13.5 Upgrading the Dashboard

13.5.1 About Patches

Technical Support provides updates for the Dashboard in patch bundles, which must be installed on the Dashboard server. Before installing a patch, read all correspondence sent along with the patch, including a Readme file or e‑mail.

Patch files use the naming convention nnnyyyy-mm-ddCRiiiiii‑Rxxxxx-META-DASH.jar. Table 13-1 describes the components of the patch file name.

Table 13-1 Naming Conventions

Patch File Name Component

Definition

nnn

Software version number (such as 550 for version 5.5.0).

yyyy

Current year.

mm

Current month (such as 03 for March).

dd

Current day (such as 01, 02, 03).

iiiiii

Internal reference number

xxxxx

Release number

META

If present, indicates the patch contains all interdependent patches.

DASH

Indicates that the patch is for the Dashboard. If you have a patch with the name NOC, it is for Operations Center server.

For more information on installing this patch, see the Operations Center Server Installation Guide.

13.5.2 Installing Patches

The procedure for installing the patch is the same for UNIX and Windows. The type of file for a patch is .jar. If you receive the file with a different extension, rename it to .jar before installing it.

One or more patches can be applied at a time, but patches and rollbacks cannot be applied at the same time with the same command. When a patch has already been applied, but is a older version than what you are installing, it is necessary to rollback the patch before installing the newer version of the patch.

When a patch bundle is applied, all previously applied patches are removed before the patch is applied.

To install the patch:

  1. Copy the patch bundle to the root of the Dashboard installation directory.

    The installation directory in the file system should have a minimum free disk space of twice the size of the patch bundle file.

    For example, if the .jar file is 50 MB, then the free disk space should be at least 100 MB.

  2. At a command prompt, enter Java to verify that Java is installed.

    Patch files are issued as .jar files. The patch bundle is a Java executable file.

  3. If you receive the patch file with a different extension than .jar, such as a.zip , rename it to .jar before installing it.

  4. At the command prompt in the Dashboard installation directory, enter java –jar and the file name of the patch bundle.

    For example, if the Dashboard is installed in the C: directory and the name of the patch bundle is 5502015-03-04CR913407-R95915-DASH.jar, then the command is:

    C:/OperationsCenter_Dashboard_install_path>java -jar 55502015-03-04CR913407-R95915-DASH.jar

    For additional options when running the installation, enter:

    java –jar patch_bundle_filename(s) --help

    Where, patch_bundle_filename(s) is a list of one or more patch files separated by a space.

    This displays the following options:

    • –describe: Prints patch manifest information.

    • –prompt: Displays the Operations Center Dashboard Configuration Manager after the patch is installed.

    • –verbose: Prints detailed information to the screen as the patch is installed.

    • ‑-force: Forces a patch to install even if it has already been applied. Never use the force command unless instructed to by Support.

    Add one of these commands at the end of the java –jar patch_bundle_filename command when installing the patch bundle (for example, java -jar 5502015-03-04CR913407-R95915-DASH.jar --verbose).

    If installing on Windows and User Access Control (UAC) is enabled, you must run the command prompt as the Administrator.

  5. During installation, the following occurs:

    • A back up is automatically created for all files that are overwritten. For more information about rollback files, see Section 13.5.3, Rolling Back a Patch Installation.

    • Patches (of the same version) that have already been applied are skipped unless the --force option was set.

    • The Operations Center Configuration Manager always runs silently and applies the current settings.

    • The patch does not override the existing Operations Center Configuration Manager settings.

      For more information regarding the Operations Center Configuration Manager, see the Operations Center Server Configuration Guide.

  6. Review the following chapter to configure and start the Dashboard.

After the patch has been installed and a rollback file is created, the patch cannot be installed again. If you attempt to run the patch bundle .jar file again, the following error messages are displayed:

ERROR: Unable to continue since rollback jar already exists
ERROR: unable to create rollback jar

13.5.3 Rolling Back a Patch Installation

As part of the patch installation process, Operations Center automatically backs up all files that are overwritten and places them in a file called patch_filename-rollback.jar, such as 5502015-03-04CR913407-R95915-DASH-rollback.jar.

If you decide to remove the changes made by the patch to Operations Center, run this rollback JAR file from the Operations Center root installation directory. The command for running the rollback file is the same as when the patch is installed. For example:

C:/OperationsCenter_install_path>java -jar 5502015-03-04CR913407-R95915-DASH-rollback.jar

When multiple rollback patches are applied using the same command, they are applied in the reverse order.

13.5.4 Upgrading the Dashboard

The following notes apply when upgrading your version of the Dashboard:

  • The Dashboard_install_path/server/webapps/root/WEB-INF/portal-ext.xml file, which might have been customized for various property settings, is overwritten during the upgrade process. A copy is automatically saved as portal-ext.xml.previous in the same directory. If you had modified this file as part of your installation, you will need to restore these changes after the upgrade installation.

    Note that the portal-ext.xml file should never be modified. Any configurations and changes should be made in the portal-ext.custom.xml file as it is never overwritten by the installer.

  • If the NetIQ Operations Center Dashboard service is not using the Local System account to connect to the dashboard database, you must re-establish the service after upgrading.

  • Custom theme content is not updated and will default to the default theme when you upgrade from Operations Center v5.6 to v5.7. You must also manually change any static links to documentation.

  • Liferay 6 does not support the 2-1 (30/70) page layout. If you configured a page with the 2-1 (30/70) page layout, to avoid losing the portlet, change the page to use any other layout before you upgrade to Operations Center v5.7.

13.5.5 Upgrading from the Dashboard Embedded Database to Oracle or SQL Server

If running an existing dashboard implementation, you must switch from using the default Hypersonic SQL embedded database to upgrade to an Oracle or SQL Server database. If you have been using the dashboard with the embedded database, it is possible to upgrade your database and preserve existing data.

Operations Center includes the following packaged drivers for connecting to SQL Server and Oracle databases:

  • SQL Server: net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver

  • Oracle: oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver

See Supported Versions and Hardware Requirements in the Operations Center Getting Started Guide for supported database versions.

IMPORTANT:You must start the dashboard at least once using the Hypersonic SQL embedded database, so that it can run critical database verification processes. If you are installing the dashboard for the first time or have just upgraded, you must start the dashboard once before implementing the following steps to migrate the database to Oracle or SQL Server.

To migrate the dashboard to use an Oracle or SQL Server database on an existing integration:

  1. Ensure that the dashboard is running. See Section 2.3.1, Starting the Dashboard.

  2. Ensure that the target database does not contain any Dashboard tables.

  3. Use the Liferay Data Migration tool to migrate existing data from the database:

    1. Start the Control Panel as administrator and navigate to Configuration > Server Administration > Data Migration.

    2. Provide the requested information for the target database, and then click Execute.

    The migration process updates the Dashboard configuration to use the new database. The Dashboard server is shut down during the update.

  4. Restart the dashboard and verify that existing data is available. See Section 2.3.1, Starting the Dashboard.