Upgrading

This section provides information about upgrading the BMC Client Management product on all supported platforms. The platform upgrade sections also contain instructions for performing any necessary preinstallation and post-upgrade procedures. 

This topic includes:

• • Before you begin
  • Upgrade considerations
  • Upgrading stages
  • Supported upgrade paths

Before you begin

• If you are updating from BMC Client Management 12.0 or earlier using the automatic upgrade procedure for your agents and you are using the operating system deployment (OSD) functionality of BMC Client Management, you should first refer to Considerations-when-upgrading-OSD-to-version-12-1-and-later before you start the upgrade. The OSD functionality has undergone major changes in BMC Client Management 12.1 release that might impact your way of working, and you might consider not to automatically upgrade your OSD Manager devices to the new version, or execute some specific actions on these before proceeding with the upgrade.
• If you have an OnDemand installation and your system is properly set up, all BMC Client Management components should be automatically upgraded.
• Make sure you have a valid license for your upgrade to the current version. Your current license continues to work for 30 days after the upgrade. You can download your new license from your support profile on our website, or by contacting Technical Support.
• If you are currently using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 to access the agent interface, you can no longer display the graphics of these pages. You must upgrade to a newer browser. For more information, see System-requirements.

Upgrade considerations

The following notices relate to the replacement of ExpressMetrix software catalog with the Flexera software catalog:

• ExpressMetrix applications cannot be mapped with Flexera applications. After the master server is upgraded the Software Catalog inventory is purged to the BCM database.
• If you are using the BMC Atrium CMDB integration:
  • During the first import in the CMDB after master server is upgraded, all applications are regarded as new.
  • Customers need to launch the  Delete Software job to delete the old entries, then the Reconciliation & Merge job and finally the Purge job.
• After an upgrade the existing application lists with Catalog objects are automatically updated with the new Custom Applications. 
  You must manually update the Licensed Software linked to Software Catalog.
• With the new software catalog, applications lists are now restricted only to Client Management objects. Catalog objects are no longer supported. For more information about application lists, see updates to Managing-applications.
• The suites have been removed from software catalog. It is possible to replace them with another item: application or license via a tool that can be launched from console dashboard or from Software catalog node.

Upgrading stages

The following table provides links to relevant topics in the stages of the upgrade process:

The upgrade process can be summarized as the following steps:

Supported upgrade paths

If you are upgrading your agents manually, ensure that you always upgrade your master first, and then the agents. An agent cannot communicate with a master that is of an earlier version than the agent.