Preparing for upgrade

This topic provides instructions for preparing to upgrade the BMC Server Automation system, in particular the Application Servers. When you upgrade the Application Server, you also generate many of the files needed to migrate data.

Before you begin

If BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation is installed in your BMC Server Automation system, ensure that the version of BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation is compatible with the version of BMC Server Automation to which you are upgrading. For a list of supported BMC Server Automation versions, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Release Notes.

To prepare for upgrade

1. Shut down the BMC Server Automation environment:
   1. Stop the Application Server. See Starting-stopping-and-restarting-Application-Servers.
   2. Stop the PXE server. See Starting-and-stopping-a-PXE-server.

2. Back up the installation directories for all Application Servers and PXE servers. The default installation locations are as listed in the following table.

   Note

   • Different versions of BMC Server Automation have different default directories. Also, the user who installed the earlier version of the product might have changed the installation directory.
   • BMC recommends backing up all subdirectories of /usr/nsh for versions of BMC Server Automation earlier than 8.2. Configuration files are found in many subdirectories.
   • If you are upgrading the PXE server, follow the upgrade instructions for Windows or UNIX, to prevent loss of configuration settings.

   BMC Server Automation component

   Version

   Default location

   Microsoft Windows

   Linux and UNIX

   Application Server

   8.1

   C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\8.1\NSH

   /opt/bmc/BladeLogic/8.1/NSH

   8.0

   C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\8.0\NSH

   /opt/bmc/BladeLogic/8.0/NSH

   7.6

   C:\Program Files\BMC BladeLogic\OM

   /usr/nsh

   PXE Server

   8.1

   C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\8.1\PXE

   /opt/bmc/BladeLogic/8.1/NSH

   8.0

   C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\8.0\PXE

   /opt/bmc/BladeLogic/8.0/NSH

   7.6

   C:\Program Files\BladeLogic\PXE

   /usr/nsh

   Note

   If you have upgraded from previous versions, the paths might be different. For example:

   • (Linux or UNIX) If your BMC Server Automation system was version 7.6 and now is version 8.1, your installation path would be /usr/nsh/NSH/. If you do not know the installation location for BMC Server Automation components on Linux or UNIX, view the contents of the /usr/lib/rsc/HOME file.
   • (Windows) In BMC Server Automation version 7.6, the installation directory was C:\program files\BMC BladeLogic\OM. In version 8.1, it was C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\8.1\NSH. If you do not know the installation location for BMC Server Automation components on Windows, view the contents of the %WINDIR%\rsc\HOME file.
3. Back up the BMC Server Automation file server storage location. For example, copy the entire contents of the storage location to a directory other than the current storage location.

Where to go from here

Upgrade one or more Application Servers in your BMC Server Automation system. See Upgrading-the-Application-Server-on-Windows and Upgrading-the-Application-Server-on-Linux-and-UNIX.