Upgrade sequence

The following steps provide a high-level description of the process for upgrading components of the BMC Server Automation system.

• Before you upgrade
• Upgrade sequence
• Considerations for custom configuration objects

Before you upgrade

• BMC strongly recommends that you back up the database before performing database migration and post-migration tasks.
• If your BMC Server Automation environment includes BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation, upgrade BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation before upgrading BMC Server Automation.
• For special considerations for your specific upgrade path, see Upgrade-considerations.
• Prepare the BMC Server Automation environment for upgrade. See Preparing-for-upgrade.
• If you are using Microsoft Windows 2003 or 2008, you must upgrade in Install mode instead of Execute mode, see Using-Install-mode-instead-of-Execute-mode.

Upgrade sequence

1. Upgrade at least one Application Server.

   Note

   Do not restart the Application Server until you complete the database migration.

   Additional upgrades that occur at this point depend on where the Application Server resides:

   • On a Microsoft Windows computer, an upgrade of the Application Server also upgrades the Network Shell. See Upgrading-the-Application-Server-on-Windows.
   • On a Linux or UNIX computer, an upgrade of the Application Server also upgrades all components that were installed as part of the earlier installation of the Application Server. These components can include the Network Shell, the RSCD agent, and the PXE server. See Upgrading-the-Application-Server-on-Linux-and-UNIX.
2. Upgrade at least one BMC Server Automation Console. See Upgrading-the-BMC-Server-Automation-Console.
3. Migrate the BMC Server Automation database to the current release. See Migrating-core-BMC-Server-Automation-data.
4. If upgrading to a service pack, run a series of SQL scripts (provided with the service pack files) that upgrade the database to the service pack level. See Supported-upgrade-paths.
5. If you are migrating from a pre-8.0 version of BMC Server Automation, migrate compliance rules and discovery signatures. See Migrating-compliance-rules-and-discovery-signatures.
6. If the BMC Server Automation file server resides on a different computer from the Application Server, upgrade the RSCD agent on the computer on which file server resides. The file server and the database must be at the same version before you run BMC Server Automation.
7. Confirm that the file server agent is running.
8. Upgrade the BMC Server Automation provisioning system. See Upgrading-the-Provisioning-System.
9. Upgrade the other BMC Server Automation Application Servers, consoles, and RSCD agents in your enterprise (including on any virtual servers). Also upgrade any distributed custom configuration objects.

Considerations for custom configuration objects

Upgrading to a new release can potentially create mismatches between the version of a custom configuration object, an agent, and any model objects that reference custom configuration objects. For more information, see Upgrading-custom-configuration-objects.