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Upgrading and migrating
Learn how to upgrade HCL Launch elements, including the server, agents, and blueprint design server, and how to migrate data.
Upgrading agents
In most cases, you upgrade agents from the server interface, but you can also upgrade the agents from the command line. Always upgrade agents and agent relays in addition to upgrading the server.
Upgrading agents remotely
Use the Upgrade action to upgrade agents that have a status of Upgrade Recommended or Upgrade Required. Always upgrade agents and agent relays in addition to upgrading the server.

Upgrading and migrating
Learn how to upgrade HCL Launch elements, including the server, agents, and blueprint design server, and how to migrate data.
- Testing an upgrade
  Before you upgrade your production HCL Launch server, for best results, perform a test upgrade, verify the challenges you are facing, and resolve them before performing an actual upgrade.
- Upgrading the server
  You can upgrade the HCL Launch server to incorporate to a later version. Always upgrade agents, agent relays, and the blueprint design server in addition to upgrading the server. Upgrading the server, agents, agent relays, and blueprint design server are each completed independently. Unless specified, upgrade the server before you upgrade the agents.
- Upgrading high-availability installations
  All servers that are configured for the HA feature must be on the same version. Thus, all servers must be upgraded at the same time.
- Upgrading agents
  In most cases, you upgrade agents from the server interface, but you can also upgrade the agents from the command line. Always upgrade agents and agent relays in addition to upgrading the server.
  - Upgrading agents remotely
    Use the Upgrade action to upgrade agents that have a status of Upgrade Recommended or Upgrade Required. Always upgrade agents and agent relays in addition to upgrading the server.
  - Upgrading agents from the command line
    You can upgrade agents by stopping them and running the installation program for the new version.
  - Upgrading agents in silent mode
    You can upgrade agents by specifying the installation properties in a text file.
- Upgrading agents as services on Windows using command-line
  You can upgrade the currently running Deploy agent as a Windows service even though you initially didn’t install HCL Launch agent as a service during the installation process.
- Upgrading agent relays
  In most cases, you upgrade agents relays from the command line, but starting from 7.0.4.2 version, you can upgrade the server from the interface. Always upgrade agents and agent relays in addition to upgrading the server.
- Upgrading encryption key strength
  When you upgrade the server from version 6.0.1.1 or earlier to a version later than version 6.0.1.1, you can upgrade the SSL encryption.
- Migrating the server database
  The server installation files include a script that migrates the server database from Derby to another database system. You can not migrate from any database other than Derby.
- Migrating Codestation from filesystem repositories to S3 repositories
  You can migrate your Codestation artifacts from filesystem to S3 using the S3 migrator tool.
- Migrating the server to Kubernetes/Openshift
  You can migrate your HCL Launch server from an on-premises production installation to a containerized instance that runs in a Kubernetes or Openshift cluster.
- Migrating an existing IBM® installation to HCL Launch

Upgrading agents remotely

Use the Upgrade action to upgrade agents that have a status of Upgrade Recommended or Upgrade Required. Always upgrade agents and agent relays in addition to upgrading the server.

Before you begin

To ensure compatibility and optimal performance, run the same version of the HCL Launch server and agents. Server and agents of different versions may result in unexpected behavior. In such case, you must update or roll back the server and agents so that they run the same versions.
You must upgrade the server before you upgrade the agents.

About this task

An agent's status indicates when it is time to upgrade it. If an agent has the Upgrade Required status, the agent cannot run deployments until it is upgraded. This status might occur if a change is made to server-agent communications, or if the agent is at a version before 4.8.5. The status of Upgrade Recommended might occur after a performance enhancement. An agent with the status Upgrade Recommended still can run deployments, but for best performance, upgrade the agent. You can upgrade agents individually or in a batch.

Upgrade agents to improve the security of HCL Launch security by using a TLS protocol. Some older agents are only compatible with SSLv3. SSLv3 is dynamically enabled if necessary. See Supported TLS and SSL protocols and ciphers.

Note: Refer to the Upgrading z/OS agents section for notes about upgrading the z/OS agents remotely.

To upgrade an agent:

Procedure

Click Resources > Agents.
The Agents pane lists agents and their status.
Select the check boxes for the agents to upgrade.
Click () Actions > Upgrade
Upgraded agents are taken offline while the upgrade is applied and have the Offline status. If the upgrade finishes, the agents are automatically restarted and have the Online status. If the agents do not come back online, check their logs for error messages.

Note:
Updating many agents simultaneously can have a significant affect the server. As a rule-of-thumb, limit the number of simultaneous upgrades to 10 or fewer.