Automic Workload Automation

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Zero Downtime Upgrade

  • 1.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 05, 2016 01:18 AM
    We're currently running AE V11.2 & want to upgrade to V11.2.2 using the Zero Downtime Upgrade process but I have few concerns
    1) Our DEV environment consists of one automation engine (on Linux). 
    In the documentation it says we need two separate environments. Which I'm not sure I understand. 
    Do I just duplicate the bin directory into another bin directory, but leave the .ini files exactly the same? 
    -> The two separate environment means that you will need to have an other AE set up (a new bin directory which include the binaries for AE 11.2.2, and its ini file which mostly is the same with the old one except for the WP and CP port.)
    and the original/current bin (AE 11.2) directory 
    2) Our UAT environment consists of two automation engines (on Linux) in active/active license mode. 
    Do we need two separate environments for each automation engine in this setup? 
    -> Let say you have AE 11.2 in Machine 1, and 2
    so you need to have at least one separate environment (AE11.2.2) in either machine 1 or 2, but We recommend to have separate environment for both


    Please find the below video for your reference.



  • 2.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 05, 2016 04:58 AM
    For each current AE instance, you must set up a completely separate instance of the Automation Engine for the new version. Because it will reside on the same host as the old instance, the new instance must reside in its own separate directory, and must be configured to use different port numbers than the old AE instance.


  • 3.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 05, 2016 07:31 AM
    So let's say your current structure has the AE installed to /automic/automationengine/bin.

    Does the separate instance get created in /automic/automationengine2/bin?  Or /automic/automationengine/bin2?



  • 4.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 05, 2016 09:04 AM
    So let's say your current structure has the AE installed to /automic/automationengine/bin.

    Does the separate instance get created in /automic/automationengine2/bin?  Or /automic/automationengine/bin2?
    I would recommend something like /automic/automationengine2/bin so that there are no shared data between the two instances.


  • 5.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 05, 2016 02:09 PM
    Remember that you only need technically 1 CP and 1 WP up and running in a temporary location while you do the upgrade, It was recommended to me to install the engine in automic/automationengine2/bin and get a cp up and running in that with a wp then upgraded all your existing programs over top of what you have, then switch back to automic/automationengine/bin and delete the temporary one. the reason is you don't need to use double the hd space and you don't have to change the paths in any of your configs. The documentation says you need double the ports, but in truth 2 CPs and 5 WPs on one box will get you through a ZDU, especially if this is just DEV


  • 6.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 05, 2016 05:12 PM
    The recommendations do assume that the ZDU will be utilized in such a way that there will be a window of mixed mode (to confirm everything is running as expected) and that production will be occurring during the mixed mode (hence the recommendation to 'double' the CP's and WP's to minimize the impact on the system). 

    If it is a situation like a dev environment where you can test ZDU with a single CP and WP and doing the transfer, that is definitely a less resource intensive way to go about it. 


  • 7.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 13, 2016 10:16 AM
    Has anyone done the ZDU to the latest hot fix - HF3?  We're trying the ZDU for the first time and getting a weird error about not being able to find the UC_INI.TXT file.  On UNIX, it is actually the uc_ini.txt file, so we're not sure where this is getting set. Just wondering.  


  • 8.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 13, 2016 12:19 PM
    Hi Laura,

    The latest version of AEv11.2 is the Automation Engine 11.2.2
    Or are you referring to the "Automic Workload Automation" (package) 11.2.3  (which include the Automation Engine 11.2.2).

    I don't see a Hotfix 3 available on our download center for AEv11.2  But in your case, as a workaround I am curious, if you rename the file to uppercase to what it is looking for does it work as expected or produce same/other errors.


  • 9.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 21, 2016 09:16 PM
    Michael Lowry said:
    For each current AE instance, you must set up a completely separate instance of the Automation Engine for the new version. Because it will reside on the same host as the old instance, the new instance must reside in its own separate directory, and must be configured to use different port numbers than the old AE instance.

    I usually only stop some of the existing CPs and use them for ZDU (i.e. if the current system has 4 CPs configured I stop 2 of them). So I dont have to deal with network and/or firewall related settings. In most of the cases a duplication of CP ports leads to a change of the db schema as new MQCPxxx tables are required.



  • 10.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 21, 2016 09:27 PM
      Laura Albrecht said:
    Has anyone done the ZDU to the latest hot fix - HF3?  We're trying the ZDU for the first time and getting a weird error about not being able to find the UC_INI.TXT file.  On UNIX, it is actually the uc_ini.txt file, so we're not sure where this is getting set. Just wondering.  

    HF3 is not yet available. Guess you're referring to the "big package" Automic Workload Automation 11.2.3. I had the same question this week from another customer, who was confused because of this incorrect or missleading version number ... :-/

    If I remember corerctly we had this kind of upper/lowercase issue in a former version. It is not relevant on Windows based systems but on Unix/Linux it's crucial . Simply rename the filename in the load script.



  • 11.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 22, 2016 03:29 AM
    Peter Grundler said:

    I usually only stop some of the existing CPs and use them for ZDU (i.e. if the current system has 4 CPs configured I stop 2 of them). So I dont have to deal with network and/or firewall related settings. In most of the cases a duplication of CP ports leads to a change of the db schema as new MQCPxxx tables are required.

    Interesting approach. Thanks for the idea.


  • 12.  Zero Downtime Upgrade

    Posted Jul 22, 2016 11:33 AM
    I used ZDU to upgrade from 11.2.0 to 11.2.1.  In my case having a little bit of down time was not any problem, so I decided to use the simplified method that did not require any additional ports, but does require some down time.

    The method I followed is called "Duplicate an Existing Installation" as per this documentation;
    http://docs.automic.com/documentation/AE/11.2/english/AE_WEBHELP/help.htm?product=awa#ucsaem.htm