Step A: Get Ready for the Install - AWS Elemental Server
Before You BeginSave Your Files

This is version 2.17 of the AWS Elemental Server documentation. This is the latest version. For prior versions, see the Previous Versions section of AWS Elemental Conductor File and AWS Elemental Server Documentation.

Step A: Get Ready for the Install

Before You Begin

If you are upgrading a Conductor File cluster, you need to dismiss, upgrade, and restore all nodes to rebuild the cluster:

  1. Before performing the final kickstart to 2.17.x from 2.16.x or 2.15.x, make backups of all necessary databases and files from all AWS Elemental Conductor File and AWS Elemental Server nodes within the cluster

  2. Disable high availability (HA) and dismiss all nodes from the cluster

  3. Perform the 2.17.x upgrade, including the kickstart, for each node

  4. Restore the backed-up files to each node

  5. Rebuild the cluster following the instructions in the AWS Elemental Conductor File Cluster Configuration Guide.

Save Your Files

If you are upgrading to 2.17.x from version 2.15.x or 2.16.x, follow these steps to ensure you don’t lose your data or settings. If you are upgrading from a version earlier than 2.15.x, you must first upgrade to 2.15.x and then upgrade to 2.17.x. To upgrade to version 2.15, see the installation guide for the relevant version.

Important

It is extremely important that you maintain all backups created before upgrading to 2.17.x, including database backups, configuration files, licenses, and so on. Store backup files externally, on a USB or network drive for example, and not on the local disk.

If you need to revert to a previous major version (2.16.x or below) of AWS Elemental Server, you cannot downgrade. You must do a clean installation. You can’t import database backups from AWS Elemental Server 2.17.x, and you will lose any changes made after installing 2.17.x. For more information, see AWS Elemental Server Installation Guide.

Procedure

  1. Create a backup of the database as it exists for your current version.

    1. To initiate a manual backup through the command line, start at the Linux command line

    2. Log in with the elemental user credentials

    3. Run the following command:

      snmpset -c elemental_snmp_write -v 2c -m ELEMENTAL-MIB localhost databaseBackup = 1

    4. Find the database backups, including automated backups, in the following directory: /home/elemental/database_backups/

  2. Locate the following files on the node, in the /home/elemental directory:

    File Description
    activation_xxxx-<random characters>.key The activation key for your license, present only if you installed software yourself.
    lic-download-<hostname>.tgz Aggregated, compressed file with all your license files. You will either have this file, or a set of individual .lic files.
    eme.lic A license for AWS Elemental Server.
    ui.lic A license for AWS Elemental Server.
    cable.lic The license for the Cable Labs option, if installed.

    Other files

    Other configurations that you have created as part of your deployment.

  3. Copy the database backup and all other files to a directory on another system or to a USB stick.

    Use the protocol compatible with your equipment. For example:

    • Use Windows Share protocol: Connect to \\<node IP>\elemental on a PC.

    • Use Samba: Connect to smb://<node IP>/elemental on a Mac.