Upgrade FileWave

Many customers ask us how to upgrade from one version to the next. In this posting, we will discuss the procedure, complete with best practices.

For best results, upgrade the components in the following order:

1. Server
2. Admin Console(s)
3. Boosters
4. Clients

The Procedure

Before performing the upgrade, we strongly recommend to make a backup. We have instructions for automating the backup in the following whitepaper. If you want to do a one-time quick backup, simply stop the server and make a copy of the /fwxserver folder. On Windows, this folder is located in %ProgramData%\FileWave\FWServer.

Lock Clients

It's always a good idea to lock all your clients before upgrading your FileWave components. That way you can verify whether the clients behave normal after the upgrade by unlocking first some of them. You can lock your clients by selecting them from the Clients Report (applicable only for version 3.x) and locking them afterwards from right click context menu. In order to lock clients in version 4.x and later please filter for "All Clients" in the search field in Clients Tab. Later select all of them and lock them from right click context menu.

After the upgrade, right click your clients the same way and select unlock from the context menu. Unlock only some of your clients first to make sure that they behave normal before unlocking them all at once.

Please note if you want to upgrade from version 3.x to version 4.x or 5.x or later your server should already be updated to version 3.7.5. Please refer to the same instructions stated below to first update your FileWave Server to version 3.7.5.

If you are running FileWave 3.7.5, you may upgrade directly to version 5.x without issues.  Before upgrading the server, make sure that your /fwxserver/DB/ folder is empty.

1. Upgrade the Server. Run the FileWave Server.pkg / .msi manually, or use ARD. There's no need to stop the server first, but please make sure that all FileWave Admininistrator Consoles are logged out.

2. Upgrade the Admin(s). Before you can connect to the Server, you'll need to upgrade any copies of the Admin you're running. Again, simply run the pkg / msi.

3. Upgrade the Boosters. Whether your Boosters are FileWave Clients or ARD / Manually accessible, run the pkg / msi to upgrade the booster. There's no need to stop the booster process ahead of time.

4. Upgrade the Clients. This is the only step that requires some cases.
- If you have any old client Upgrade Filesets, open up the fileset contents and set each top folder to 'Ignore at Verify' and apply to enclosed.
- Deploy the Client Upgrade Fileset (downloadable from the posting where you downloaded the dmg). As usual, it's a good practice to test this on a few machines before doing a massive deployment.
- If you use the upgrade fileset on OS X, the Clients running on Mac OS 10.4 will not immediately upgrade, but will start using the new version upon reset or at 3 AM. If you wish to force the client to restart, see the FileWave Restarter PKG section in Tools and Utility Filesets. (Windows clients upgrade immediately)

That's it! You're done!