In-place upgrade of Tachyon

This scenario is for upgrading from an older version of Tachyon.

If your current Tachyon server already has ActiveEfficiency Server installed then please also read the following according to what it is currently used for.

• In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Nomad
• In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Shopping 

Tachyon Setup is used to upgrade the following versions of Tachyon and its applications to Tachyon Platform 5.2.

Tachyon Setup assumes you will keep existing applications when upgrading and optionally install additional applications. However, your Tachyon license ultimately determines which applications you can install and what you are able to use when you connect to the Tachyon Portal.   

Tachyon Platform 5.2includes Real-time and inventory features. Explorer, Guaranteed State, Patch Success, Application Migration, AppClarity, Experience, Nomad.

Upgrade steps

1. Upgrade server hardware as required - please refer to Server sizing
2. If upgrading from versions older than Tachyon 5.0 you will need to import the Switch certificate files into Windows certificate store. Please refer to Moving Switch certificate files to the Windows Certificate Store below.
3. Run Tachyon Setup on the Tachyon Master Stack server to upgrade to Tachyon Platform
4. Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon Response Stack servers (if used)
5. Verify existing clients
6. Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon DMZ Server (if used)
7. Verify existing Internet based clients
8. Upgrade existing product packs, and install new ones
9. Deploy new 1E Client to devices (with Tachyon enabled) and verify.

Changing the Platform configuration when reinstalling or upgrading

Keep the DNS Names

Each server that has Tachyon platform components installed requires its own DNS Name.

The number of DNS Names used by a system depend on the location of Tachyon and other Platform services. The table below describes options.

Tachyon Setup supports installation of one HTTP and one HTTPS binding, but you can manually add more bindings after installation. HTTPS bindings can share a web server certificate provided it includes all DNS Names, or each HTTPS binding can have its own certificate.

Each DNS Name used to access a Tachyon Server must be included as a DNS Name in the Subject Alternate Name (SAN) entry of the web server certificate, and the Switch certificate files.

A DNS Name can be a DNS alias, CNAME or Host (A) record.

Moving Server

Agents use the DNS Name FQDN to connect to the Switch and Background Channel. Provided the DNS Name FQDN remains the same, the server can be renamed or moved without having to re-configure clients.

If the server hosting a Tachyon Server is renamed or moved, then it will need a new certificate and Tachyon Server must be re-installed. The database can be kept. There is also a known issue where new website URLs do not get updated in the database tables.

Please contact 1E for advice if a new configuration is required when re-installing or upgrading a server.

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 below.

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 new Nomad client in 1E Client 5.2 does not connect directly to it. Instead, it connects to the same Tachyon Switch and Background Channel as the Tachyon client - the 5.2 version of the Background Channel contains a reverse proxy to forward 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.

Upgrade steps

1. Review your requirements to determine which features you need of 1E Client and Tachyon Platform, please refer to Design Considerations, Requirements and Preparation pages
2. Upgrade your server hardware as required- please refer to Server sizing
3. Reconfigure Shopping Central (if used)
4. Uninstall ActiveEfficiency Scout (if used) and disable associated Windows Task Scheduler job(s)
5. Run Tachyon Setup on the ActiveEfficiency server to upgrade it to Tachyon Platform - please refer to Tachyon Setup
6. Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon Response Stack servers (if used) - please refer to Tachyon Setup
7. Verify existing clients, to confirm Tachyon continues to function as before, with Nomad clients using HTTP redirection as described above
8. Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon DMZ Server (if used) - please refer to Implementing a Tachyon DMZ Server
9. Verify existing Internet based clients
10. Deploy new 1E Client to some test devices (with Tachyon and Nomad client enabled)
11. Verify the test devices
12. Upgrade Nomad tools - please refer to Nomad 7.1 - Upgrading Nomad
    1. Upgrade Nomad Admin Tools and server components
    2. Update OS Deployment Task Sequence actions to use the Tachyon Platform
    3. Review Automatically migrated data and configure Nomad Sites
13. Deploy new 1E Client to remaining devices.

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.

Side-by-side upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Nomad

This scenario is for an existing Nomad and ActiveEfficiency installation, where Tachyon Platform is on a different server, either newly installed or upgraded from on earlier version of SLA Platform or Tachyon. The old ActiveEfficiency Server is eventually decommissioned. There is no requirement for HTTP redirection on the Tachyon server, because old Nomad clients will continue to use the ActiveEfficiency server, and new Nomad clients will use Content Distribution on the upgraded Tachyon Platform. Each set of clients functions independently. Some data is manually migrated from the ActiveEfficiency server, as described below.

If your Tachyon license includes Nomad, and you choose to install Nomad, and a local installation of ActiveEfficiency Server is detected, then you are doing an In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Nomad.

If a local installation of ActiveEfficiency Server is not detected, the ActiveEfficiency database is retained even if it is on the same SQL instance you specified for the ContentDistribution database. 

Upgrade steps

1. Review your requirements to determine which features you need of 1E Client and Tachyon Platform, please refer to Design Considerations, Requirements, and Preparation pages
2. Upgrade your server hardware as required- please refer to Server sizing
3. Run Tachyon Setup on the existing SLA Platform or Tachyon server to upgrade it to Tachyon Platform - please refer to Tachyon Setup 
4. Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon Response Stack servers (if used) - please refer to Tachyon Setup
5. Verify existing clients (if upgrading SLA Platform or Tachyon)
6. Run Tachyon Setup on remote Tachyon DMZ Server (if used) - please refer to Implementing a Tachyon DMZ Server
7. Verify existing Internet based clients (if upgrading Tachyon)
8. Deploy new 1E Client to some test devices (with Tachyon and Nomad client enabled)
9. Verify the test devices
10. Upgrade Nomad Admin Tools and server components - please refer to Nomad 7.1 - Upgrading Nomad
    
    1. Upgrade Nomad Admin Tools and server components
    2. Update OS Deployment Task Sequence actions to use the Tachyon Platform
    3. Manually migrate data from ActiveEfficiency Server
    4. Configure Nomad Sites
11. Deploy new 1E Client to remaining devices
12. When all Nomad clients have been upgraded, then you can decommission the old ActiveEfficiency Server (unless you need to retain it for Shopping). 

Manually migrate data

Use the following migration scripts to manually migrate sites, pre-cache jobs, and paused collections, from ActiveEfficiency, so they can be managed by upgraded installations of the Nomad Configuration Manager Console Extensions. After migration, you can review these in the Nomad app.

Locations, Single-site data, and content registrations are not migrated, but are copied to legacy database tables for reference only. 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 maintain Nomad Sites (previously known as Locations) using the 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.

You may continue to maintain Locations in ActiveEfficiency as before, to continue supporting old clients.

Click here to download - AE-CD Data Migration Scripts.zip

Prerequisites

• The ability to run PowerShell scripts and SQL script
• A SQL Login on each SQL Server instance for the user running the scripts
• db_datareader rights on the ActiveEfficiency database
• db_datawriter rights on the ContentDistribution database

Before running the scripts you will need to prevent clients, administrators, and scheduled jobs from updating ActiveEfficiency and Nomad.

1. Stop IIS on the Tachyon Master Stack server (where Content Distribution is installed)
   1. Open command prompt in administrator mode and run iisreset /stop
2. Stop IIS on the server where ActiveEfficiency Server is installed
   1. Open command prompt in administrator mode and run iisreset /stop
3. Temporarily disable any Task Scheduler jobs related to ActiveEfficiency
   1. From the Start screen, start typing Task Scheduler then click on Task Scheduler in the search results
   2. Expand Task Scheduler Library → ActiveEfficiency
   3. Right-click on each job and select Disable
4. If you have any custom jobs to run import scripts for Sites and Subnets then also disable these temporarily.

Create Tables

Open SQL Management Studio and connect to ContentDistribution database. Execute SQL script CreateTables.sql. This will create all the required legacy tables in the ContentDistribution database.

Export Data

Run the ExportData.ps1 script in a PowerShell admin command prompt using a command line similar to below.

.\ExportData.ps1 -AEServerName "AEServer" -AEDBName "ActiveEfficiency" -CDServerName "CDServer" -CDDBName "ContentDistribution" -folderPath "C:\migration" -logsPath "C:\migration\logs"

This command will create a series of CSV files that we will later import into the ContentDistribution database.

Import Data

Run the ImportData.ps1 script in a PowerShell admin command prompt using a command line similar to below.

.\importData.ps1 -CDServerName "CDServer" -CDDBName "ContentDistribution" -folderPath "C:\migration" -logsPath "C:\migration\logs"

This command will populate the tables from the CSV files exported earlier.

Restart IIS

1. Restart IIS on the ActiveEfficiency Server and Tachyon Master Stack server (where Content Distribution is installed)
   1. Open command prompt in administrator mode and run iisreset /start
2. Enable the Task Scheduler jobs again on the ActievEfficiency Server

Script parameters

In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Shopping

This scenario is for upgrading a server that has ActiveEfficiency Server installed and used by 1E Shopping. If ActiveEfficiency is also being used for Nomad then please also read In-place upgrade of ActiveEfficiency Server for Nomad.

If your installation of ActiveEfficiency is being used by 1E Shopping, then before you replace ActiveEfficiency with Content Distribution you will need to do one of the following:

• install another instance of ActiveEfficiency Server and Scout and reconfigure Shopping to use that - this process is not described here
• reconfigure Shopping to synchronize directly with Configuration Manager (this method of synchronization is provided out-of-the-box in Shopping 6.1 onwards)

Shopping is not a Tachyon Platform application, and has no direct dependency on it, therefore it is not affected by Tachyon Setup, other than ActiveEfficiency being removed. Whilst Shopping has no direct dependency on Tachyon Platform, it can optionally integrate with Application Migration 3.1 which is a Tachyon application. The Shopping/WSA client is a module of the 1E Client. If this is interesting to you please refer to Shopping 6.0 - Integrating with Application Migration.

Reconfigure Shopping to synchronize directly with Configuration Manager

Execute the following SQL script on the Shopping database, then restart the Shopping Central service. A few minutes later the Central service will perform its usual synchronization processes with AD, and also synchronize with CM. You can monitor this process in C:\ProgramData\1E\ShoppingCentral\ShoppingCentral.log

In-place upgrade of 1E Catalog 1.2 and SLA Platform 3.3

Tachyon Setup will upgrade 1E Catalog, SLA Platform and its applications to Tachyon Platform 5.2. If SLA and Catalog are installed on separate servers, then you have the following options:

• Use Tachyon Setup to upgrade SLA Platform and to install 1E Catalog on the same server
  • Setup allows you to retain the SQL Server instance(s) their databases are on
  • You can manually relocate the databases before running Setup.
• Use a custom option of Tachyon Setup that supports using a remote Catalog server
  • This option is discouraged to avoid configuration and upgrade issues. Please contact 1E for details of how to use custom setup options.

SLA Platform 3.3 supports Application Migration 2.5.100 and AppClarity 6.1.100. Tachyon Setup will upgrade these applications to versions supported by Tachyon Platform 5.2.

Preparing for upgrade

Moving Switch certificate files to the Windows Certificate Store

Backup first!

Upgrading to Tachyon Platform

The following process is used when upgrading Tachyon 3.x, 4.x, 5.0 or 5.1 to Tachyon Platform 5.2 and keeping the same configuration and the TachyonMaster database.

Keeping the same configuration means using the same installer properties as the previous installation. If changing the configuration, please refer below to Changing the Platform configuration when re-installing or upgrading.

SELECT DB_NAME(dbid) as [database], loginame, hostname, program_name
FROM sys.sysprocesses 
WHERE DB_NAME(dbid) LIKE 'Tachyon%' AND program_name LIKE 'Tachyon%'
ORDER BY DB_NAME(dbid), loginame, hostname, program_name;

After upgrading to Tachyon Platform

After upgrading, you should perform a sync for all configured Connectors followed by the Basic Inventory Consolidation report. 

Upgrading Instructions and Product Packs

Tachyon Instructions are designed as far as possible to be backwards compatible, but as a general rule we recommend that you update your Tachyon product packs to the latest version so that you can gain the benefit of newer features.

When upgrading you should be able to safely continue to use your existing Instructions. We recommend that newer versions of Instructions are verified in a test environment to ensure that they still behave as expected before updating in your production environment.

Your Tachyon license should retain any code signing certificates you may have registered. This means your custom instructions should continue to be licensed as normal following an upgrade of Tachyon. You may want to check the Writing Tachyon Instructions in the Tachyon SDK pages to check for any changes to the Tachyon SCALE language.