jon.pearse Posted November 13, 2019 Report Share Posted November 13, 2019 Introduction: We have had a number of customers asking us - How do I upgrade to the latest version of Connect, and keep all of my settings? This post will look into how this can be done, and what to look out for when upgrading Connect to the latest version. Why upgrade to the latest version: It is always best to install and use the latest version of our products. With any software development, it is near impossible to test every scenario in which the software will be used, and what type of data is indexed with the tool. Although we have a vigorous testing regime for our products, some customers find issues which they report back to support. These issues are generally fixed, and added to the next release. Therefore, using the latest version will give you all of the fixes from all previous versions. Another good reason to upgrade is because the latest version has a number of new features that are not in previous versions. These features can make processing faster, can make analysis of the data easier, and can add better functionality to the tool. Upgrading Connect: There is no problem with installing the latest version of Intella Connect on the same server. Note that this will need to be installed next to the current version. E.g. as long as the new version is installed in a different folder, the existing version should not interfere with new version. In addition, there is no need to uninstall the previous version. When installing a new version of Connect, we make sure that any configurations from the previous version are also migrated over. We often keep old configuration as backup as well, so your previous configurations are not lost. Installing the latest version of Connect is quite straight forward, but you should be aware of these aspects: Make sure that you are always using the same Windows Account when installing different versions of Intella Connect. The configuration and settings for your current version are stored in user-sensitive location, and those locations will not be available to other user accounts. E.g., we have seen cases when users were installing version 2.0 with the "John" user account, then later installed version 2.1 with the "Administrator" user account. They were surprised to see that they ended up with a clean instance of Connect, with all default configurations and settings. You need to be careful when installing Connect as a Windows Service. There is only ONE Intella Connect Windows Service allowed on the system. Installing a newer version of Connect as a service should overwrite the paths to executables in Windows Services. Once the install process is complete, and the service is restarted, there should be no issues. However, we have seen a number of cases when this did not work as it should have. The outcome is that the service was still pointing to the old version of Connect. In those situations, you should refer to this section of the Administrator's manual on how to manually update the service. https://www.vound-software.com/docs/connect/2.3.0/admin/03_01_connect_as_service.html#manual-un-installation-intella-connect-windows-serviceNote: From version 2.3.1 we will have an extra check during the installation process that will prevent the installation process from continuing if you have not shutdown the service manually. It is always best to run the latest version of all of our tools. This also applies to Intella Node. Having both Connect and Node on the same version will help when troubleshooting any issues. The risk of any incompatibility issues between Connect and Node are reduced when both products are on the same version. Before you start the upgrade: You should consider the following before you start the Connect upgrade process: With every release of Intella and Connect we provide Release Notes. The very last section of the release notes is the 'Upgrade Notes' section. In that section we list information regarding backwards compatibility with earlier case versions. This section also points out any features which may be limited due to the version upgrade etc. We always suggest backing up your Connect/Node systems before undertaking any upgrades. This minimises the risk of downtime, as you have an avenue to go back should you have any issues with the upgrade process. You should make a backup of these folders (which contain entire configurations) prior to proceeding with the upgrade."C:\Users\CONNECT_USER\AppData\Roaming\Intella" and "C:\Users\CONNECT_USER\AppData\Roaming\Intella Connect" After the upgrade is complete: Once the upgrade process is complete, start Connect and check that Connect is reporting the correct version. You can do this by clicking on the Admin tab and selecting the 'About Intella Connect' option from the dropdown list. If the latest version is not running, there may be old version of Connect still running. Migrating keystores and self-signed SSL certificates: Once the new version of Connect is running, you may need to reconfigure some advanced setting like SSL. This should be straight forward if you have purchased your SSL certificate from a well known provider like Go Daddy etc. That said, we do see a number of issues with SSL certificates coming through support. But, these issues are mostly related to when the user/company manages their own certificates. In these cases the users report that the upgrade went well, but they cant get SSL to work. In the SSL wizard they get errors like this: "Unable to activate the keystore because it's not valid. Details: Keystore contains multiple certificates, but they were not imported to the private key chain". The issue is that unlike self managed certificates, certificates from a well known providers are generally added to Java's trusted keystore. That means that certificates from a well known provider will work 'out of the box' when setting up SSL in Connect or Node. When users/companies create their own self-signed certificates, they usually create two Certification Authorities (ROOT & Intermediate), and then let the Intermediate CA issue the certificates. But, Java doesn't know anything about ROOT & Intermediate certificates for that company, and these certificates are not automatically trusted. Therefore, the self-signed certificates do not work when a new version of Connect or Node are installed. Note: When you are upgrading Connect or Node, the existing (trusted) Java store is wiped out, and replaced with a clean one. For our products (Connect & Node) to trust the self-signed certificates, you have to add the certificates to the trusted CA store of the JAVA RUNTIME that we shipped with the installer used for the upgrade. This process is described in the Connect administrator's manual at the link below. https://www.vound-software.com/docs/connect/2.3.0/admin/04_03_01_ssl_guide.html#advanced-using-self-signed-certificates So in short, if you are generating your own SSL self-signed certificates, then you will need to update Java's trusted CA store (for both, the Connect and Node systems) after each upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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