Preparing for upgrade

This topic provides the information you need to prepare your environment for the upgrade process. the topic includes information about supported upgrade paths and 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.

The topic includes the following sections:

• • Supported upgrade paths
  • Upgrade considerations
  • To prepare for upgrade
  • Where to go from here

Supported upgrade paths

The following table lists information for the most recent BMC Server Automation version 8.3 builds.

The following list identifies the supported upgrade paths:

• Version 8.3.00 to any later 8.3 service pack or patch
• Version 8.2 direct to version 8.3.x
• Version 8.1 direct to version 8.3.x

• 8.0 to SP6 to version 8.3.x

  To upgrade from an 8.0 version earlier than 8.0 SP6, first apply SP6.

Upgrade considerations

Note the following environment-specific information prior to preparing the environment for 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 a list of supported BMC Server Automation versions, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Release Notes.

• 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.

• Prior to upgrading, review the following version-specific information.

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 (Windows)	Default location (UNIX and Linux)
   Application Server	8.2	C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\NSH	/opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH
   	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
   PXE Server	8.2	C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\PXE	/opt/bmc/bladelogic/NSH
   	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

   Note

   If your current installation is already an upgrade from a previous version, the paths might be different. If you do not know the installation location for BMC Server Automation components view the contents of the /usr/lib/rsc/HOME file (on Linux or UNIX) or the %WINDIR%\rsc\HOME file (on Windows).

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.