Upgrade Process

The Commander installer does not expect a clustered configuration, so the upgrade process involves making both the passive node and the active nodes believe that they are standalone applications. To do so, the dummy database used for the original installation is upgraded. It must be a valid Commander database and not simply an empty database in order for the upgrade to succeed.

To upgrade a high-availability Commander installation, you must perform the following procedures:

  1. Passive node upgrade procedure
  2. Active node upgrade procedure
  3. Passive node start up procedure

The following steps assume that Commander was installed to the default install location for Commander, \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\.

Passive node upgrade procedure

  1. On the passive node, stop the Commander service and the Commander Identity service.
  2. On the passive node, back up the following file to a location outside of the Commander installation path (for example, your Desktop):

    \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\HA.properties

  3. On the passive node, edit the \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\HA.properties file as follows:
    1. Set the following property:

      embotics.cluster.enabled=false

    2. Comment out the DB credential properties that start with hibernate.connection.* :

      # Read-only database credentials used by the passive node

      #hibernate.connection.username=none

      #hibernate.connection.password=none

  4. On the passive node, from the Snow Software program group, launch the Snow Commander Control Panel.
  5. Click the DB Management tab.
  6. Enter the DB Name for your dummy database.
  7. Click Test Connection to confirm that the test is successful.
  8. Click OK to apply, and click OK again when notified that the Commander service will restart.

    If the Commander service doesn't start automatically, start the Commander service on the passive node.

  9. Once the service has restarted, log in to Commander to confirm that it isn't connected to your production database.
  10. On the passive node, upgrade your Commander installation by right-clicking the executable and running as Administrator.
  11. Once the upgrade is complete, log in to Commander with the superuser account to ensure that the upgrade was successful.
  12. Stop the Commander service and the Commander Identity service on the passive node.
  13. On the passive node, restore the HA.properties file from the backup location to: \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\HA.properties.

    Don't start the Commander services on the passive node at this time.

Active node upgrade procedure

  1. On the active node, stop the Commander service and the Commander Identity service.
  2. On the active node, back up the following file to a location outside of the Commander installation path (for example, your Desktop): \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\HA.properties
  3. On the active node, edit the file \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\HA.properties as follows:
  4. Set the following property:

    embotics.cluster.enabled=false

  5. Comment out the DB credential properties that start with hibernate.connection.*

    # Read-only database credentials used by the passive node

    #hibernate.connection.username=none

    #hibernate.connection.password=none

  6. Upgrade your Commander installation on the active node by right-clicking the executable and running as Administrator.
  7. Once the upgrade is complete, log in to Commander with the superuser account to ensure that the upgrade was successful.
  8. Stop the Commander service and the Commander Identity service on the active node.
  9. On the active node, restore the HA.properties file from the backup location to: \Program Files\Embotics\Commander\tomcat\common\classes\HA.properties
  10. Start the Commander service on the active node.
  11. Confirm that this node is the active node by accessing the following address:

    https://<activenode>/webservices/services/rest/v2/active

    The message cluster_node_active indicates success.

    If the node isn’t active, activate it using the Commander API using Postman.

Passive node start up procedure

  1. On the passive node, from the Snow Software program group, launch the Snow Commander Control Panel.
    1. Click the DB Management tab.
    2. Enter the details for your production database.
    3. To confirm that the test is successful, click Test Connection.
    4. Click OK to apply, and click OK again when notified that the Commander service will restart.
  2. If the Commander service doesn't start automatically, start the Commander service on the passive node.
  3. Confirm that both the Commander service and the Commander Identity service have started on the passive node.
  4. Confirm that the passive node has started, but isn't active, by accessing the following address:

    https://<passivenode>/webservices/services/rest/v2/active

    The state should be returned as "offline".

    After the upgrade is completed, Commander performance may be affected for about an hour.