Upgrade considerations

Users who have a bundled MySQL database cannot upgrade directly from Uptime Infrastructure Monitor 7.7.3 (MySQL 5.5) to Uptime 7.8.6 (MySQL 8.0). You first must upgrade to Uptime 7.8.5 before continuing on to the Uptime 7.8.6 upgrade.

Specific considerations for upgrading to Uptime 7.8

• It is important to note that upgrading to Uptime Infrastructure Monitor 7.8 may take 30 minutes or longer to complete because of the upgrade of MySQL from 5.5.x to 5.7.
• Make sure you have enough space before attempting to upgrade to Uptime Infrastructure Monitor 7.8. You should have at least 40% free space before beginning the upgrade.
• Back up data collector.ini before attempting an upgrade when using a custom configuration. The Uptime Infrastructure Monitor 7.8 data collector includes a maxpermgen size of 160. This is up from 128 MB in Uptime Infrastructure Monitor 7.7 and earlier. Users who require a higher setting must back up their uptime\datacollector.ini (Windows) or uptime/uptime.jcnf (Linux) before upgrading or they will lose those changes.
• Apache configuration changes. Upgrading the Uptime Monitoring Station will overwrite the Apache configuration file. For users who have modified the uptime\apache\conf\httpd.conf, we recommend backing up this file prior to performing an upgrade. When the upgrade is complete, customizations can be copied over to the new file or the new file can be overwritten. There are several changes in this new configuration file around timeout and acceptfilter that need to remain in place, so please do not simply overwrite the file.
• Backup Certificate Store. The WebLogic Service Monitor is updated to support SSL in Uptime Infrastructure Monitor 7.8. Note that any SSL self- signed certificates manually added to the trusted store will be overwritten upon upgrade and must be reinstalled after the upgrade is complete. For more information about this process, see the Application Monitors section about WebLogic. To avoid this occurring, it is easiest to simply back up the uptime/jre/lib/securitycacerts file prior to upgrade. Post upgrade, shut down the data collector (core) service, copy your old cacerts file back into that folder, and start the data collector.
• Users who have a clustered environment should continue using the Uptime 7.7.3 agent. A change in how the UUID is formatted in Uptime 7.8 causes issues when monitoring clusters. For more information about how SQL Server cluster monitoring works in Uptime Infrastructure Monitor, see the IDERA Community article, Monitor MS-SQL Clusters and Always-On Availability Groups.

General considerations

• Uptime Infrastructure Monitor upgrades are only supported from the previous two releases. See "Supported upgrade paths" below for the versions able to upgrade to UIM 7.6 and later.
  • If you are upgrading from a version earlier than UIM 7.4, be sure to review Upgrading to UIM 7.2 through 7.5.
  • And, if you are upgrading from a version earlier than UIM 7.1, be sure to review Upgrading to UIM 7.1 or earlier.
• The WebLogic Service Monitor is updated to support SSL in UIM 7.8. Note that any SSL self-signed certificates manually added to the trusted store is overwritten upon upgrade and must be reinstalled after the upgrade is complete. For more information about this process, see the Application Monitors section about WebLogic.

Downloading installer files

The most recent Uptime Infrastructure Monitor Installer packages are available from the Download page on the Uptime Support site (login required).

Upgrade FAQ

Q: Do I need to upgrade my agents?

A: Agent updates are generally not required unless specifically noted in the version Release Notes.

Q: Can I roll back an upgrade?

A: No; installers are not designed for rollback capability. Upgrade failures are rare but it is very important, prior to upgrading, to stop all Uptime Infrastructure Monitor services and backup your configuration before proceeding with any upgrade.

Q: How long will an upgrade take?

A: Upgrades can generally be applied in less than 30 minutes. Note that upgrading to Uptime 7.8 may take longer because of the upgrade of MySQL from 5.5.x to 5.7.

Q: Do I need to install each Uptime Installer in order or do they include all previous updates?

A: Upgrades include all previously released functionality; however, there is a specific list of supported upgrade paths. Please review the "Supported upgrade paths" below for further details on the correct order to install Uptime releases.

Q: Can I install a test environment prior to upgrading my production environment?

A: Yes; this process is recommended. Please contact Uptime Support to request a test license key.

Supported upgrade paths

Officially supported UIM upgrade paths include:

If you are running an earlier version of Uptime Infrastructure Monitor, please refer to Upgrading to UIM 7.2 through 7.5 and complete your upgrade to UIM 7.5 before proceeding.

Version-specific upgrade advisories

Please see the Known Issues section of the Release Notes for a list of advisories.

Applying Uptime installers

1. Download the installer file from the Monitoring Station Installer Files section of the Support site download page. The current names of the Uptime Infrastructure Monitor installer files are listed below.
   UIM version: 7.8
   Platform & installer files:
   • Windows: Uptime-7.8.0-windows.exe
   • Linux: Uptime-7.8.0-linux.bin 
2. Copy the Installer file to your Monitoring Station server. If using FTP, ensure you use binary mode.
3. Review the version Release Notes for any specific upgrade instructions.
4. Back up your current Uptime Infrastructure Monitor deployment. We recommend at least the following steps, which will back up the configuration information but not the historical performance data. Please review Backing up and Recovering Uptime Infrastructure Monitor for additional backup suggestions.
   • Generate a Problem Report with full configuration data.
     1. From within the UIM web UI, click the Config button at the top of the page, and then select Problem Reporting from the left side menu
     2. Check all of the Include options under Report Options.
     3. Change the default option of 3 months of configuration data to 120 months. 
     4. Click Generate Report and wait for the Problem Report to complete.
     5. Download and make a copy of the resulting .zip file somewhere other than the monitoring station.
   • The problem report will make a copy of all the various config files & configuration data used by UIM but you should also make a backup of the following files/directories as these maybe overwritten during the upgrade process.
     1. Any custom scripts or Plugin monitors configured on the monitoring station. These are typically located in the <UptimeDir>/scripts/ and the <UptimeDir>/plugins/ directories.
     2. Any Gadgets downloaded from The Grid. These are located in the <UptimeDir>/gadgets/ directory.
     3. Any custom MIBs added to the <UptimeDir>/mibs/ directory.
     4. If you made any customization's to <UptimeDir>/logging.conf, this should be backed up as well because it is not collected within the problem report.
        

        To guarantee full retention of historical performance data, perform a full database backup prior to upgrading using one of the options from the Backing up and Recovering Uptime Infrastructure Monitor KB article.

5. Log out of the UIM web UI before proceeding with the upgrade. Note that if this step is not followed, you may receive a "Database is not responding" error when attempting to restart UIM after the upgrade.
6. Stop the UIM services before executing the installer using the steps listed in the Starting (or restarting ) and Stopping Uptime Infrastructure Monitor KB article.
7. Execute the UIM installer.
   1. For Linux installations, run the following commands, then follow the directions presented by the installer.
      

      # cd /to/your/upgrade/file/path # chmod +x Uptime-7.8.0-linux.bin # ./Uptime-7.8.0-linux.bin

   2. For Windows installations, right click on the installer, and click Run As Administrator. This will ensure that the installer runs as a local administrator account and has the permissions needed.
8. Depending on your specific environment you may need to re-apply certain changes to the config files that were backed up as part of Step #4. Do not just directly re-apply the backed up copies though, as there is various changes to these config files between versions. If you are unsure of what changes to do after the upgrade, please contact Uptime Support and provide the problem report generated before the upgrade.
9. If any custom files have been removed, copy them back to their respective folders. Do not overwrite any files that already exist within the scripts directory after the upgrade. Like the config files, there are intended changes to these files between Uptime Infrastructure Monitor versions. If you are unsure of what scripts to re-apply after the upgrade, please contact Uptime Support directly and provide the problem report generated before the upgrade.
10. If your UIM deployment includes a UI instance, please review the additional steps required for Gadgets/Dashboards to work correctly across both instances in the "User Interface Instance Settings" section of the Interfacing with Uptime Infrastructure Monitor doc.