Upgrading a PXE server on Windows

This topic provides instructions for using the component-level installer to upgrade on Windows. To upgrade the PXE server as part of a complete environment upgrade, see Upgrading on Linux using the unified product installer.

This topic includes the following sections:

Before you begin

• To perform the upgrade of the PXE server, you must have local Administrator privileges.
• If you are upgrading a remote PXE server, upgrade the RSCD agent before you start the PXE upgrade. The product versions must match. 

• If the PXE server is installed on an operating system that differs from the operating system on the Application Server where you run the installation, you cannot use the unified product installer to upgrade the PXE server. However, you can use the unified product installer to upgrade the other product components, and can then run the PXE server component installer (as described on the current page). In such a scenario, perform the following steps before you begin the PXE server upgrade:

  1. Stop the PXE server / TFTP server.
  2. 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 PXE server.
• All configuration data in BMC Server Automation must be copied to the database. This step is performed automatically by the unified product installer. If you use the individual component installers for upgrade, you must run the configurator on all PXE servers in your BMC Server Automation environment before you upgrade the servers using the individual component installers. See Migrating the database and persisting configuration data to the database.
• Ensure that NSH is installed on the Windows PXE Server. 
• If you are using Windows Terminal Services or Citrix Presentation Server to install or if you are installing on Windows 2003 or 2008, you must either:
  • Install in Install mode rather than Execute mode. For information, see Using Install mode instead of Execute mode.
    or
  • Install using the Windows Add or Remove Programs utility.

• On 64-bit Windows systems, confirm that the <WINDIR>\SysWOW64 directory contains a copy of the chcp.com file. The installer uses this file to set the code page of standard output (stdout). You can obtain the file from a 32-bit version of Windows. 

To upgrade a PXE server on Windows

1.  Record the following settings for the PXE server:
   • Installation directory
   • Database connectivity information
     The PXE server uses the same database as the Application Server. One way to obtain this information is to start the Application Server Administration Console (also known as the blasadmin utility) and enter the following command:
     show database all
   • Host name and IP address of the PXE server
   • DHCP server location (local or remote)
   • TFTP root directory
     You do not have to record the name and location of the data store.
   • If the Multi-Database mode is being used, make a note of the additional database configuration parameters found in the <install directory>\PXE\br\deployments\_pxe\pxe-data-sources.xml file.
2. Make a backup copy of configuration files.
   If you are using the pxe.conf configuration override file, make a copy of the <install directory>\PXE\br\pxe.conf file.
   
3. Uninstall the PXE server.
4. Install the latest version of the PXE server (PXE<version>-<platform>.exe).
   During installation, ensure that you provide information that matches the settings that you recorded from the previous version, especially the following settings:
   
   • Database configuration settings, including Multi-Database mode settings
   • Any pxe.conf settings that you want to apply during installation
   For more information, see Installing the PXE server (Windows). 
5. To complete the upgrade to your installation, click Finish.
6. During the upgrade process, the PXE server global.properties file is overwritten. Copy the global.properties file on the Application Server to the br\deployments directory on the PXE machine.
7. Restart the PXE server. See Starting and stopping a PXE server.
   

Where to go from here

Upgrade the other BMC Server Automation Application Servers, consoles, RSCD agents, and other components in your enterprise (including on any file servers or virtual servers).  See:

Upgrading the Network Shell on Windows

Upgrading RSCD agents on Windows

Upgrading the Network Shell on Linux and UNIX

Upgrading the RSCD agent on Linux and UNIX

Upgrading the file server.

All configuration data in BMC Server Automation must be copied to the database.