Upgrading Faspex

Faspex is a file exchange application built upon IBM Aspera Enterprise Server and other Aspera transfer products as a centralized transfer solution. In order to make transfers, Faspex communicates with a node through the Node API. The Node API is a daemon on the transfer server that offers REST-inspired file operations and a transfer management API.

If an older version of Faspex is already installed on your workstation, upgrade to the newest version.

Warning: Due to incompatible Aspera Common Components, IBM Aspera Console and IBM Aspera Faspex cannot be installed on the same machine. Aspera does not support this combination. If you are running an older version of Faspex and Console on the same machine, contact Technical Support to move one of the applications to another system.
Note: Aspera does not support a direct upgrade from Faspex versions prior to 3.1.1. Instead, first upgrade to 3.9.3 before upgrading to 4.0+.

Before You Begin...

Before beginning the installation process for Faspex, you must be logged into your computer as an admin (or domain admin if you are in an Active Directory environment).

  1. Download the latest version of IBM Aspera Enterprise Server, and IBM Aspera Faspex installers from the following locations:
  2. Make sure your MySQL password and your svcAspera passwordare easily accessible.
  3. Back up your Faspex database by following the steps in Backing Up Faspex from the Command Line.
  4. 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 to the latest version.

Upgrading Faspex

  1. Stop all Faspex services.

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

    > asctl all:stop
  2. If your server is using a remote database, you must set the SKIP_MYSQL_UPGRADE environment variable to true to perform a successfully upgrade. 
    > set "SKIP_MYSQL_UPGRADE=true"

    For more information about using a remote database, see Configuring Faspex to Use a Remote Database (Faspex + MySQL).

    Important: If you are using a local database, do not skip the MySQL upgrade.
  3. 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.
  4. Click Install.

    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
  5. Confirm that your previous Faspex settings are still applicable.
    Faspex prompts you to confirm if your previous Faspex settings are still applicable. Enter y to continue, n to change settings.
    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.
  6. If you backed up your SSL certificates and keys, copy them to the following locations on the workstation:
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.crt
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Aspera\Common\apache\conf\server.key
    Keep a backup of those files in that directory.
  7. Restart the Apache service with the following command: 
    > asctl apache:restart
  8. Restart the Aspera Node D service.
    You can restart the Aspera NodeD service from the Computer Management window. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Services and Applications > Services. Select Aspera NodeD and click Restart.

Logging In and Updating Your License

  1. Open a supported browser and enter the Faspex hostname or IP address followed by /aspera/faspex in the browser URL. For example:

    http://faspex.example.com/aspera/faspex

    or
    http://198.51.100.24/aspera/faspex
    Note: For security reasons, Faspex versions 4.0.3 and later by default only allow login using the hostname that is configured in the faspex.yml configuration file (the hostname you designated during installation). If you try to log in to the 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 the Configuring Alternate Addresses section of Configuring the Faspex Web Server.
  2. Enter your login credentials and click Login.
  3. If your license is out-of-date or expired, you must first update the license before you can access Faspex.
    For more information on updating your license, see Updating Your License.
  4. If you are upgrading from a version of Faspex prior to 4.0.1 and you had SAML configured, 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.
Your Faspex upgrade is now complete.