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jordan
on 27-Sep-2011
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Performing an Installer Upgrade
As of Railo 3.3.1, the Railo Installers for Linux and Windows now come with the ability to upgrade the entire server stack (Railo, Tomcat, Tomcat Connectors, and the JRE) to the latest versions of each. The idea was to make it easy for our users to stay current with the latest performance and security updates that each individual piece of software has to offer.
IMPORTANT: It is highly recommended to perform a backup of your Railo installation directory as a precautionary measure before performing updates on production systems.
Triggering the Upgrade Prompt
First time installations function the same as they always have, so if you've installed Railo in the past using the Railo installer, that process will be familiar to you. The upgrade process is triggered when you select your installation directory. If the installation directory already exists, the Installer is programmed to check for the presence of several supporting files that indicate a previous install. If those supporting files exist, the installer will ask you if you'd like to perform an upgrade. If the supporting files do NOT exist (if you're just installing to a directory that happens to already exist), you will not be prompted.
If you select "No" to the upgrade process, the installer will proceed as if you were performing a fresh installation. Be careful here, as performing a fresh installation over the top of an existing installation will overwrite pre-existing files, and may create duplicates in your windows software removal options. If you wish to perform a fresh install on a server that already has Railo installed on it (instead of performing an upgrade to your previous install), it is highly recommended that you perform a complete uninstall, followed by a complete removal of the previous installation directory (usually c:\railo\). This will ensure the cleanest possible installation for your fresh install.
Selecting The Components You Wish to Upgrade
If you select "Yes" to the upgrade process, there is usually a slight pause in the installer as it re-configures itself, after which you will be prompted to select which components you would like to upgrade. The options are "Railo Core", "Tomcat", "Tomcat Connectors", and "JRE". It is recommended that you upgrade all of these at the same time if at all possible. This ensures that you're running the latest updates of your full software stack. However, each piece of software does have the ability to be upgraded individually if that's what you need.
Considerations
The following are some items that you will need to consider before selecting to upgrade each piece of software:
Railo Core
Upgrading the Railo Core ONLY upgrades the railo.jar file. None of the other jar's included in the Railo wars are upgraded. If you wish to upgrade the supporting libraries, you will need to download a Railo.WAR distribution, extract it, and replace everything located in the "lib" directory with the contents of the Railo war file.
Tomcat
When upgrading Tomcat, the tomcat-users.xml and server.xml files are preserved, but the web.xml file is replaced with a newer file. If you've made changes to the web.xml file, you will need to ensure that your changes are added to the new web.xml file.
When you perform a tomcat upgrade using the installer, backup copies are made of the context.xml, the server.xml, and the tomcat-users.xml files. This is intended to perserve the host configurations of sites you've already set up in Tomcat. It is NOT intended to be a full or fail-proof backup of any kind. After the upgrade is completed, the backup copies are left on the server. This is a precautionary measure if you find you need to re-copy host configurations after an upgrade. The files are stored in a directory with a random, 16-character name, something like "37cf7a9deebee93b" or "8b45e11db077f8e2". If you do not need the backup copies of those files, then these directories can be removed.
The upgrade process also creates additional "rollbackBackupDirectory" directories in the installation directory. These directories are used by the upgrade installer to preserve files in case the upgrade process is cancelled half-way through, so that the installer can return files to how they were before the installer was ran. If you've run the upgrade process and things upgraded successfully, these directories can also be removed.
Tomcat Connectors
The connector upgrade process consists of performing a removal of the existing connector, copying new files, then performing an install of the new connector. Only the default site is messed with at that time. No other sites will be touched.
JRE
It is highly recommended you run the most recent JRE possible to take advantage of the most recent security and performance updates. Security updates are frequent in the JRE.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter anything that you believe may be related to a problem with the upgrade process, PLEASE TELL US! A post to the Railo mailing list would be ideal, as it's public and indexed by search engines, so others can benefit from your questions if you post there.
If all else fails, you are encouraged to review the manual upgrade process. Those are the same processes the installer uses.
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