployments are transitory and can be removed before an upgrade as they are not needed for normal operation.
|
Ensure that the database configuration information on the deployments of the Application Server is up-to-date | Before upgrading the Application Server, ensure that the database configuration information on the deployments of the You can use the blasadmin utility to check the database related and file server related information for each of the deployments (except _launcher). You can use the following blasadmin commands. If either of these commands returns an error, you can use the blasadmin utility to
If these commands return an error, use the blasadmin utility to correct the configuration so that those commands do not return an error. |
(Oracle only) Grant privileges explicitly to the user account | For an Oracle database, you must grant certain privileges explicitly to the user account (typically BLADELOGIC) that will be used during the upgrade. Some of the privileges can be revoked after database migration is performed during the upgrade. For the complete list, see List of required database permissions. |
Step 3: Prepare the automation environment
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 your connection to Microsoft SQL database is not encrypted. BMC Server Automation does not support using an encrypted Microsoft SQL database connection at the time of upgrade. However, after the product is upgraded successfully, BMC Server Automation can use an encrypted connection to communicate with the Microsoft SQL database.
- Shut down the BMC Server Automation environment:
- Stop the Application Server.
- Stop the PXE server. See Starting and stopping a PXE server.
Back up the installation directories for all Application Servers and PXE servers. 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 %WINDIR%\rsc\HOME file.
The default installation locations are:
- Application Server: C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\NSH
- PXE Server: C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\PXE
If you are upgrading the PXE server, follow the upgrade instructions for Windows or UNIX, to prevent loss of configuration settings.
Important
Ensure that all files and folders in the installation directory and its sub-directories do not have the read-only attribute enabled. The upgrade might fail, if the read-only attribute is enabled on any file.
Ensure that there is an RSCD agent installed on each Application Server to avoid potential errors in the upgrade process.
Ensure that there is an RSCD agent and NSH are installed on the PXE server.
- Make sure 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 theappserver_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
10. Ensure that MicrosoftVisual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3 is installed on the server. For more information, see Installing an RSCD agent (Windows).
Note
As a prerequisite to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3 on Windows 2012 R2, you must have the following patches installed on your server:
- KB2919442 - This patch is required for KB2919355.
- KB2919355 - This patch requires several other patches (clearcompressionflag.exe, KB2919355, KB2932046, KB2959977, KB2937592, KB2938439, and KB2934018). These are available on download KB2919355 page.
For more information about the prerequisites for Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3, refer to the Microsoft documentation here.
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