Centralized Agent Upgrade

As an administrator, you can upgrade all Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU) supported agents to a new version with a centralized and easy to use automatic procedure. In this topic you find the background information, requirements and steps you have to follow.

Our consultants are experts in upgrading AE systems. Contact CA Automic Support, our experts will be pleased to assist you whenever it is necessary.

This page includes the following:

Centralized Agent Upgrade - Video

The Centralized Agent Upgrade is very secure and easy to do, watch our video here:

Overview

The Centralized Agent Upgrade (CAU) is an automatic upgrade solution. It provides an easy and automatic procedure to upgrade agents to a newer version.

Agents can run as either the old or new version agent during upgrade. There is a switch between agent versions at one point of the CAU, therefore a 'zero downtime' is not possible.

Notes:

There is a switch between agent versions at one point of the CAU, therefore a 'zero downtime' is not possible.
You have to import the new version binaries into the system client 0000. (The binaries are attached to and delivered with Storage objects).
The CAU itself can be carried out from any client of your system, by any user with the necessary authorizations.
Please refer to the list of CAU enabled agents below to check, if a particular agent or agent can be upgraded by using the CAU.

Procedure Summary

Specify the set of agents you want to upgrade and select the desired target agent version.
Subsequently, the Automation Engine triggers all agents to perform the upgrade.
Each triggered agent loads all needed upgrade resources from the Automation Engine that are kept in Storage objects, located in client 0000.
Each agent replaces the existing binaries with the new ones.
After the binaries have been replaced successfully, each agent shuts itself down providing a specific return code.
The corresponding ServiceManager restarts the agent(s) based on this return code.
Each upgraded agent starts up and reconnects to AE again with its new agent target version.

Upgrade Preparation

The following OS agents can be upgraded by using the CAU:

Windows
UNIX
- AIX
- HPUX
- LINUX
- SOLARIS
- ZLINUX

Prerequisites

Notes:

Make sure that all binaries attached to Storage objects and thus imported into the system are from trusted sources. Users that have the privilege to conduct a CAU are potentially able to import malicious files as well.
Use the ServiceManager to start agents for the CAU. That way you make sure that the agents after upgrading will restart automatically.

Using a different method to start agents is possible, but you will have to ensure the restart another way as well, because the agents will not restart automatically.
The Storage objects mentioned above will be delivered via CA AutomicPlugin Manager packages.
It is best to use separate binaries for agents, not shared ones. Otherwise errors may occur.
Do not change the names of these objects. The specific name pattern is used to identify the resources' types and versions.

If the names of these objects do not match the pattern, the agent version is not displayed in the update list.
Do not change the resource content. It is released by CA Automic and shouldn't be altered.

Automation Engine Installation

The Automation Engine installation has to be installed and/or upgraded (ZDU) in the usual way.

Upgrading the Agents' ServiceManagers During CAU

Starting with v12.1, the agents' ServiceManagers can be upgraded during CAU.

To have the Agents ServiceManager Upgraded during CAU (Recommended)

Manually install new ServiceManagers v12.1 or above for your agent(s). Afterward, when an agent is upgraded via CAU, it subsequently triggers an upgrade of the ServiceManager.

If you downgrade agents to v12 via CAU, no ServiceManager binaries will remain in agents bin directory.
To keep your existing ServiceManager version

Do not manually install new ServiceManagers v12.1 or above for your agent(s).

If you downgrade agents to v12 via CAU, some ServiceManager binaries will remain in agents bin directory, but without any effect on the agent. After upgrading to a version 12.1 or above again with pre-installed new ServiceManager , those binaries will be cleaned out automatically from agents bin.

Manual Agent Installation

You have to manually install an agent in the following cases:

There is no agent installed. This constitutes not an upgrade, but the very first installation.
There is already an agent installed but it does not support CAU.

The upgrade to v12.x has to be done manually, before CAU can be used to upgrade automatically to subsequent versions.

When you try to update an Agent that does not support CAU, the target version displays the message Manual Upgrade Required.
You want to do a manual installation for any reasons.

Do not use manual and automated CAU steps at the same time, as errors may occur.

Agent upgrade via CAU - Storage Objects

An agent has already been installed that supports CAU functionality (see table above).

The corresponding Storage objects are already available in the Automation Engine:

Storage object(s) that contain(s) resources of the desired target version, imported to client 0000.

After a successful import of such a Storage object this new target version is instantly available for the CAU.
A Storage object that contains resources of the current version.

This is necessary in order to be able to revert to the previous version (in effect an 'upgrade' to that version).

Set User Privilege

Any administrator / user who shall be able to execute an upgrade, CAU or ZDU, needs the privilege Execute system upgrades.

Install the CA AutomicPlugin Manager

In order to be able to import the resource packages mentioned above you need to install the CA AutomicInstalling the Plugin Manager. It is itself a plug-in and would be part of your Automic Web Interface installation.

Install the downloaded Packages using the Packs page

Install the packages (packs) you downloaded using the Packs page in your AWI installation.