Zero Downtime Upgrade

Important!

ZDU is not supported for a first upgrade to an Automic Automation version that supports Unicode / UTF-8.

There are significant DB schema and AE message changes that cannot be supported in compatibility or rollback mode. Furthermore, the AE database UTF-8 migration process requires a downtime so that all data is migrated correctly. This step is relevant to avoid an encoding misalignment resulting in corrupted data.

As a system administrator, you use the Zero Downtime Upgrade (ZDU) wizard to upgrade your system from the Automic Web Interface. There is no need for scripting or use of AE internal components. It is available only in Client 0.

The Zero Downtime Upgrade allows you to carry out an upgrade between major or minor versions without shutting down the AE system. You can use this function to upgrade between all maintained versions.

It is recommended to use a test environment before installing upgrades on your production system.

The communication between the Automation Engine and the different components uses TLS/SSL through a secure WebSocket (WSS). These components establish a connection with the Java communication process (JCP) and/or the REST process (REST), which use trusted certificates to prove their identity to other communication partners, such as Agents.

The Windows, UNIX and Java agents can use different parameters in their corresponding INI file to define how to handle the certificates.

Note: The TLS/SSL implementation does not apply to the HP-UX and 32 bit ZLINUX Agents, as they are no longer supported.

More information:

Important!

  • Only use the ZDU to upgrade systems that were installed manually or test systems that were installed using the ONE Installer. You cannot migrate to a cointainer-based system nor upgrade a container-based system using the Zero Downtime Upgrade.

  • It is not possible to carry out a Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU) parallel to a Zero Downtime Upgrade.

  • The AWI instances in versions higher than 12.3 connect to the JCP (jcp-ws), which must have the required certificates in place.

  • During ZDU, the JCP is only available after the connections have been switched in step four of the wizard and the primary work process (PWP) in the new version is running.

    Therefore, do not upgrade the AWI instance you are using for the Zero Downtime Upgrade. Make sure you have a separate, upgraded instance of your Automic Web Interface available for after the connections are switched.

If you need help, contact our support team. Our consultants are experts in upgrading AE systems and will be pleased to assist you whenever it is necessary. For more information, see Support.

Education

The Broadcom Software Academy provides a wide range of free online trainings. For information about how to navigate through the Academy and on how to register for courses, see Free Online Courses.

The following course(s) are associated with this topic:

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