Preparing for upgrade

When you run the BMC Network Automation installer on a computer that already has an existing installation of BMC Network Automation on it, the Welcome panel displays a message which indicates that the installer will guide you through the upgrade of BMC Network Automation.

You cannot change the type of installation on the computer. If an installation of BMC Network Automation application server was previously successful on the computer, only an upgrade is possible. Likewise, if an installation of BMC Network Automation remote device agent was previously successful, only a remote device agent upgrade is possible.

The following sections describe how to prepare for an upgrade of the BMC Network Automation product:

Verify supported upgrade paths

You can upgrade to version 8.8.00 from versions 8.3.x, 8.5.x, 8.6.x, or, 8.7.00 as shown in the following diagram. Ensure that you are upgrading from one of the these versions.

SupportedUpgradePaths8800.png

Note

If you are upgrading to version 8.8.00 from a version earlier than 8.3.x, first upgrade to one of the following versions, and then upgrade to version 8.8.00. Use the corresponding documentation links to perform the pre-upgrade, upgrade, and post-upgrade tasks for these versions.

Back up data

Back up the following entities in BMC Network Automation before you upgrade:

  • BMC Network Automation database: Ensure that the BMC Network Automation operational data is preserved. Although the application server backs up the local databases, BMC strongly recommends that you make a separate backup and store it on a separate computer, or backup media, before you run the BMC Network Automation installer to perform the upgrade.
  • The properties files located in the BCAN_DATA directory if you have customized them
  • The server.xml and catalina.properties files located in the BCAN_HOME\tomcat\conf directory
  • Any external scripts located in BCAN_DATA\endorsed directory if you have customized them

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Review general upgrade considerations

Consider the following when you upgrade to BMC Network Automation version 8.8.00:

  • (Windows only) If you are upgrading to 8.8.00 or an earlier version and you are using the TFTP server provided with BMC Network Automation, ensure that the Startup type for the BCA-Networks TFTP Server service is not set to Disabled.
  • If a dynamic field named VRF (irrespective of the case) exists, BMC Network Automation does not create a new dynamic field, and leaves the existing one as is. This is true for all device types.
  • For a fresh installation, BMC Network Automation creates a dynamic field named VRF applicable to the Cisco IOS XR Router and Cisco Nexus device types. The default value of this field is management.

  • To handle XSS attacks, version 8.8.00 of BMC Network Automation includes an optional filter that restricts certain characters and patterns from being included in the HTTP request from a user. If the filter detects these characters or patterns in the request, BMC Network Automation denies the response to the request and generates an error message. You can configure this filter to restrict various characters and patterns by setting a few properties in the global.properties file. 

    Note

    When you upgrade to version 8.8.00, certain characters and patterns are restricted by default. Configure properties in the global.properties file after upgrade according to your requirements. For more information, see Handling the XSS attacks.

  • If you are upgrading to BMC Network Automation version 8.6.x or later from version 8.5.x and if you have any containers with the Fully Released For Deprovision state, deprovision them before starting the upgrade. Containers with this state are not updated during upgrade. For details, see the KB article.
  • In version 8.7.00, the Cisco 4400/2100 Wireless LAN Controller device adapter has been renamed to Cisco Wireless LAN Controller and the Cisco Nexus Switch device adapter has been renamed to Cisco Nexus. As a result, before you upgrade, ensure that you do not have custom device adapters with the following names, Cisco Wireless LAN Controller and Cisco Nexus. Otherwise, upgrade fails with an error message similar to the following: Duplicate unique value [Cisco Nexus] declared for identity constraint "deviceTypeNameUnique" of element "deviceTypeMap".
  • The following device-related purging options are moved from system parameters to individual existing realms. If you had not enabled a purging option before the upgrade, then after the upgrade the values for that purge option will be empty.
    • Purge Offline Devices After
    • Purge Historical Hardware Inventories After
    • Purge Historical Hardware Inventories After the Count Exceeds
    • Purge Historical Configurations After
    • Purge Historical Configurations After the Count Exceeds

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Review application server upgrade considerations

Consider the following when you upgrade the application server:

  • You can modify the Certificate Information, Authentication Type, Memory and System options.
  • You can enable integration with BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management (if not already enabled) or import the CSM artifacts. If the integration is already enabled and you choose to import the latest CSM artifacts, BMC Network Automation imports the content from the following folders (present in the BCAN_HOME/public/bmc/bca-networks/csm folder): samples > sample, compact 2.1, and large-2.3. If any of the existing blueprints in your environment has the same name as the blueprint present in these folders, that blueprint is overwritten during upgrade.     
  • You cannot enable integration with Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) database, BMC Atrium Orchestrator, or BMC Atrium CMDB during upgrade. However, you can enable these integrations after upgrade by editing system parameters. For more information, see Managing system parameters.
  • The parameters that you entered in your previous installation are displayed as defaults.
  • In order to support FIPS 140-2, the SSH1 access mode is no longer supported for BMC Network Automation device adapters. If any of the device adapters in your environment use SSH1 to access a device, you must select another supported access mode for the device adapter, or upgrade the OS of the device to a version that use one of the currently supported access modes. For example:
    • If your environment includes Cisco VPN 3000 Concentrators, and your device adapters use SSH1 as the access mode, you must change the access mode to Telnet.
    • If you choose to upgrade the OS on the device, this must be done before you upgrade to BMC Network Automation 8.8.00. For a list of the currently supported OS versions for each device, see Supported-devices.
  •  You must upgrade the OS version for the following device types, if your device meets the identified criteria:
    • Cisco CatOS Switch: Upgrade if the version of CatOS you are running does not support SSH2, such as the WS-C4003 running COS 7.4(1).
    • Juniper WX Application Accelerators: Upgrade if you are running a version of JunOS prior to version 5.5.

  • If your BMC Network Automation version 8.2.x system uses a PKCS12 type of keystore, and you are upgrading to version 8.8 from 8.2.x via the supported upgrade paths, you must convert the keystore before upgrading to version 8.8.00.

    Click here to view the steps to convert the PKCS12 keystore.

    1. Convert the existing pkcs keystore to jks type and save that in a file specified by -destkeystore argument (destination-jks-keystore-file-name in the following command):

      keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore <pkcs-keystore-file> -srcstoretype pkcs12  -destkeystore <destination-jks-keystore-file-name> -deststoretype jks   -srcprovidername SunJSSE -destprovidername SUN

      This command will prompt for the src keystore password and destination keystore password.

    2. Use the destination-jks-keystore-file-name created in Step 1 to create a PKCS 12 keystore which can be read by BMC Network Automation version 8.8. The PKCS12 keystore will be saved in the file specified by the -destkeystore argument (pkcs-keystore-file in the following command)

      keytool -importkeystore -destkeystore <pkcs-keystore-file> -srcstoretype jks  -srckeystore <destination-jks-keystore-file-name> -deststoretype pkcs12

      This command will prompt for the src keystore password and destination keystore password. The src keystore password in this step is the destination keystore password specified in the previous step. The destination keystore password in this step should be the keystore password of the original keystore so that the password remains the same.

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Review the remote device agent upgrade considerations

Consider the following when you upgrade a remote device agent:

  • If you are upgrading the BMC Network Automation application server, you must also upgrade all remote device agents to the current version.
  • You cannot modify the installation directory location. You can change any of the other parameters.
  • The parameters you entered in your previous installation are displayed as defaults.

Review the database consideration

Disable database compression prior to upgrading because BMC Network Automation does not support it.

Upgrading from versions earlier than 8.3.01 HF#5 to 8.8.00

When you upgrade to BMC Network Automation 8.8.00 from versions earlier than 8.3.01 HF#5, if you had created a LB pool in which the Client VLAN was different from the VIPSegment VLAN, then after upgrade the removePool() action for such an LB pool might fail for the CISCO ACE load balancer. In such a case, you must delete the LB pool from the device manually.

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Where to go from here

Performing-the-upgrade

Related topic

Downloading-the-installation-files

 

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