How do I upgrade my ZXTM software?

These instructions describe how to upgrade the ZXTM or ZXTM LB software. For instructions on upgrading ZXTM and ZXTM LB virtual appliances or hardware appliances, please see here.

You can upgrade a running copy of the ZXTM software with very little downtime.

The upgrade procedure:

1. Installs the new software into a different, version-controlled directory;
2. Copies the configuration from the running version of the software;
3. Stops the running software, swaps some symlinks and then starts the new software.

Note: If you have Traffic IP Groups using the 'keeptogether' flag that contain 'passive' machines, you should mark all machines as active before upgrading to ZXTM 4.2. Once the upgrade is complete, set these machines to 'passive' again.

Releases prior to 4.2 don't correctly handle the combination of keeptogether flag and passive machines, so leaving your configuration unchanged while upgrading may cause Traffic IP addresses to appear on multiple ZXTM machines.

The downtime is rarely more than one or two seconds.

To upgrade your ZXTM software

1. Unpack your new ZXTM distribution file (ZXTM_ProductVersion_OS.tgz) on the ZXTM machine
2. Become root (assuming your existing installation is as root), and move into the directory that has just been created by extracting the distribution file.
3. Run the following command:
   

   # ./zinstall
   

   ZXTM automatically stops your existing version of ZXTM, upgrades it, and restarts it, keeping all your existing configuration.

If necessary, you can then install a new license key file using the ZXTM Admin Server, for example, to enable new product features.

If you have a cluster of ZXTM machines, you can upgrade each one in turn. Do not make any configuration changes until you have upgraded the entire cluster to the same software version.

Java Extensions

The Java Extensions feature added in ZXTM 5.0 requires a supported Java Runtime Environment installed on the ZXTM system. The JRE is not included with the ZXTM software.

ZXTM supports the Sun JRE, versions 1.5 and above.

To roll back to a previous ZXTM version

You can use the 'rollback' script to revert back to a previously installed version of ZXTM, or to roll forward to a later version that you installed previously:

• Become 'root' and run the ZEUSHOME/zxtm/bin/rollback.

You will then be shown a list of the different versions of ZXTM that you have installed, and asked to chose which one you would like to roll back or forwards to.

When you roll back (or forwards) to a different version of ZXTM, the software version will use the configuration that was last active with that version. For example, If you upgraded from version 3.1 to version 4.0 two weeks ago, then roll back to version 3.1, it will use the configuration that version 3.1 last used two weeks ago.

Rolling forwards from early versions of ZXTM

Early versions of ZXTM did not include the rollback script. If the rollback script is not present, you can manually modify the zxtm, zxtmadmin and admin symlinks. The symlinks point to the current version of each software component.

• Stop the Zeus software using ZEUSHOME/stop-zeus
• Remove the zxtm, zxtmadmin and admin symlinks
• Recreate the symlinks:
  

  # ln -s zxtm-4.0 zxtm
  # ln -s zxtmadmin-4.0 zxtmadmin
  # ln -s admin-4.0 admin
  

• Start the Zeus software using ZEUSHOME/start-zeus

Owen Garrett [Zeus Dev Team] 28 November 2005