In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Nomad
This scenario is for upgrading a server that has ActiveEfficiency Server installed and used by Nomad. If ActiveEfficiency is also being used for Shopping then please also read In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Shopping.
Tachyon Setup will do the following automatically, but only if your Tachyon license includes Nomad, and you choose to install Nomad, and a local installation of ActiveEfficiency Server is detected.
replace ActiveEfficiency Server with Content Distribution to support to new Nomad clients
create a virtual directory in the Tachyon website and use HTTP redirection to support legacy Nomad clients
rename the ActiveEfficiency database as ContentDistribution if it exists on the SQL Server instance you selected for the ContentDistribution database (the database is renamed, but the database mdf and ldf filenames are not changed)
The last point means ActiveEfficiency data will be retained in the ContentDistribution database, to provide the following:
Existing pre-cache jobs, and paused collections, are migrated so they are shared by old and new Nomad clients, and can be managed by upgraded installations of the Nomad Configuration Manager Console Extensions
Locations and Single-site content registrations are not migrated, but retained in legacy database tables so they continue to be used by legacy Nomad clients - content registrations for new Nomad clients are created in new database tables, so that legacy and new clients function independently.
The ActiveEfficiency database will be retained, and no data migrated, if it is on a different SQL Server instance than the one you specified for your ContentDistribution database. To automatically migrate data during upgrade, you will need to copy the ActiveEfficiency database to the new location, and reconfigure ActiveEfficiency Server to use the copied database. Alternatively, you can Manually migrate data as described in the link.
If the installation of Content Distribution fails for whatever reason, the database changes are rolled back.
Although ActiveEfficiency Server is replaced by Content Distribution, the Nomad client in 1E Client 5.2 (and later) does not connect directly to it. Instead, it connects to the same Tachyon Switch and Background Channel as the Tachyon client - the 5.2 and later versions of the Background Channel contain a reverse proxy which forwards API requests to Content Distribution. The Tachyon Switch and Background Channel may be on the same server as the Tachyon Master stack, or on a remote Response Stack. This means any remote Tachyon Response Stacks or DMZ Server (if used) must be upgraded also, before your Tachyon infrastructure can support new Nomad clients.
When upgrading Nomad clients, the new Nomad clients will no longer require an HTTP connection to the server that previously hosted ActiveEfficiency Server. However, if you are upgrading from a Tachyon or SLA server, then other 1E software (Application Migration and AppClarity Software Reclaimer) may still use HTTP to connect to SLA services on the server.
Note
If you are currently using Nomad with ActiveEfficiency, you must upgrade both Nomad clients and ActiveEfficiency. You should only upgrade to Tachyon Platform 8.1 if you are prepared to upgrade Nomad clients to 1E Client 8.1 (with Tachyon and Nomad clients enabled) and replace ActiveEfficiency with Nomad and Content Distribution on Tachyon Platform.
Steps for in-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency
Review your requirements to determine which features you need of 1E Client and Tachyon Platform, please refer to Planning for Tachyon Platform pages
Upgrade your server hardware as required- please refer to Server sizing requirements
Reconfigure Shopping Central (if used)
Uninstall ActiveEfficiency Scout (if used) and disable associated Windows Task Scheduler job(s)
Run Tachyon Setup on the ActiveEfficiency server to upgrade it to Tachyon Platform - please refer to Tachyon Setup
Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon Response Stack servers (if used) - please refer to Tachyon Setup
Verify existing clients, to confirm Tachyon continues to function as before, with Nomad clients using HTTP redirection as described above
Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon DMZ Server (if used) - please refer to Implementing a Tachyon DMZ Server
Verify existing Internet based clients
Deploy new 1E Client to some test devices (with Tachyon and Nomad client enabled)
Verify the test devices
Upgrade Nomad tools - please refer to Upgrading Nomad
Upgrade Nomad Admin Tools and server components
Update OS Deployment Task Sequence actions to use the Tachyon Platform
Review Automatically migrated data and configure Nomad Sites
Deploy new 1E Client to remaining devices.
Warning
Do not reinstall ActiveEfficiency on the Tachyon Platform server.
Automatically migrated data
As stated above, the upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server to Tachyon Platform automatically migrates details of pre-cache jobs, and paused collections, so they can be managed by upgraded installations of the Nomad Configuration Manager Console Extensions. You can review these in the Nomad app.
Locations, Single-site data, and content registrations are not migrated, but are retained in legacy database tables so they continue to be used by legacy Nomad clients. This data is not shared with new clients, so that legacy and new clients function independently. New clients will re-register their content automatically up to 24 hours later, or can be forced by using the NomadBranch command-line parameter -cdssync as described in NomadBranch.exe command-line switches. Old and new clients will perform master elections and peer-share content if they are the same subnet, but they will only use SSD with their own set of clients.
You will continue to maintain Nomad Sites (previously known as Locations) using one of the new versions of the example PowerShell scripts provided with the Nomad Admin Tools. Alternatively, you can use the examples to modify your existing script to use Content Distribution instead of ActiveEfficiency.