Distribution

The Software Distribution screen allows administrators to push downloaded software packages to selected gateways. This is the second step of the two-step process for obtaining software packages and distributing those packages to gateways.

Note: the Software Distribution screen does not automatically update to reflect deletions of software made to a gateway using ACEmanager until that gateway is rebooted. To manually force the status on the Distribution screen to update, navigate to the Configuration Control screen, select the gateway, and click Revert. This will cause the AMM to pull the list of installed applications from the ALEOS gateway(s) so that it knows which applications to pull configs from, causing the device(s) to enter into the Awaiting rollback state. You can then return to the Distribution screen to see the updated software state for the gateway(s).

The figure above shows the main features of the Software Distribution screen:

Filter Fields: filters the list by device type, last status, name, and date/time range. For more information about searches see: Filter Box and Searching .

Search: executes the filter.

Export to CSV: exports the list of software packages to a .CSV file.

Refresh: refreshes the list of software packages. Used mainly to update software package statuses.

Last Update: toggles whether the date/time of the last update is to be automatically updated and displayed.

Upgrade Gateway Software: displays the Upgrade Gateway Software wizard to perform firmware upgrades to a selected gateway. If multiple gateways are selected, the wizard will require that a single gateway platform be selected (see Upgrading Gateway Software below).

Install/Upgrade Application(s): displays the Install/Upgrade Application(s) wizard to perform application upgrades to a selected gateway. If multiple gateways are selected with differing platforms, the wizard will require that a single gateway platform be selected (see Installing/Upgrading Application(s) below).

Note: Install/Upgrade Application(s) is used to upgrade companion GNX firmware when the companion host is an MG device. It is also used for upgrading the applications for oMG devices, and installing applications on some ALEOS devices.

Uninstall Application(s): uninstalls the selected application(s). This is only applicable for ALEOS applications.

Cancel Software Upgrade: removes any upgrades which are scheduled to automatically run. Upgrades can be scheduled using the Upgrade Gateway Software and Install/Upgrade Application(s) wizards.

Note:

• For ALEOS devices this functionality is only supported in AMM 2.16 and above.
• For MG devices, if the software upgrade is cancelled when the Last Update Status is at In Progress, then the Target Version will revert to the Current Version and the upgrade will be cancelled.
  
• For ALEOS devices, if the software upgrade is cancelled when the Last Update Status is at In Progress, then the Target Version will remain at the specified target version, and the upgrade will be cancelled.

Schedule Information: if there is a schedule icon in the Next update column and it is clicked, the column can show schedule information.

Note that an application package’s date indicates whether it contains the latest build, as opposed to package version numbers which may change for various reasons unrelated to versioning.

As of oMM 2.15.1.1, the Software Distribution screen compares the build dates of downloaded application packages to determine if they are newer than that installed on the selected gateway. Packages which have a newer date are then made available by the Software Distribution screen for a potential upgrade.

For example, if an application package listed on the Software Distribution screen contains a software package with version 9.48804.v3.sdk4-20160106.1, the AMM will compare its date (“20160106”) to that of the package installed on the selected gateway, and make it available as an upgrade if that date is newer than the gateway’s installed version.

oMM Version 2.15 and below compares packages based on version numbers instead of dates, and may therefore show older versions of packages. Care must therefore be taken when viewing packages on the Software Distribution screen of oMM version 2.15 and below to ensure that the date of a given package is greater than that of the selected gateway.

The software version of a selected gateway can be viewed in the AMM, by clicking on the Stats menu and looking for the value of the ApplicationVersion stat :

Note: for customer AMM appliances with ALEOS devices, it is mandatory that those devices be able to resolve the URL of the AMM. If the devices cannot resolve the URL (e.g. because it’s a private URL), the devices will not be able to download the software package(s) from the AMM. In this situation, contact Customer Support for assistance.

Upgrading Gateway Software

The Upgrade Gateway Software wizard is activated using the Upgrade Gateway Software button and allows administrators to apply firmware to a selected gateway via the following screens.

Note: if multiple devices are selected from different platforms, the wizard will require that a specific platform be selected. Only those devices which run on the specified platform will be upgraded, as shown here:

Select a platform from the Platform dropdown and click Next.

The Upgrade to version dropdown lists on the Software tab lists the software which is available on the AMM.

Note: For MG devices, the Software tab is labeled as the Core tab as shown below.

Select the version of the software to upgrade to and click Next.

Note: as of AMM 2.16, the wizard allows the software of MG devices to be updated from non-FIPS to FIPs, and vice versa.

For oMG2000/500 devices only, the Applications tab will be present and will allow you to upgrade applications as part of the upgrade gatway software process.

Click Yes on this tab to display the applications that can be upgraded. The tab will display a message if no new applications were found to upgrade.

An upgrade can be scheduled for a future time by clicking Yes to display the scheduling options:

Note: for MG devices, the scheduling feature requires those devices to be configured with MG 3.14.5+ and MGOS 4.1+ respectively. For MG devices, the device must be in one of the following configuration states: In sync, Awaiting roll forward, File pending, Modified, or Out of sync local.

Select the Attempt upgrade frequency (day, week, month, or Only Once), the Starts from date, and the During time (the time during the day to perform the upgrade) and click Next, or select No and click Next to advance to the next screen without scheduling.

Note: When No is selected, the upgrade will be applied on the next boot, after it has downloaded the firmware packages. An operation will be created to download the firmware, however a reboot operation will not automatically be created. The user will manually need to reboot the device, when the upgrade has a state of In Progress, firmware download completed.

Verify the upgrade information and click Apply to schedule or start the upgrade process.

Note that ALEOS device upgrades occur when the devices are scheduled to check in next, and therefore upgrades may not initiate immediately after completing the upgrade wizard. The upgrade will start when the device’s next scheduled Heartbeat occurs (the default is once per day). Upon exiting the upgrade wizard, the “Last update status” for the ALEOS devices will be set to Pending until the next scheduled Heartbeat occurs and an upgrade is initiated.

As of AMM 2.17.3, for ALEOS devices where SWRepoMgmtTunnelOnly setting is yes, but the management tunnel is down, then for core upgrades, the Last update status will indicate Pending - Management tunnel is down”. For an ALEOS application upgrade with the same conditions, the device will be moved to the unaffected list in the Summary section and will not upgrade.

As of AMM 2.16.2, online MG devices running MGOS 4.2+ will self-initiate the download of the software package from the AMM when Upgrade Gateway Software is clicked, depending on the Download on High Cost Link setting on the gateway. Prior to AMM 2.16.2 and MGOS 4.2, MG devices would require a reboot or change in link state. This enhancement is not supported for MG devices.

For non-MGOS devices the Summary tab is the final tab. For MGOS devices, one additional tab labeled Deploy will become present upon reaching the Summary tab:

The Deploy tab requires you to enter a commit comment to identify the configuration update. You can then filter on that comment when viewing configuration changes on the Configuration Control screen via that screen’s Search revision comments field.

Note: In AMM version 2.17.1, it is possible to create identical upgrade operations more than once on the same device. If this occurs, the status of the second upgrade becomes stuck at In Progress. Refer to this process, to resolve this issue.

Note: If the Next Update column in the Software Distribution page becomes stuck at Out of Sync, then click on the Out of Sync link and check the configuration status. If the status shows Config failure - config sync error, refer to this process, to resolve this issue.

Note: As of AMM 2.17.1, if an unregistered MG90 is requested to be upgraded, the AMM will automatically create an incremental upgrade path to step through from the older version to the target version. Previously the AMM would create the repository, but the gateway could reject the installation because of compatibility.

If multiple software upgrade requests are setup on the same device, only the first one will be seen in the Software Distribution screen. To see a full list of all the tasks requested for the device, refer to Operations .

Installing/Upgrading Application(s)

The Install/Upgrade Applications(s) wizard is activated using the Install/Upgrade Application(s) button and allows administrators to apply software to a selected gateway via the following screens.

Note:

• this feature will not work with GX400, GX440, ES440, and LS300.
• this feature is used for upgrading GNX firmware when using a MG companion host.
• if multiple devices are selected from different platforms, the wizard will require that a specific platform be selected. Only those devices which run on the specified platform will be upgraded as shown here:

Click on the checkbox beside the application that is to be applied to the gateways and select the version from the Version dropdown and click Next to continue:

An upgrade can be scheduled for a future time by clicking Yes to display the scheduling options:

Note:

• scheduling application updates is only available for ALEOS devices in AMM 2.16 and above.
• scheduling a GNX firmware upgrade is not available, as the GNX will download it when it checks in.

Review the upgrade information on the Summary tab and click Apply to perform the application upgrade.

The Affected Gateways and Unaffected Gateways titles can be clicked on to display the lists of devices that will be upgraded or not upgraded by the process.

Note: when installing the GNX firmware, the Last Update Status will change to Success. Firmware installation complete. only after the GNX checks in after the upgrade and has confirmed that the software version in the check-in is the same version that is in software distribution target version.

Cancel Software Upgrade

To cancel a software upgrade, select the device and click on the Cancel Software Upgrade button. A confirmation dialog box will display. Press Submit to proceed.

An upgrade is cancellable if the last event that the AMM receives is Firmware download completed. However the AMM can only attempt to cancel the upgrade because the installation may have already started on the gateway. If it fails to cancel, this means that the gateway went ahead and upgraded. The AMM will show the latest version in the Current version column after the gateway finishes upgrading and reports in with the AMM.

If the AMM is not able to cancel the software upgrade, it will be indicated in the confirmation dialog box.

Note: For MGOS versions less than 4.3, the AMM is able to cancel a software update only before it receives the Firmware download completed update.