Upgrading the RSCD Agent using an Agent Installer Job

As of BMC Server Automation version 8.3.03 (that is, after applying Service Pack 3), you can upgrade an enrolled RSCD agent by using the BMC Server Automation built-in Agent Installer Job. This single-phase operation comprises all the checks, staging, and commits in one job, in-line with the existing Agent installation job. The upgrade can be performed on the following platforms:

• Solaris
• Linux
• Windows
• AIX

Perform the upgrade by using one of the following approaches:

• Upgrading using an Agent Installer Job
• Upgrading through CLI

Upgrading using an Agent Installer Job

1. Open the Job folder and right-click the subfolder where you want to create the job.

2. Select New > Agent Installer Job.
   The Agent Installer Job Wizard opens for creation of an Agent Installer Job.
   
   

   Warning

   Note

   Existing agent installer jobs can only be used for installing the agent on agentless targets. To upgrade the agent, you must create new agent installer jobs and reuse the existing bundle.

3. Enter basic job information (such as job name and description) on the General panel.
4. Click Next to display the Options panel.
   The Options panel indicates the agent bundle on which the Agent Installer Job is based and various other settings. See the following figure.
   
   
5. In the Agent Bundle field, navigate to the bundle on which this job is based or keep the default agent bundle.

6. From Operation Type field, select one of the following operation types:

   • Install - Installs agent on servers with no existing agent
   • Upgrade - Upgrades the agent only on servers with an installed and available agent
   • Install/Upgrade - Installs or upgrades the agent, depending on the current state

   Warning

   Note

   For the Install option and Install/Upgrade option, SOCKS proxy and Advanced Repeaters are not supported. For more information, see Running-the-Unified-Agent-Installer.

   For Upgrade option and Install/Upgrade option, BMC recommends not to execute any other BMC Server Automation Jobs while the RSCD Agent on the server is being upgraded.

7. You can choose the operation type only during job creation. After the job is created, this field is disabled.

8. Perform the relevant configuration in the displayed Agent Options fields (depending on your Operation Type selection):

   • Install Options
     

     Field	Description
     Update Server Properties	Update the system with properties from the target servers on which you are installing agents.
     Update Configuration Objects Registration	Register any configuration objects that are found on the agent and defined in the Configuration Object Dictionary.
     Push Agent ACLs	Push agent access control lists (ACLs) to the servers that this job targets. To push ACLs, the system converts the access control list defined for a server into a users configuration file and pushes that file to the agent. The access control list is derived from user permissions defined in the RBAC system.

     
     

   • Upgrade Options
     

     Field	Description
     Push Agent ACLs	Push agent access control lists (ACLs) to the servers that this job targets. To push ACLs, the system converts the access control list defined for a server into a users configuration file and pushes that file to the agent. The access control list is derived from user permissions defined in the RBAC system.
     Skip Upgrade	If this option is selected, upgrade operation will not be executed if there is any other job in progress, due to which agent is already in use.
     Force Upgrade	If this option is selected, it will go ahead with agent upgrade, which will kill the job in progress, giving precedence to the upgrade operation.

     
     

   Warning

   Note

   The upgrade operation is performed in two steps: copying the installer to the staging area and executing the script to run the upgrade.

   After the installer is copied to the staging area, if another job is found to be in progress (which is using the agent) and the option to skip the upgrade is selected, the upgrade operation will not be executed.

   In the case of a forced upgrade (when the skip upgrade option is not selected), the upgrade operation gets precedence, and kills the the job in progress.

   The upgrade operation can end successfully or fail with error messages or warnings. In either case, the staging directory is deleted at the end of the operation.

9. Choose the relevant Job Option:
   

   Field	Description
   Preserve Staging Area On Failure	Specifies whether information copied to a staging area on a target server during installation should be preserved if the installation or upgrade fails. By default, this option is not selected, so that when the system has finished installing or upgrading an agent, it automatically deletes all files in the staging area.

10. Step through all other wizard panels, as described in Creating-an-Agent-Installer-Job.
11. Click Finish after completing the last step of the wizard.

Server Locking

While the upgrade script is running on the target, the target will be locked. If you try to execute another job on that target, the following message is displayed:

Server Locking is not supported for the following types of jobs:

• Snapshot, Audit and Compliance  Jobs: If the Agent upgrade is running on any target server and, during that time, you try to execute a Snapshot, Audit or Compliance Job, these jobs will fail without a Server Locking error message. If the Compliance Job is running during remediation, then the Server Locking error message will be displayed.
• Patch catalog: If the Agent upgrade is running on the Patch Repository server and, during that time, you try to execute a Patch Catalog job, then the job fails without a Server Locking error message.

• Execution Task, Batch Jobs: If the Agent upgrade is running on any target server and, during that time, you try to execute an Execution Task or Batch Job, the job returns error messages depending on the child jobs that fail under it (If the child jobs support Server Locking, an error message will appear)
• NSH Script Type2, NSH script Type4: These jobs do not provide support for Server Locking.

Agent Installer Job Results View

The Activity node under every server shows jobs that have executed on that server during a particular period of time. When you expand the run node for that job, you can see the following nodes under it, based on the results of the job:

• Failed
• Warning
• Success
• Running

Under the Success node, the following additional nodes are displayed (depending on the operation type selected):

• Installed
• Upgraded .

These nodes show the logs for the servers that were successfully installed or upgraded.

Under the Running node, you can view all servers on which the Job is running.

Under Failed and Warning nodes, additional nodes are displayed for respective error messages.

To see complete error or warning messages, click the respective node for a target, as in the following figure:

Upgrading through CLI

The following set of BLCLI commands are available for creating an Agent Installer Job for performing an Install operation or an Upgrade operation and for setting various job options for an Upgrade operation:

• AgentInstallerJob-createAgentInstallerJobWithOperationTypeAndTargetServer
• AgentInstallerJob-createAgentInstallerJobWithOperationTypeAndTargetGroup
• AgentInstallerJob-setAgentInstallerJobAclPushEnabledForUpgrade
• AgentInstallerJob-setAgentInstallerJobIgnoreRunningJobs
• AgentInstallerJob-setAgentInstallerJobSkipUpgrade

To set job options for an Install operation, use the other BLCLI commands in the AgentInstallerJob namespace.