Parent topic: Installing Faspex
Installing Faspex

Upgrading Faspex

Important: If you are running Faspex for Isilon OneFS, do not upgrade to Faspex 3.0+! You should not upgrade until Enterprise Server 3.0+ is released for the Isilon OneFS Maverick platform (64-bit).
Warning: Due to incompatible common components, IBM Aspera Console and Faspex cannot be installed on the same machine. Aspera does not support this combination.
If an older version of Faspex is already installed on your machine, upgrade to the newest version. Aspera supports upgrading from the following versions:
Note: Aspera does not support a direct upgrade from 3.1.1. Instead, first upgrade to 3.9.3 before upgrading to 4.0+.
  1. If you have not done so already, review the Upgrade Checklist. You must meet the listed prerequisites before attempting to upgrade.
  2. Back up your Faspex database by following the steps in Backing Up Configurations and Databases.
  3. Upgrade Windows Installer to version 4 or higher.
    The Faspex installer requires Windows Installer version 4+ for successful configuration. You may download the latest version of Windows Installer from the Microsoft website.
  4. Download the latest Aspera installers.

    Download the latest version of IBM Aspera Enterprise Server, and IBM Aspera Faspex installers from the following locations:

    You are required to enter your organization's Aspera login credentials to gain access. If you need help determining your organization's access credentials, contact your Aspera account manager.

  5. Manually backup your SSL certificate files.
    Locate and copy the server.crt and server.key files to a different location. The files can be found in the following locations:
    OS Version File
    32-bit Windows
    • C:\Program Files\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.crt
    • C:\Program Files\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.key
    64-bit Windows
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.crt
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.key
  6. Run the latest Enterprise Server installer.
    First see the "Before Upgrading" section in the IBM Aspera Enterprise Server Admin Guide.

    Then run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to upgrade Enterprise Server or Connect Server to the latest version.

  7. Stop all services.

    Before upgrading, stop all services related to Faspex, including Faspex, MySQL, and Apache. Use the following command:

    asctl all:stop
  8. Launch the Faspex installer.

    Double-click the Faspex installer to begin the installation process.

    Note: If your Windows Operating System has User Account Control (UAC) enabled, confirm or enter the admin password to allow the installer to make changes to your computer.
  9. If your server is using a remote database, you must set the SKIP_MYSQL_UPGRADE environment variable to true to successfully upgrade. 
    > set "SKIP_MYSQL_UPGRADE=true"
    Important: If you are using a local database, do not skip the MySQL upgrade.
  10. Launch asctl to continue the Faspex setup process.

    Once the IBM Aspera Faspex Setup Wizard completes, you are prompted to finish the installation. By default, the Launch asctl to continue the Faspex setup checkbox is selected. Once you click Finish, the installer automatically runs the setup command. If you do not want to run the setup command automatically, then clear the Launch asctl to continue the Faspex setup checkbox.

    If Faspex doesn't automatically run the setup command or an error halts the process, then you can run the command manually, as shown below.
    > asctl faspex:upgrade
    Important: During an upgrade on Windows 2008 32-bit, Apache may report an error when attempting to restart (“Apache HTTPD Server (Aspera): The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. See the application event log for more detail.”). To remedy, install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) package.
  11. Back up your new Faspex database by following the steps in Backing Up Configurations and Databases.
  12. If upgrading from a version prior to Faspex 3.0, you may preserve your custom SSH port setting.
    Upgrading Faspex from a release prior to Faspex 3.0 does not preserve SSH port settings which were being used in prior releases. Instead, the installer assumes your server now uses port 33001 for SSH. If you want to preserve the port you were using previously, you can add the following line to the <server> section of your aspera.conf file after the Faspex upgrade:
    <server> 
    ...
    <ssh_port>port_number</ssh_port>  
    ...
</server>

    The aspera.conf file can be found in the following location:

    OS Version File Location
    32-bit Windows C:\Program Files\Aspera\Enterprise Server\etc\aspera.conf
    64-bit Windows C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Enterprise Server\etc\aspera.conf

    After modifying aspera.conf, restart Aspera NodeD and Faspex services. Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click the Aspera NodeD service and select Restart.

  13. Restore SSL certificate files.
    Locate your existing SSL certificates and replace them with the ones acquired from the certificate authority. Again, your certificates are located at the following paths:
    OS Version File
    32-bit Windows
    • C:\Program Files\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.crt
    • C:\Program Files\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.key
    64-bit Windows
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.crt
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.key
    Restart Apache with the following command:
    asctl apache:restart
  14. Restart the Aspera Node Server.

    In order to use Faspex, the Aspera Node Server must be running. If you did not choose to restart the Aspera Node Server when prompted during the setup process, or if it has been stopped, you must restart it before using Faspex.

    To check whether the Aspera Node Server is running or to restart it, open the Services window from Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Select Aspera NodeD and choose to Restart the service.

  15. If you configured Faspex to serve the IBM Aspera Connect Browser Plug-in locally, you must redo all those changes manually after the Faspex upgrade. Otherwise, the upgrade breaks the locally hosted connect.
    For instructions on serving Connect locally, see Serving Connect from a Local Location.
Your Faspex upgrade is now complete. If you have not updated your license, follow the steps in Updating Your License.
Note: As of Faspex 4.0.3, for security reasons, Faspex by default only allows login through the hostname configured in the faspex.yml configuration file (the hostname you designated during installation. If you try to log in to the web application from an unlisted hostname or perform a GET request with an unlisted hostname, Faspex returns the error, "Invalid hostname". To access Faspex from an alternate hostname, follow the instructions in Whitelisting Alternate Hostnames for Faspex.
Note: If you had SAML configured before upgrading to Faspex 4.0, you need to add your SAML configuration metadata to your SAML Identity Provider (IdP) again. Metadata URLs now contain numbers to support multiple SAML configurations.
Parent topic: Installing Faspex