This documentation supports the 19.08 version of Remedy and applies only to the on-premises deployment model.

To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.


Applying a deployment package

You can upgrade Remedy applications such as BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM), BMC Service Request Management (SRM), and BMC Service Level Management (SLM) from the previous version to the latest version by using deployment packages. This approach results in a significantly faster and easier upgrade.

To perform a fresh installation of Remedy applications or to upgrade from earlier Remedy application versions (for example, 8.1, 9.0, or 9.1), you must first install or upgrade the applications to the version 18.05 (by using the 18.05 application installers) and then apply the latest deployment packages.

A user with the AR System administrator permission or a Package Deployer role can upgrade Remedy applications by using a relevant deployment package. A deployment package contains data, object definitions, and binary files. You can deploy a package in your environment by using the AR System Deployment Management console and promote data and definitions effectively and reliably across all servers in a server group. 

Package deployment workflow

The following graphic displays the workflow of the package deployment process:

Before you begin

Ensure the following pre-checks are met before you deploy a package:

  • You cannot import a package to apply a patch or hotfix on your system if you have Remedy Encryption Security installed.
    If your base system has Remedy Encryption Security installed, disable the Remedy Encryption Security before importing or deploying a package. You can enable the Remedy Encryption Security again after deploying a package.

  • The Remedy platform (AR System Server, BMC CMDB, and Atrium Integrator Server) is upgraded. For more information, see Upgrading the platform

  • The Remedy applications (Remedy IT Service Management, BMC Service Request Management, BMC Service Level Management) are upgraded to version 18.05. For more information, see Upgrading the applications.

  • In a server group, the Remedy applications (Remedy IT Service Management, BMC Service Request Management, BMC Service Level Management) are upgraded to version 18.05 on every server in the group.
  • Disable the Preload action from the Cache Settings page in the Mid Tier Configuration Tool. See Cache setting parameters Open link in the BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.
    If the Preload action is enabled, you must disable the Preload action on the mid tier servers that point to the server where you plan to deploy the package. You need not enable the Preload action after deployment.

  • Ensure that the plug-in heap size is three times more than the deployment package size to avoid package import errors. If the heap size is less than 1.5 GB, increase the heap size on all the servers in the server group. The minimum plug-in heap size required is 1.5 GB for a package of size more than 300 MB. If you have multiple plug-in servers, update the heap size on the plug-in server where you want to deploy the package and where the AR Migrate plug-in is installed.

    To update the heap size, open the armonitor.conf file and update the -Xmx value and restart the plug-in server. For example:

    "%BMC_JAVA_HOME%\java" -Xmx1024m "C:\BMCData\ARSystem\pluginsvr;C:\BMCData\ARSystem\pluginsvr\arpluginsvr91_build005.jar;
    C:\BMCData\ARSystem\arserver\api\lib\arcmnapp91_build005.jar" com.bmc.arsys.pluginsvr.ARPluginServerMain
    -x localhost -i "C:\BMCData\ARSystem" -m

  • Check the JAVA_HOME path and update the JAVA_HOME environment variable with the latest Java path, if not updated.

  • Ensure that the Tomcat heap size is set to 3072 MB to avoid attachment errors. For more details on setting the heap size, see Preparing your web server.

  • In the ARSystemServerInstallDir\Conf folder, verify the following:
    • The armonitor.cfg file contains an entry of arfiledeployer plugin.


    • The arpluginsvr_config.xml file contains an entry of ARSYS.ARF.ARMIGRATE plugin along with all required path elements.


    • The ar.cfg file contains an entry of  Server-Plugin-Alias for ARSYS.ARF.ARMIGRATE plugin.

  • Check whether the AR System Monitor form contains one entry with correct hostname for each monitor type. Delete any incorrect or duplicate entry.
  • Check whether the Monitor ID from the AR System Monitor form is similar to the entry present in the monitor-ARServer-guid.properties file.
    AR System Monitor form:


    monitor-ARServer-guid.properties 
    file:


  • Check the ranking order for the components. Set the ranking order as follows: 

    • Rank 1 for admin server

    • Rank 2 for integration server

    • Last ranks for the user-facing servers 
      Preference is given to the highest ranking server when deploying payloads on that server. For more information, see  Setting the component ranking order before deploying a binary payload Open link in BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.

  • When a package contains binaries, you can deploy the binary payload automatically by setting the filedeployer.localDeploymentRequired parameter to false in the deployConfig.properties file. 

    The deployConfig.properties file is located in the following folder:

    - (Windows): /ARinstallDirectory

    - (UNIX): /ARSystem/bin

    Only an administrator user with permissions to access the file system can change the setting. Note that this will restart the servers automatically multiple times. For more information, see Run the payload deployment utility.

  • Before you deploy Live Chat deployment package, you must do the following:

    • Go to MidTierInstallDirectory/midtier/filedeployer/deployconfig.properties and set filedeployer.localDeploymentRequired=false

    • Go to MidTierInstallDirectory/midtier/filedeployer/conf/armonitor.conf and add the following: 

      Environment-variable: WEBSERVER_DEPLOYMENT_DIRECTORY=<Tomcat 7.0 installation directory>. For example:

      Environment-variable:WEBSERVER_DEPLOYMENT_DIRECTORY=/opt/apache/tomcat7.0

    •  Restart the Mid Tier file deployer service.

Applying a package to upgrade Remedy applications

A user with AR System administrator permission or a Package Deployer role can upgrade Remedy applications by performing the following tasks:

TaskActionAdditional information
1Download the deployment package from EPDBefore you start deploying a package, download the relevant deployment package from the Electronic Product Distribution (EPD) site.
2Import the package

A deployment package is a ZIP file. Import the package without extracting the ZIP file.

If you need to extract the file for troubleshooting, you must use the 7-Zip utility to extract the contents of the ZIP file.

3Deploy the package

Deploy the relevant package to upgrade Remedy applications.

Best practice

If a package deployment fails, we recommend that you rollback the package, fix the cause of the failure, and then import and deploy the package. Do not fix the errors manually. See Troubleshooting package deployment issues.

4(Optional) Rollback the packageIf an issue occurs during the validation of the package, or if an error occurs while deploying the package, you can restore the applications on your server to the pre-deployment state. 


To import a package

  1. Log in to Mid Tier as an administrator or a package deployer user by using the following URL:
    http://<midTierServerName>:<port number>/arsys

  2. From the IT Home page, select Applications > AR System Administration AR System Deployment Management Console.

  3. In the Deployment Management Console, perform the following actions:
    1. Select Transfer Package > Import.

    2. In the Add Attachment dialog box, click Choose File to navigate to the folder that has the downloaded EPD package (ITSM, SRM, or SLM).
    3. Select the package that you want to import, and then click OK.
      The Status column shows the status as Importing until the package contents are completely imported. If the status shows Importing for more than 10 seconds, click Refresh to view the updated status.

      When the package has been successfully imported, the entry of the package is listed in the AR System Deployment Management Console and the package status changes to Ready to Deploy

To deploy a package

In a server group, you can upgrade Remedy applications sequentially on one server after the other or if you have a large server group implementation, you can speed up the upgrade process by deploying a package simultaneously across a server group.

To upgrade the Remedy applications, deploy the packages in the following sequence:

  1. Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM)
  2. BMC Service Request Management (SRM)
  3. BMC Service Level Management (SLM)

The AR System administrator or a Package Deployer performs the following steps to deploy the package in an environment:

  1. Log in to Mid Tier as an administrator or a package deployer user by using the following URL: 
    http://<midTierServerName>:<port number>/arsys/

  2. From the IT Home page, select Applications > AR System Administration AR System Deployment Management Console.

  3. In the Deployment Management Console, perform the following actions:
    1. Click the package row that you have imported, and then select Operations > Deploy.

      The following message is displayed if the package contains binaries:
      This package includes files to be deployed/rollback. You can monitor the status of the file deployment/rollback by opening the package, selecting the item for file deployment and clicking on the "View Payload Status" button. (ARNOTE 10000) 
    2. In the message window, click OK.
    3. To view the package status, click Refresh.
      When the package is successfully deployed, the status of the package changes to Deployed.

If the package contains a Deployment Payload content type, you need to run the payload deployment utility.

To run the payload deployment utility

When you deploy a package in a server group, the ARX and DEF content types are processed on all the servers of the server group. However, if the package contains a Deployment Payload content type, you need to run the payload utility, which is processed according to the component ranking order. The higher the ranking, the higher is the preference given for processing the package on that server. For more information, see  Setting the component ranking order before deploying a binary payload Open link in BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.

A binary payload is deployed on all the servers automatically if the filedeployer.localDeploymentRequired parameter is set to false in the deployConfig.properties file. If the filedeployer.localDeploymentRequired parameter is set to true (default), you need to manually run the payload utility on all the servers in the server group.

The deployConfig.properties file is located in the following folder:

- (Windows): /ARinstallDirectory

- (UNIX): /ARSystem/bin

Only an administrator user with permissions to access the file system can change the setting.

The arpayloaddeploymentutil.bat (Windows) or arpayloaddeploymentutil.sh (UNIX) utility stops all the related components services for which the package is provided. After the package is successfully applied, the services are up automatically.

Make sure that your Primary or Admin server is not part of the auto deployment so that you can use that server to monitor the deployment status.

To run the payload deployment utility

  1. View the payload deployment status. Perform the following:
    1. Select the deployed package entry, and then select Manage Package > View.
      The AR System Deployment Management form opens.
    2. Select Deployment Payload from the table next to the Deployment Package Contents panel.
    3. Click View Payload Status.

    4. The AR System Single Point Deployment Status window opens displaying the list of server names in the Host Name column and the package deployment status in the Host Status column. 


    5. If a server's package deployment status shows the Waiting for Utility Run status, connect to the server and run the payload deployment utility. This utility needs to be run on all the servers that has Waiting for Utility Run status.
  2. Run the payload deployment utility, perform the following:
    1. On the server, set JAVA_HOME to point to the JRE top level folder.
    2. (UNIX) Ensure that the file deployer service is running. 
      • To start the service, from the /opt/bmc/ARSystem/midtier/filedeployer/ location, run the ./filedeployer.sh start command.
      • To stop the service, from the /opt/bmc/ARSystem/midtier/filedeployer/ location, run the ./filedeployer.sh stop command.
    3. Run the arpayloaddeploymentutil.bat (Windows) or arpayloaddeploymentutil.sh (UNIX) utility from the following location:

      1. (Windows): <installDirectory>\Program Files\BMC Software\ARSystem

      2. (UNIX): <installDirectory>/ARSystem/bin

    4. If the deployment status is Waiting for Utility Run on servers, repeat steps 2 and 3.
      After you run the utility, the package for BMC Remedy IT Service Management is successfully applied to your environment. 


      Depending on your operating system, the package content types compatible with your operating system are processed. Package entries that are not compatible with your operating system, are skipped from processing and are shown with a Skipped status. For example, if your operating system is Unix and if you deploy a package which has content type for Windows, the package processing is skipped for that server.

To deploy a package simultaneously across servers in a server group

In a large server group implementation, you can speed up the upgrade process by deploying a package simultaneously across a logical subset of servers.

Warning

Exercise caution when you perform a simultaneous package deployment because the entire server group might go down because all servers may be down at the same time.


  1. When the servers are in the Waiting for utility run state, run the arpayloadutil.bat or arpayloadutil.sh utility simultaneously on all the servers in the logical subset. You need not wait for the status on each server to change to Deployment Success.
  2. Set the same ranking for a logical subset of servers on the AR System Monitor form. Make sure that the admin server is not a part of this logical subset. For more information about setting monitor ranking see,  Setting the component ranking order Open link
  3. Deploy the package.

Refer to the following screen for information about the AR System Monitor form displaying monitor registration for a cluster of servers:

Rolling back a package

If an issue occurs during the validation of the package, or if an error occurs while deploying the package, you can restore the objects on your server to the pre-deployment state. BMC does not recommend to roll back a package that was successfully deployed.

Roll back the packages in the following sequence: 

  1. BMC Service Level Management
  2. BMC Service Request Management
  3. BMC Remedy IT Service Management 

To roll back a package

The AR System administrator or a Package Deployer performs the following steps to roll back a package:

  1. Log in to Mid Tier by using the following URL: 
    http://<midTierServer>:<port number>/arsys/

  2. From the IT Home page, select Applications > AR System Administration AR System Deployment Management Console.

  3. In the Deployment Management Console, perform the following actions:
    1. Select the package that has Deployed with Error status.
    2. Select Operations > Rollback.
    3. In the confirmation dialog box that is displayed, click Yes.
    4. (Optional) Click Refresh
      The State of the package changes from Rolling back to Rolled back.
      If a package contains binary files, the state of the package is shown as Pending Rollback.

    5. To view the payload deployment status for a package containing binary files, perform the following steps:
      1. Select the deployed package entry and click Manage Package > View.
        The AR System Deployment Management form opens.
      2. Select Deployment Payload from the table next to the Deployment Package Contents panel.
      3. The Deployment Payload status is shown as Rollback Pending.
      4. Click the View Payload Status button.

        A table that shows the status of the package on all the servers in a server group is displayed. 


      5. Connect to the server that has the Wait for Utility Run status and run the payload utility.
      6. Repeat steps from i to v on all the servers of a server group from where you want to roll back the package.
        After the payload utility is run, the package starts rolling back. You can view the package status on the main AR System Deployment Management Console. If the state changes to Rolled Back, it means that the package rollback is successful. 

Simultaneous package rollback

You can also perform a simultaneous rollback for all the packages in a logical sub group. Peform the below steps to start a parallel package rollback:

  1. Set the same ranking for a logical subset of servers on the AR System Monitor form. 
  2. In the AR System Deployment Management console, select a package.
  3. Click Rollback
  4. At the command prompt, run the arpayloadutil.bat or arpayloadutil.sh utility

All servers in a cluster are rolled back to the previous state.

Package rollback criteria

Rollback validation helps you to avoid accidental rollback. BMC offers the following conditions for a package rollback:

  • You can rollback a package within 48 hours of a successful package deployment. You can configure a maximum 168 hours. 
    Use the D2P-Rollback-Timeout-Interval parameter in the Centralized Configuration to configure the limit for rollback. For more information about the D2P-Rollback-Timeout-Interval parameter see,  D2P-Rollback-Timeout-Interval Open link in Remedy AR System online documenation.
  • You can rollback only the last deployed package.

BMC_DEPLOYMENT_PACKAGES folder

The BMC_DEPLOYMENT_PACKAGES folder is automatically created on the target server when a package deployment or rollback operation is triggered from the AR System Deployment Management console. The folder is created at the following location:
<Install directory> \BMC Software\ARSystem\Arserver\Db\BMC_DEPLOYMENT_PACKAGES

This folder is a temporary working directory. You can safely delete this folder or the contents of this folder after successful package deployment or rollback on all the servers. Do NOT delete this folder or the contents of this folder when the package deployment or rollback is in progress.

Viewing the package deployment logs

You can check the following log files to view the package deployment status or any related errors. For more information, see Troubleshooting package deployment issues.

ComponentLocation
  • BMC Remedy IT Service Management
  • BMC Service Request Management
  • BMC Service Level Management

To check the payload deployment status, see the following log file:

  • (Windows) <InstallDirectory>/Arserver/db/arfiledeployer.log 
  • (UNIX) <InstallDirectory>/db/arfiledeployer.log

To check the server version after deploying the package and payload logs, see the following log files:

  • (Windows) <InstallDirectory>/Arserver/Db/ard2pplugin.log
  • (UNIX) <InstallDirectory>/db/ard2pplugin.log

  • (Windows) <InstallDirectory>/Arserver/Db/arjavaplugin.log
  • (UNIX) <InstallDirectory>/db/arjavaplugin.log

Post deployment tasks

  • If you have customized any out-of-the-box objects, you need to reconcile the customizations. Use three-way reconciliation in Developer Studio to reconcile the objects if overlays exist for any of the objects that were updated. For more information, see  Reconciling Workflow Objects Open link in BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.
  • Clear plug-ins cache from the Cache Settings page in the Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
    See  Cache setting parameters Open link in the BMC Remedy AR System online documentation. 

    Note

    Whenever AR System server successfully applies a deployment package, the Mid Tier receives a notification and can sync the cache automatically. For more information, see Using the cache sync option Open link in the BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.

  • (Optional) If needed, you may reset the heap size to its previous value and restart the plug-in server. 

Related topics

Troubleshooting package deployment issues

Creating and deploying a binary payload Open link in BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.

Creating and deploying a package Open link in BMC Remedy AR System online documentation.

(Optional) If you have customizations, create a snapshot for reconciliation. Capture a snapshot of your application objects. For instructions, see Capturing a snapshot of server application objects.

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