Upgrading an Automation Engine System Manually

As a system administrator, you want to have a complete overview of the comprehensive manual upgrade process. You must have all the information required, meet the necessary requirements, check for incompatibilities between versions and go through a number of preparation steps before carrying out the upgrade.

Tips!

Important!

  • It is strongly recommended to carry out the upgrade steps in the order they are listed in the CAPKI documentation, see CAPKI - Securing the ServiceManager.

  • Never upgrade a productive AE system without having it tested extensively in a separate environment.

  • If you want to upgrade from an Automation Engine version that is out of maintenance or need help with your upgrade, please contact our support department, see Support.

  • The Automation Engine and the Automic Web Interface must be on the same major release version and service pack.

  • If the Automation Engine and Automic Web Interface are bundled together in the same hotfix, they must be on the same major release version, service pack, and hotfix

  • If you upgrade the AE manually without using ZDU, the WPs in the new version always start in cold mode. If you upgrade by using ZDU, no cold start is required.

This page includes the following:

General Information

When changing the version of the Automation Engine, the AE DB Load utility processes and monitors all the required steps for changing the database. This is necessary, because it also modifies data that cannot be changed with SQL. All steps that the utility processes during the upgrading process are logged in the uc_upd.txt file.

The upgrading process comprises of several stages:

  1. Planning the conversion time and creating a plan for a possible re-conversion. Never change to a new Automation Engine version without having planned a re-conversion scenario
  2. Make a backup of the AE database and all the components' directories.
  3. Upgrade your system step by step WITHOUT using the new functions.
  4. Only use the new functions when every component has been converted to the new version and after a particular system-monitoring period.

Each stage consists of many small steps. Your AE system is not upgraded all at once but step by step. The old components are not overwritten and the new files are installed in separate directories. Only the AE database is directly upgraded with the utility AE DB Load. This method has two main advantages:

  1. You can quickly re-convert to the old AE-component version if problems occur in your system environment. Therefore, there is almost no risk for your processing.
  2. Depending on the size of your AE system, the complete upgrading process can take some time. The advantage of upgrading step by step is that you can do so in individual and shorter periods of time which makes it easier to coordinate the upgrading process with other departments and processes. And it is also easier to locate errors that might occur.

First upgrade your test system. Possible problems can so be recognized and solved before they occur in your production system. Test the individual upgrading steps, thereby setting up a plan for upgrading your production system.

Please note that:

  • The AE system is not available while the database is being upgraded.
  • After each step of the upgrade installation, it is essential to monitor the new components for some time. Only continue the upgrading procedure when they have proven to run stably.
  • The upgrading process recommended enables production to be continued in the old Automation Engine version at any time. The only requirements are a parallel installation of the components and the provision of a second database instance.

Requirements

  • Read the Release Notes of the relevant Automation Engine version paying special attention to changes that affect your installation.

  • Use the compatibility matrix to check the System Requirements.

  • Upgrade a test system first.

  • Test your workflows in the test system before upgrading the production system.

  • Decide on the type of upgrade: backup / restore the whole environment (in place upgrade) or duplicate the environment (parallel upgrade) and decide if agents will be updated with the engine.

  • Make sure administrators have access to the computers and database.

  • You can request assistance from consultants or even 24x7 support when you upgrade your system. Our experts are trained in providing excellent support when action is taken in critical and sensitive areas of your AE system. Contact your Account Manager or the Technical Support as soon as you know when you are going to start the upgrading process. For more information, see Files to Aid Technical Support.

  • If the database scheme derives from the standard, the AE Scripts must be adopted according to the modifications.

  • Make sure you have your login data for https://downloads.automic.com/.

  • Information security services, such as the TLS/SSL implementation of the ServiceManager, require features provided by the CAPKI package. You need to install CAPKI on all computers in which the Automation Engine processes or the ServiceManager and any of its clients will run.

    More information:

Important! As of this version, the communication Automation Engine, the Automic Web Interface, the Java API, and the Proxy Client as well as between the AE and the Windows, UNIX and Java Agents 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). These server processes use trusted certificates to prove their identity to other communication partners, such as Agents.

Non-TLS/SSL Agents, such as BS2000, NSK, OS/400, VMS and z/OS, still connect to a communication process (CP). The communication between a TLS/SSL and a non-TLS/SSL Agent can be established using the TLS Gateway.

More information:

Checking for Incompatibilities

Before upgrading, you need to check for incompatibilities between two consecutive versions. Only new features that might lead to compatibility issues or that should be taken into account when upgrading are listed. All new features of a given AE version are described in full in the What's New in Automic Automation v21.

Preparing for the Upgrade

Make sure you carry out all the preparation steps before upgrading your system.

Deny New Job Starts

  • Inform all affected persons about the upgrading process and make sure that processing is not changed.
  • Create a user group that explicitly denies everything and assign all users to this group.

    • If the Revision Report is activated in your AE system, the assignment to the user group must be made in the User object because the tab is locked in the user group object in this case.

Important!

  • Processing must not be changed during the whole upgrading procedure. If a problem occurs in your system environment during a particular step, you can either restore the AE database or directly use the original one if you made a copy. In doing so, there is almost no risk for your processing.
  • Statistical data, reports, and modifications made to Variable object and Sync object contents are lost.

Prepare the Upgrading Process of Core Components

  • Determine a point in time for upgrading the core components. Note that the Automation Engine must temporarily be stopped which interrupts processing. For this reason it is best to determine a time during which only a few activities take place. The duration of the upgrading process depends on the size of your AE system. Your experiences when upgrading the test system will help you estimate the required time to upgrade your productive system.
  • Ensure that you have the phone number and email address of Technical Support and your login data for https://downloads.automic.com/. Carefully think about requesting temporary 24x7 support, if sensitive systems should be upgraded or if the upgrade is not made during the regular business hours of our support team. For more information, see Files to Aid Technical Support.
  • Our experts are trained in providing excellent on-site support in upgrading your AE system. Contact your Account Manager or the CA Automic Support team. Your request will be forwarded to the relevant expert in order to make an appointment.
  • During the upgrade process, you require access to the AE database and to all computers with AE core components (such as the Automation Engine, utilities etc.). Access to all affected computers is required, if you work in a distributed Server environment. Ensure that the responsible administrators are available and that the login data (such as passwords) is correct.

Maintain the AE Database

  • It is recommended that you maintain your AE database with our utilities and database-specific tools on a regular basis. However, reorganize your database before you upgrade it. The smaller the database, the faster the upgrading process to the new Automation Engine version will be.

  • Carefully read the AE Scripts that refer to the AE database and prepare adjustments (e.g., tablespaces). In doing so, you see the actions that will take place and respond to them in the database and on the computer on which the database has been installed (e.g., by providing disk space).

These scripts are provided in the directories IMAGE:DB\GENERAL\<version> and IMAGE:DB\<database type>\<version>. The file uc_upd.txt is especially important.

Duplicate the AE Database

For company-critical processing in the AE system it is best to duplicate and back up your database. In doing so, you may leave one of the databases unchanged and easily re-access your old database, if any problems occur in your system environment.

The database can be duplicated in different ways:

  • For smaller databases: Duplicate the database in offline mode. This can be done during the upgrading process of the core components. During this time, the AE system is not available anyway.

  • For larger/complex databases: Upgrade in online mode before the core components are upgraded.

Inform your database-administration group because the current log files must be stored in the duplicated database.

See also: