ControlUp On-Premises Upgrade Guide
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    ControlUp On-Premises Upgrade Guide

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    Article Summary

    Each of our new versions provides bug fixes or adds new features. We recommend to regularly upgrading your on-premises environment as it is important to the security and stabilty of your ControlUp environment. Follow this guide to upgrade your ControlUp environment to the latest version.

    When to Use This Guide?

    This upgrade manual is relevant only if you currently have ControlUp Server 8.1.5.20 or higher installed. If you run an earlier version, contact our support team at support@controlup.com. In this case, don't use this upgrade guide.

    Which Components Do I Need to Upgrade

    You need to upgrade the following core components:

    Solve On-Premises Backup

    If you use Solve On-Premises, create a backup of your SOP configuration and the certificate before you continue with the next steps. To backup the configuration, follow steps 1 and 2 in the SOP Upgrade guide.

    1. Stop All Running ControlUp Monitors

    Stop all running monitor services. For stability reasons, perform the following steps in the console:

    1. Open a console and click Monitoring Status.
    2. Right-click each ControlUp Monitor > Stop.
      COPUpgrade_StopMonitors
    3. Wait until the status of all monitors has changed to Stopped.
    Note

    When monitors are stopped, no activity files will be created.

    2. Stop and Uninstall All Running IOP Forwarders

    If you have IOP installed in your environment, stop and uninstall all IOP Forwarders running on your monitor machines.

    Note

    Use the Controllers pane in the console to stop the services on all monitor machines at once. This requires the agents to be installed on all monitor machines.

    3. Create Backups

    Back up the COP configuration and save them in a safe location as you need to copy the folder again after the upgrade.

    ControlUp Server Folder

    Back up the ControlUp Server folder. If you upgrade from version 8.6 or later, you can find it under C:\Program Files\ControlUp Inc. If you upgrade from an earlier version, you can find it under C:\Program Files\Smart-X.

    %Appdata%\ControlUp folder

    Locate the .v4.xml file in the %AppData%\Roaming\ControlUp\Configuration folder, which contains encrypted COP configuration.
    image.png

    If the file exists, back up the ControlUp folder:
    image.png

    If the file doesn't exist, you must manually save the configuration:

    1. Log in to the console with a user that is part of the organization owner group.
    2. In the Home ribbon, click Save Configuration. This saves the configuration files to the current user profile directory under %AppData%\Roaming\ControlUp\Configuration.
    3. A popup appears in the right-bottom corner after the configuration files have been successfully saved.

    You can now save the %AppData%Roaming/ControlUp folder to a location that you will be able to access after the upgrade.

    ControlUp Database

    We recommend to back up your ControlUp database. Learn more here.

    4. Start the upgrade

    After you backed up all necessary files, start with the COP server upgrade. Before you continue reading, make sure the servers running the COP components meet all requirements.

    Upgrade COP server

    Note

    In 8.6.5 and later, you can configure one or more failover COP servers. If you already use / want to use this feature, you must uninstall the COP server and not upgrade it.

    COP Server High Availability and ControlUp database deployment determines how you can upgrade your COP server. Click the relevant link below:

    Upgrade Instructions for Production Mode

    You can upgrade the COP server version if you use production mode and you do not use or want to use the COP failover feature.

    Note

    Although upgrading is possible, we recommend to uninstall the COP server before you install the new version.

    To upgrade the COP server in production mode:

    1. Run the installation file of the new ControlUp Server version as an administrator. Click Upgrade and wait until the installation is complete.
      The Upgraded Successfully message indicates a successful upgrade.
      4405471898897UpgradeSuccessful.png

      Important

      If the upgrade failed, contact our support team at support@controlup.com and provide log files as described in the ControlUp On-Premises Installation: Log Files article.

    If you installed SOP, perform the following steps after you upgrade the COP server for best practice:

    1. Right-click each monitor > Stop and close the console.
    2. Right-click the COP server > Upgrade to version 8.8.0.12.
    3. After the upgrade finishes, reload the JSON Web Token (JWT) file to the COP server. For more informaton about importing JWT to COP, see COP Security enhancement for Monitor/SOP communication.
    4. Upgrade the console to version 8.8.0.875.
    5. Open the console, select the machines you want to upgrade, right-click one of them and select Agent Control > Upgrade/Install Remote Agent.
    6. Right-click each monitor > Start. The version mismatch message indicates a successful restart.
    7. Right-click each monitor > Upgrade.

    If you encounter any issue, repeat the steps to Stop and Start the monitors.

    Upgrade Instructions for Light Mode / Production Mode with Failover Feature

    Important

    To upgrade for Light Mode, you must uninstall the ControlUp server first. Note that when you uninstall, all objects (machines, hypervisors, folder structure) are removed from the ControlUp LDS. After you uninstall, you must redefine all the objects.

    Use the following procedure if your current ControlUp database runs in:

    1. If a failover server is active, you must manually uninstall the ADAM_ControlUp-LDS entry from Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features. If you don't manually uninstall the entry, you can't uninstall the COP server later.
    2. Under Programs and Features, uninstall the ControlUp server.
    3. After you uninstall, you can install the latest COP version as an administrator and follow the installation instructions in ControlUp On-Premises Server Installation.

    Step 2: Upgrade Real-Time Console

    After upgrading the COP server, uninstall old Real-Time Consoles and install the new versions. Follow the instructions in the ControlUp On-Premises Real-Time Console Installation guide.

    Step 3: Upgrade ControlUp Monitors

    Next, upgrade the ControlUp Monitors that you stopped before

    1. In the console, click Monitoring Status to see all monitors configured in your ControlUp organization.
    2. Right-click a monitor > Upgrade. Repeat this step for all monitors so that no monitor appears with a version mismatch.
    3. Once the upgrade is finished, check that the monitors started successfully and the Version column shows the updated version.
      image.png

    Change backup file retention period

    Activity file backups for Insights On-Premises are retained in the backup path for a certain period of time. Before COP 8.6, the number of days for keeping backup files is set in the registry on each monitor machine while versions 8.6 or higher store the value in the Monitor Settings in the console.

    Important

    Follow the procedure below only if the configured registry value for deleting backed up activity files is not set to 14 days. On the monitor machine, you can find the value in the MinDaysBeforeOldZipFilesDelete registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Smart-X\ControlUp\Console\ActivityFile

    To change the value in the Monitor Settings UI:

    1. Open regedit on a monitor machine and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Smart-X\ControlUp\Console\ActivityFile. Notice the value in the MinDaysBeforeOldZipFilesDelete registry key. In our case it's 366 days.
      image.png
    2. In the console, open Monitoring Status > Monitors Settings > On-Prem Monitor Backup. In the Minimum days before deleting the backed up zipped files field, replace the default value of 14 to the value from the registry.
      image.png

    Step 4: Upgrade ControlUp Agents

    All ControlUp Agents should be updated to avoid version mismatches.

    To upgrade ControlUp Agents:

    1. Right-click the machine and select Agent Control > Upgrade/Install Remote Agent.

    2. If you want to upgrade the agent on multiple machines at the same time, mark those machines, right-click one of them and select Agent Control > Upgrade/Install Remote Agent.
      AgentUpgrade.gif

      Note

      ControlUp Agents that were deployed from master images via an MSI installer need to be upgrade differently. Download the latest agent installation files.

    Step 5: Upgrade Insights On-Premises

    The next step is to upgrade IOP which is covered in the Insights On-Premises Upgrade article.

    Step 6: Upgrade Solve On-Premises

    To upgrade SOP, follow the instructions in the Solve On-Premises Upgrade guide.

    Back Up Your ControlUp Database (Optional)

    It is best practice to back up the ControlUp database in case the COP installation fails.

    To create a database backup in SSMS:

    1. Connect to the instance where the ControlUp DB is stored.
    2. Right-click the database > Tasks > Back Up...
      image.png
    3. In the Back Up Database dialog box, keep the backup type Full. In the Destination section, specify whether you want to back up to Disk or Tape.
      image.png
    4. Under the Media Options tab, select the checkboxes Overwrite all existing backup sets and Verify backup when finished.
      image.png
    5. Save the backup file to safe location.

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