Upgrading the Agent for Apache Kafka

As a system administrator, you upgrade your existing Apache Kafka Agent to the latest version.

This topic guides you through the manual upgrade of the Apache Kafka Agent in an AE system without using authentication. If you want to use one of the methods that are available for authenticating the Agent, you must follow additional installation steps. For more information, see Agent Authentication in the Automic Automation documentation.

Important!

Before installing the Agent, check the version compatibility information at compatibility matrix. For information about how to use the compatibility matrix, see Compatibility Information.

This page includes the following:

Connecting the Apache Kafka Agent to the Automation Engine

The Automation Engine and the Agent communicate using TLS/SSL, which requires using trusted certificates in order to prove the identity of the respective communication partner. Make sure you are familiar with TLS/SSL and certificate implementation before installing the Agent. For more information, see TLS/SSL Considerations for Automic Automation in the Automic Automation documentation.

The Agent establishes a connection with the Java communication process (JCP) when it communicates with an on-premises Automation Engine environment.

When you use certificates signed by a CA, the certificates are stored in the respective Java trust store by default. In this case, you only have to check that the root certificates are already in the respective store. If you do not want to use the default locations for the Agent, make sure you use the trustedCertFolder=, agentSecurityFolder=, and keyPassword= parameters (if applicable) in the respective configuration (INI) file to define the path to the folder where the trusted certificates are stored.

When the Agent communicates with the Automic Automation Kubernetes Edition, it establishes a connection to an ingress / HTTPS load balancer. Ensure that the address of the load balancer is defined on both sides: the Automation Engine and the Agent, and that your HTTPS load balancer has the required certificates in place. For more information, see Connecting to AWI, the JCP and REST Processes Using an Ingress in the Automic Automation documentation.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

On the admin and/or user computer where the Agent is installed, install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). For a list of compatible Java versions, see the compatibility matrix.

If you have JRE installed, you can ignore this step.

Use the following command to check the version of the current Java virtual machine (VM):

java -version

If several JRE or Java SDK Versions are installed on the computer, make sure that the order of the directories is correct in the %PATH% or $PATH settings, since the first JRE that is found in the list of directories is used.

You can download the required JRE from https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/.

Upgrading the Apache Kafka Agent

The upgrade of the Apache Kafka Agent is the same for Windows and for UNIX platforms.

  1. Stop the Agent.

  2. Make a backup of the original installation folder so that you do not lose your current instance.

  3. Download the Apache Kafka installation package from https://docs.automic.com/documentation. It is called Integration.Kafka_Agent.zip.

  4. Unzip Integration.Kafka_Agent.zip to a temporary location.

    The installation package has an Agent\Kafka\bin directory with the following content:

    • lib

    • ecc-ae-sheet-ra-kafka.jar

      Contains the AWI panels.

    • uc.msl

      Message library

    • ucxjcitx.unix.ini

      Agent configuration file for UNIX

    • ucxjcitx.win.ini

      Agent configuration file for Windows

    • ucxjkafka-tower.jar

    Note:

    The content of the two INI files is identical except for the slashes (for Windows) and backslashes (for UNIX).

  5. Copy the files from the newly downloaded Agent\Kafka\bin directory to your current installation folder and overwrite them.

    Important!

    You can keep using the INI file of your current installation, thus avoiding the task of adjusting it to your environment again. To do so, make sure that you do not overwrite it or that you copy it again from your backup. For more information, see Agent RA Core.

  6. Start the Agent again using the following command:

    <path to java> -jar ucxjkafka.jar

    Tip:

    If Java is installed in a folder whose name contains spaces, the path to Java must be in quotes, for example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jreX\bin\java" -jar -Xrs -Xmx1G ucxjkafka.jar

See also: