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Upgrading the servers

Upgrade

  1. The HBR, Processing, Reporting, Portal, and Replay servers should be back-up up as per your organisations standards, by default the file/directory location is x:\Program Files (x86)\HCL\Unica Discover\ on all Windows servers.

You can exclude the SQLData location and Discover log directory from the backup is space is at a premium.

Backups will take up a greater amount of disk space on the Processing servers due to the visitor session data stored.

It is advised to back-up the DC_SYSTEM, DC_REPORTS, and DC_STATISTICS databases on the SQL server. The DC_REPORTS database may be large.

  1. Copy and extract the Discover upgrade package (e.g., 12.1.x) to a temporary directory on all Windows servers (HBR, Processing, Reporting, Portal, Replay)

    Warning

    The combined length of the path, including filenames might exceed the Microsoft Windows OS limit of 256 characters once extracted. It is advised to extract the upgrade package immediately under the root of the drive (e.g., x:\HCL_Upgrader_12.1.x\) or shorter.

  2. Review the requirements and tasks for both Data Export and Session Archiver as appropriate.

  3. Stop all Discover services on all Processing servers.

  4. Stop all Discover services on the Reporting/Portal/Replay server(s). Stopping these services will cause traffic to be spooled to the HBR disks.

  5. Upgrade all databases <Discover_Home_Folder>\Reporting\DiscoverDatabaseManager.exe on the Reporting server, connecting with the SQL-SA account. For the following upgrade steps immediately below, do not start the Discover services on the upgraded server(s).

  6. Upgrade (i.e., launch the Discover upgrade application) the Reporting/Portal/Replay server(s)

  7. Upgrade (i.e., launch the Discover upgrade application) all Processing servers

  8. Where the organisations deployment of Discover contains multiple HBR servers, stop a subset of these HBR servers and upgrade them.

  9. Stop the remaining (non-upgraded) HBR servers.

  10. In the following order, start all Discover services on all upgraded servers (the downtime should therefore not exceed a couple of minutes):

    • Reporting/Portal/Replay server(s)
    • Processing servers
    • Initial subset of upgraded HBR servers

  11. Upgrade the remaining HBR servers and start all Discover services on those servers.

Troubleshooting upgrades

If running into the error Discover Transport Service - Service could not be deleted, Discover Transport Service should then appear as 'Disabled' in the Windows Services snap-in, use the following to troubleshoot:

  • Reboot the server, the Discover Transport Service will disappear.
  • Re-create the Discover Transport service using the below commands, to be run from a Windows Command prompt with Administrator access:

sc create "DC_Transport" DisplayName="Discover Transport Service" binpath= "C:\Program Files (x86)\HCL\Unica Discover\DiscoverCaptureSocket.exe"

sc description "DC_Transport" "Receiver for data captured on remote machine(s) and sent to this machine via the network"

Post-upgrade

Processing servers

Restore the file <Discover_Home_Folder>\DiscoverCaptureSocket.cfg from a backup. Validate files such as DCMaint.cfg, filebeat.yml, winlogbeat.yml and others remain untouched/unaltered (e.g. check dates). Now, Restart the Discover Transport service

Reporting server

Compare and if required restore the file \DataExtractor\ScheduleList.bin. the below file from backup

Do NOT restore <HCL Discover home directory>\Portal\WebService\Web.config

Now review the System validation section, after your upgrade is complete.