How to Get Templates for Upgrade

After you complete the steps in this topic, you will have templates that you can use to upgrade the Software AG product installations that you manage through Command Central.

Choose one of the supported upgrade methods described in Upgrading Software AG Products On Premises and check in the same guide for product-specific upgrade requirements.

Check the Software AG Command Central Feature Support Matrix for the target migration release versions and migration types, supported for the products in the installation.

You can choose one of the following options (based on whether you already use composite templates and the release version of the source product installations):

Option 1: Use the same composite templates you used to provision the source installations

Option 2: Generate templates from the source installations

Option 3: Create stacks for upgrade (from scratch or with auto-create stacks)

Moderate for options 1 and 2. If you already have composite templates for provisioning, you only invest in modifying them for the upgrade. If you do not use composite templates, option 2 is better for large environments with custom configurations.

Low for option 3. This option works best for standard product installations.

If you installed the source product installations using composite templates, you can use the same templates for the upgrade. Note that when you want to use a composite template for upgrade, the template must include the Provision section with the target nodes, on which to create the target installations. If you use overinstall as the upgrade method, you must also include the Migration section in the template to describe the source nodes.

The default behavior of Command Central during the upgrade is described in the Software AG Command Central Help (in the how Command Central processes a composite template for installations of release 10.3 and higher and 10.1 and lower topics). You can change the default upgrade behavior by editing the following sections in the composite template:

Specify custom migration settings for the installations that you want to upgrade in the "migration:" section as described in Migration

If you want to update the composite templates with configuration settings you applied after migrating the installations, you can export a single product configuration and add it in the template. See Adding Configurations in an Exported Micro Template.

If you want to migrate to a different host using a cloned database or disconnected migration, modify the composite template as described in:

When migrating product installations to a different host, you must also change the hosts in the end-point configurations of the products to point to the new hosts.

Important:
Do not modify the template files located under the Command Central profile. Store the composite templates that you want to modify and prepare for the upgrade under version control and re-import them into Command Central when you want to run the upgrade.

With this option, you create the templates for the upgrade by generating templates from the source product installations. Command Central exports the details about the Platform Manager of the source node, the product instances installed on the source node, and the database configured for the source node into the generated templates. You can then customize the generated templates if required.

Important:
The sections and parameters included in the generated templates will depend on the release version of the Platform Manager installation from which you export the templates.

Product instance templates for migration "Usage Notes for Exporting an Instance to a Migration Template in sagcc exec templates composite generate

Note that when generating a template for upgrade, you do not include the product configurations, because during the template application Command Central invokes the product migration utilities, which migrate the configuration settings from the source product instance. However, when you migrate to a different host, you can export the end-point configurations for the product instances and then edit the generated template to update the hosts in the end-points to the new hosts.

If you export product instances without adding the options=INFRASTRUCTURE argument (in the sagcc exec templates composite generate command), the generated templates do not include a nodes: section and you must add this section in the generated templates.

Database template for the database of the source installation (supported for installations of release version 10.5 and higher) Exporting the Database for Products in an Installation to a Template and sagcc exec templates composite generate

Note that the database template that gets generated for a node does not include a nodes: section and you must add this section in the generated template.

2. When the generated product instance and database templates do not have a nodes: section, which is required for the upgrade, choose one of the following:

Merge the templates generated for the Platform Manager, product instances, and database of the node into one composite template.

Copy the nodes: section from the template generated for the Platform Manager of the node to the database template and each product instance template generated for the node. When you run the upgrade using the generated templates, you must always run the generated Platform Manager template first, and then run the database and product instance templates using the same parameters that you specified in the nodes: section of the Platform Manager template.

Important:
Do not modify the template files located under the Command Central profile. Store the templates that you want to modify and prepare for the upgrade under version control and re-import them into Command Central when you want to run the upgrade.

You can create a product stack, in which you add logical layers that reference templates, and use this stack to install or upgrade product installations. If you create a stack and add layers in the stack that reference templates, such as the default templates or templates generated from existing installations, we say that you create the stack from scratch. If you use the auto-create stacks function, Command Central automatically creates the stacks (and their layers) from existing installations that are standard and managed by Command Central.

With auto-create stacks, you can filter the set of installations to add in the stacks by release version or by environment. Command Central generates composite templates for the product installations that you specify and organizes the templates in stacks and layers. For details about auto-creating stacks for upgrade, see Upgrade Software Stacks and sagcc create stacks auto.

The pros of using stacks to upgrade the product installations is that you can use the Stacks view of the Command Central web user interface for all upgrade-related tasks and you do not require template development knowledge.