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Upgrading an onsite deployment to a new release

Periodically new versions of the VisibleThread server software become available, for instance you may wish to upgrade from Server version 3.x to 3.y

This section is for those performing such an upgrade.

 

N.B. We recommend any upgrade is performed in a test environment prior to upgrading your production system. We also recommend you take a backup of your system before upgrading.

 

Red Hat and Ubuntu deployments each have a different upgrade mechanism. Each one will be covered below

NOTE: As of VT Docs 6.0, upgrades require PostgreSQL to be version 12+. To check your PostgreSQL version run 'psql --version'.

We no longer support Ubuntu versions below Ubuntu 20.04; if you are using an older version of Ubuntu you will need to deploy our new Ubuntu OVA and migrate your data to the new server. Please reach out to support@visiblethread.com for more details.

We no longer support RHEL version 7. You will need to migrate to a new RHEL 8 or 9 server to use VT Docs 6.0 (we do not support RHEL in-place upgrades due to changes in PostgreSQL across versions). See our Migration documentation here: https://support.visiblethread.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000175763-How-to-migrate-data-from-one-VisibleThread-server-to-another

 

Upgrading a VT Docs Ubuntu deployment

 

NOTE: We recommend that you take a snapshot and/or a backup of the database before upgrading. To do that run

/home/visiblethread/VisibleThreadTools/vt-backup.sh

VisibleThread product upgrades are shipped as upgrade files with the extension '.tar.gz', for example VT-Docs-6.1.1-Upgrade.tar.gz

Download details for each upgrade are emailed to all VisibleThread customers as soon as the upgrade becomes available. If you are missing details of where to retrieve an upgrade please contact our support team.

When you have downloaded your upgrade file, it needs to be added to the home folder on the VisibleThread Virtual Appliance:

/home/visiblethread/VisibleThreadTools/upgrade

Uploading the upgrade file to the Virtual Appliance

You can upload the upgrade file to the Virtual Appliance via SSH (Secure SHell) using port 22. The easiest way to do this is to use one of a number of freely available tools such as the FileZilla client (http://filezillaproject.org/) or WinSCP (http://www.winscp.net). The next section outlines the detailed steps to complete this:

  • Connect to your Virtual Appliance using the following details:
    • IP address: The IP Address of your Virtual Apppliance/VisibleThread Server.
    • username: visiblethread
    • Password: password (unless changed when deploying the VisibleThread server)
    • Port: 22
  • Once connected navigate to the /home/visiblethread/VisibleThreadTools/upgrade folder.
  • Upload the upgrade file to this folder.

Important - Upgrading to VT Docs 6+

As of VT Docs 6+ the application now requires Java OpenJDK 17 to install the upgrade. Please follow the instruction below to get Java OpenJDK 17 installed prior to installing the upgrade. Only proceed with this step if you are ready to upgrade; VT Docs versions below 6.0 will not work with Java 17!

# Update repo and install Java Openjdk 17
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y openjdk-17-jdk-headless

 

Once Java 17 is successfully installed, check to ensure the right version is in use:

 

# Check that the OS is now using Java OpenJDK 17
java -version

 

It should show:

 

If java version is still 1.8.0 please run the command below to update:


sudo update-alternatives --config java

# This will display a selection screen. Please press the number key representing
# Java OpenJDK 17 and press Enter.
# Confirm the version change

java -version


Now that the java version is updated you can continue with the upgrade.

Applying the upgrade to the Virtual Appliance

Note: Applying the upgrade will bring down the VisibleThread application for several minutes.

The VisibleThread Virtual Appliance contains an upgrade script that will perform an upgrade of the Virtual Appliance. To run this script log on to the VisibleThread Virtual Appliance console and execute the following commands:

cd /home/visiblethread/VisibleThreadTools
screen
./vt-upgrade.sh upgrade/<upgradefilename.tar.gz>

 

Note: You may be prompted for the "visiblethread" user password when running this command. This will unpack the archive, deploy the upgrade files and restart the application.

 

 [ Post Upgrade of VT Docs from any version prior to VT Docs 5.0+ ]

We have removed /sandboxAdmin from the application. System Admin users can now access the System Admin portal, by updating an existing user to System Admin by following the below support article and section (Updating an existing user to System Admin). The new admin area is accessed by using the credentials of the user you updated following the article via the login page /login.jsp. Once logged in click on the System Admin Icon
sysadmin.png
Update user to System Admin 

 

Upgrading a VT Docs Red Hat deployment

Upgrades are distributed in the form of a new rpm package. You will have been provided details of where to download this upgrade file from VisibleThread support via e-mail. Mail support@visiblethread.com should you not have received these details. 

NOTE: We recommend that you take a snapshot and/or a backup of the database before upgrading. To do that run:

/opt/visiblethread/VisibleThreadTools/vt-backup.sh

 

Important - Upgrading to VT Docs 6+

As of VT Docs 6+ the application now requires Java OpenJDK 17 to install the upgrade. Please follow the instruction below to get Java OpenJDK 17 installed prior to installing the upgrade. Only proceed with this step if you are ready to upgrade; VT Docs versions below 6.0 will not work with Java 17!

# Update repo and install Java Openjdk 17
sudo dnf update
sudo yum install java-17-openjdk # in AmazonLinux this will be called java-17-amazon-corretto

# Check that the OS is now using Java OpenJDK 17
java -version

 

It should show:

 

If java version is still 1.8.0 please run the command below to update:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

# This will display a selection screen. 
# Please press the number key representing Java OpenJDK 17 and press Enter.
# Confirm the version change

java -version

Now that the java version is updated you can continue with the upgrade

 

Download the new .rpm to your Red Hat server, and to install it :

sudo yum install --setopt=clean_requirements_on_remove=0 visiblethread-docs-6.1.1-1.x86_64.rpm

This will install the new application version and restart the services.

 

Upgrading a VT Docs Windows deployment

Upgrades are distributed in the form of a new .EXE file. You will have been provided details of where to download this upgrade file from VisibleThread support via e-mail. Mail support@visiblethread.com should you not have received these details. 

NOTE: We recommend that you take a snapshot and/or a backup of the database before upgrading. To do that run:

# Windows
cd C:\Program Files\visiblethread\vtdocs\VisibleThreadTools
vt-backup.bat

 

Install Windows Upgrade

Download the new .exe file to your Windows server, and install it by double clicking and following the on-screen instructions.

Testing the upgrade

To verify the upgrade was performed successfully, point your browser at https://<VisibleThreadServerAddress> and verify the version number (e.g. 6.1.1) on the sign-in screen looks like the one below

 

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