How do I upgrade a Virtual or Hardware Appliance to a later version of ZXTM ?

These instructions describe how to upgrade a ZXTM or ZXTM LB appliance (virtual or hardware). For instructions on upgrading ZXTM and ZXTM LB software, please see here.

Minor Upgrades

Minor upgrades (e.g. 4.2r1 to 4.2r2) are performed using the Administration Server. Download the upgrade package from your customer page, go to the System -> Upgrade page, upload the upgrade package, and follow the instructions.

Major Upgrades

Upgrades between major versions (e.g. 4.1 to 4.2 or 4.2 to 5.0) are performed using a commandline script to install the new version into a spare section of the hard disk. This process involves one reboot and the downtime associated with that reboot.

Note, these instructions are not suitable for upgrading from ZXTM 4.0, you need to follow these instructions instead.

Note: If you have Traffic IP Groups using the 'keeptogether' flag that contain 'passive' machines, you should mark all machines as active before upgrading from ZXTM 4.1 to ZXTM 4.2 or later. 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.

1. Before upgrading it is prudent to have a backup of your configuration.
2. Download the ZXTM Install package from customer.zeus.com. This will be a file called something like zxtm_appliance-5.0-amd64.zpkg.
3. Copy the file onto the appliance using an scp or sftp client (e.g. psftp).
4. Connect to the console of the appliance using a 'ssh' client (putty is a good choice). You can use any username that is in the admin group.
5. Once connected to the console of the appliance run: upgrade-appliance <filename>:
   
6. Confirm that you want to upgrade the appliance.
7. Once complete the new version will be automatically selected after the next reboot. Any configuration changes made in the existing version (e.g. in 4.1) after the upgrade-appliance script has been run won't be preserved when the new version is started.
8. It is recommended that you reboot the appliance as soon as possible (using the System -> Reboot button in the UI or using the 'reboot' command).

More Information

For more detailed information, please refer to the appropriate 'Getting Started' guide in the product documentation.