Upgrade Commander

This topic provides information to upgrade a previous version of Commander to the currently supported version.

If you need help with the upgrade process, contact Customer Support.

Before you begin the upgrade process

  • Review Supported upgrade paths to see whether a direct upgrade from your currently installed version is supported.
  • Review Changes affecting upgrading users to understand any Commander user interface and operational changes that the newer release may introduce for users.
  • Process any in-flight service requests before upgrading.
  • Back up Commander and its database before upgrading. See the Snow Globe article Microsoft SQL Maintenance Planning for Snow Commander.
    • We recommend performing the upgrade during a maintenance window, as Commander will be unavailable during the upgrade process. Depending on the database size and content, the upgrade process may take a significant amount of time.
    • You can only upgrade from a database of the same type. If you want to change from the default to SQL server or vice versa, you must uninstall and reinstall Commander, in which case all your system and user data is overwritten.
  • If you use the VM Access Proxy (formerly the Console Proxy), it's highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest VM Access Proxy 3.7. See Upgrade Commander VM Access Proxy for more general information about upgrading the VM Proxy and to ensure that you perform the steps for both upgrade tasks in the proper order.

Supported upgrade paths

  • You cannot upgrade directly to Commander 9.6 from versions earlier than 9.1.
  • You cannot upgrade directly to Commander 9.3 or later from versions earlier than 8.9.
  • As of release 9.0, support is removed for Commander versions earlier than 8.5.

Consult the following table to see whether a direct upgrade from your currently installed version is supported:

Current installed versionDirect upgrade supported to

9.6.x

9.7.x

9.5.x

9.6.x, 9.7.x

9.4.x

9.5.x, 9.6.x, 9.7.x

9.3.x

9.4.x, 9.5.x, 9.6.x, 9.7.x

9.2.x

9.3.x, 9.4.x, 9.5.x, 9.6.x, 9.7.x

9.1.x

9.2.x, 9.3.x, 9.4.x, 9.5.x, 9.6.x, 9.7.x

9.0.x

9.1.x, 9.2.x, 9.3.x, 9.4.x, 9.5.x

8.10.x

9.0.x, 9.1.x, 9.2.x, 9.3.x, 9.4.x, 9.5.x

8.9.x

8.10.x, 9.0.x, 9.1.x, 9.2.x, 9.3.x, 9.4.x, 9.5.x

8.8.x

8.9.x, 8.10.x, 9.0.x, 9.1.x, 9.2.x

8.7.x

8.8.x, 8.9.x, 8.10.x, 9.0.x, 9.1.x, 9.2.x

8.6.x

8.7.x, 8.8.x, 8.9.x, 8.10.x, 9.0.x, 9.1.x, 9.2.x

8.5.x

8.6.x, 8.7.x, 8.8.x, 8.9.x, 8.10.x, 9.0.x, 9.1.x, 9.2.x

8.4.x

not supported

8.3.x

not supported

8.2.x

not supported

8.1.x

not supported

8.0.x

not supported

Changes affecting upgrading users

Important Upgrade Information:

Commander 9.0.0 has updated our database SQL driver. This driver has new configuration requirements which may result in issues during upgrades. If you're using the default SQL instance and port, no upgrade issues are expected. Please read the following Knowledge Base article if you're using a SQL named instance or a non-standard port. Upgrading to Commander 9.0 using SQL named instances or non-standard ports. For help with the configuration, create a case through the Snow Support Portal.

Performing the upgrade

To upgrade from a previous version:

  1. Back up the Commander database.
  2. To keep a copy of your configuration, record the values of any system properties that you customized for your current Commander installation.

    Commander system properties have the format "-Dembotics.<setting>=<value>" and are used to tweak Commander default settings.

  3. Log in to Snow Commander Downloads and download the Commander installation package.
  4. Double-click the installation executable.
  5. In the Installation wizard, click Next.
  6. Accept the terms of the license agreement and click Next.
  7. Review the customer experience information and click Next.
  8. Select Upgrade to the new version (system and user data will be preserved) and click Next.
  9. Review the upgrade-related warnings, enable Continue Upgrade to confirm the upgrade, and click Next.
  10. Review the Pre-installation Summary and click Install.
  11. Follow the wizard and, if required, edit any of the fields that appear in the displayed pages and click Next.

    For more information, see the Installation Table.

  12. Click Done when you're finished.
  13. After the upgrade is completed, the Commander Windows service restarts. Once the service is started, it typically takes about five minutes before the application is fully initialized and available for use.
  14. Launch Commander at https://<server hostname or IP address> using your browser and the credentials you normally use.

    If you specified a non-default Commander port, the URL to access Commander is
    https://<server hostname or IP address>:<port>.

    After upgrading, always clear your browser cache to ensure that drop-down menus, directory trees and images display properly.

    A Database Maintenance scheduled task is scheduled to run once on the Saturday following the upgrade, at 2:00 a.m. This task creates database indexes which speed up cloud account reconnection and Commander service restart. Once the scheduled task has run successfully, the task is automatically deleted. It's not possible to delete this task manually. You can change the time when this scheduled task runs. See Schedule Database Maintenance Task.