Upgrade

This topic explains how to upgrade an existing BigFix UI installation to a newer version with the BFUI.exe --upgrade command.

Before you begin

Before you start the upgrade, complete these tasks:

  • Download the new version of the BigFix UI build and extract it to a directory.

  • Check the version of both builds. Run BFUI.exe --version from the cmd\bfui folder of each build. The command reports the BFUI version, the database manual patch version, and the embedded frontend versions.

  • Confirm that the new version is higher than the installed version.

  • Take a full backup of the existing database.

  • Run the upgrade with a user that has administrator privileges. Without administrator privileges, the command fails with the message Failed to determine administrator privileges.

About this task

The upgrade command copies the new executable and service manager to the installed location, migrates the database, upgrades the AppConfig.yaml file, and extracts the new frontend. Run the command from the new version.

Procedure

  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the cmd\bfui folder of the new extracted build.
  2. Run the upgrade command. 
    BFUI.exe --upgrade

    The command detects the existing installation automatically.

  3. Confirm the upgrade.

    The command displays the target version and asks whether to proceed. Enter yes to continue, or no to cancel the upgrade.

    Note: If the target version is not newer than the installed version, the command displays a warning and asks for confirmation. Enter no to cancel. Downgrading is not recommended.
  4. Enter the instance admin username and password when prompted.

    These are the application instance credentials that you created during the setup. If the credentials are not correct, the command reports Authentication failed and stops.

  5. Choose whether to back up the local application state when prompted.

    Before it changes anything, the command copies the local application state (the cmd, data, and wwwroot folders) to a backup folder. The command displays the backup location, the space required, and the space free on the install volume.

    Enter yes to take the backup. If you already backed up the application, or if the volume cannot accommodate the space shown, type I understand the risk to skip the backup. If you skip the backup, you accept the risk.

    Note: The backup does not include the application database. Back up the database separately before you continue.
  6. Start the BES UI service when prompted.

    The command stops the BES UI service before the upgrade starts. After the upgrade completes, the command asks whether to start the service.

    Enter yes to start the service. The service comes up a few seconds after the program exits. Enter no to leave the service in the stopped state and start it manually later.

Results

The command reports the progress of the upgrade step by step, in the following order:

  1. Validating the installation folder
  2. Backing up the installed version
  3. Verifying database permissions
  4. Running the integrity audit with the previous version
  5. Capturing the schema snapshot with the previous version
  6. Analyzing upgrade impact
  7. Running database migrations
  8. Installing binaries and configuration
  9. Extracting the frontend

Under Summary, the command reports that the upgrade to version 1.x.x.xxx completed, and the time that the upgrade took. For example, Upgrade to version 1.0.4.542 completed in 2m6s. The summary also lists the backup location, the detail log, and the transcript log.

Verify that the BES UI service is running and that you can access the BigFix UI.