Upgrading from Assure1 to Unified Assurance

Learn about upgrading your Assure1 version 5 installation to Oracle Communications Unified Assurance version 6.

About Upgrading from Assure1 to Unified Assurance

Upgrading Assure1 version 4 or version 5 (then called Assure1) to Unified Assurance version 6 lets you gain the benefits of the latest functionality and enhancements available and preserve the functionality of your Historical database by migrating it to OpenSearch.

Upgrades should be taken seriously and planned ahead of time. If you have access to a development instance, perform upgrades there before planning your production upgrade.

In addition to access to the latest functionality, the major changes provided from upgrading to Unified Assurance are:

• Rebranding from Assure1 to Oracle Communications Unified Assurance. This includes logos, product name, etc.

• Replacing the following products:

  • Oracle Java SE replaced OpenJDK

  • MySQL EE replaced MariaDB

  • Neo4j replaced OrientDB

  • OpenSearch replaced Elasticsearch

  • OpenSearch Dashboards replaced Kibana

  • Fluentbit and Fluentd replaced Filebeat

  • Oracle Coherence replaced Redis

• Removing licensing built into the product.

• Updating third party vendor packages.

• Upgrading to Linux 8.

The upgrade process updates every single package installed on each server. While this is happening, functionality will be disrupted.

If you are upgrading from Linux 7, you can upgrade on an existing Linux environment (in place upgrade) or onto a new Linux 8 environment (forklift upgrade). If you are upgrading from Linux 6, Oracle recommends a forklift upgrade.

Depending on the size of your databases, the data migration may take some time. Plan for reporting if needed. You migrate data as follows:

• OrientDB to Neo4j: Use the Graph Data Migration Tool before upgrading to version 6.

• MariaDB to MySQL EE: No manual migration required.

• Elasticsearch to OpenSearch: Use the MigrateHistoricalData application after upgrading to version 6. See About Migration in Unified Assurance Migration Guide for more information.

• Redis to Coherence: No manual migration required. After upgrading, undeploy the Redis microservice and deploy the Coherence microservices.

Supported Upgrade Paths

If you are currently running Unified Assurance version 4 or 5, you must upgrade or update to version 5.5.24, upgrade your operating system, and finally, upgrade to version 6.1. This process requires downtime during major version upgrades (4 to 5 and 5 to 6) and the operating system upgrade.

The following table lists the supported upgrade paths for each version, including interim steps and operating system upgrade.

About Upgrading to Unified Assurance Version 6 on Linux 8

Unified Assurance version 6.1 is installed on Linux 8. You can upgrade to Linux 8 in either of the following ways:

• Perform a forklift upgrade by installing a fresh Linux 8 environment, moving your Unified Assurance system onto it, and migrating your Historical data.

• Perform an in-place upgrade by backing up your Unified Assurance system, using the Leapp utility to upgrade to Linux 8, updating Unified Assurance on Linux 8, and migrating your Historical data.

  If you are currently using Linux 6, Oracle recommends performing a forklift upgrade directly onto Linux 8 rather than attempting to perform an in-place upgrade. If you want to make an in-place upgrade, you must first upgrade to Linux 7, then Linux 8.

Preparing for the Upgrade

To prepare for the upgrade:

1. If you have a development environment, Oracle recommends upgrading this environment first to get a feel for the process.

2. Back up all systems before upgrading. See Backup and Restore in Unified Assurance System Administrator's Guide, or the equivalent topic in the version 4 or 5 documentation for information about backing up previously supported databases.

3. Create a backup plan that includes this document, the prior upgrade experience notes, and rollback steps from backups if needed.

4. Plan a maintenance window for the upgrade.

5. Complete Upgrade Prerequisites.

Getting Earlier Versions of the Documentation

The documentation for upgrading from version 4 to version 5 is available from My Oracle Support. To find it:

1. Sign in to My Oracle Support.

2. Select the Patches & Updates tab.

3. Under Patch Search, in the Patch Name or Number field, enter 35299352 and click Search.

   The page for the documentation for patchset 5.5.13.0.0 appears.

4. Click Download.

5. Select the zip file to download it.

6. Unzip the file.

7. Open the PDF.

   The v4 to v5 Upgrade Guide is on page 241.

Upgrade Prerequisites

Before upgrading to version 6, do the following prerequisite tasks:

1. If you are on version 4, upgrade to version 5.5.24 as described in the version 5 documentation. See Getting Earlier Versions of the Documentation.

2. If you are on version 5, update to 5.5.24.

   Download the patch as follows:

   1. Sign in to My Oracle Support.

   2. Select the Patches & Updates tab.

   3. Under Patch Search, in the Patch Name or Number field, enter 37217363 and click Search.

      The page for patchset 5.5.24.0.0 appears.

   4. Click Download.

   5. Click Download All.

3. If your version of Unified Assurance uses OrientDB:

   1. Migrate all data from OrientDB to Neo4j before upgrading to version 6.

      You can use the version 5 Graph Data Migration Tool described in the 5.5.13.0.0 documentation on page 625.

   2. Disable OrientDB and enable Neo4j. You can do this by using the Services UI.

4. Disable and stop the Database Watchdog on all servers. If the Database Watchdog is running, the UI becomes inaccessible.

   You can do this by using the Services UI.

5. Before upgrading the primary server in a redundant pair, on the redundant server, stop the assure1 database by running the following command as the root user:

   systemctl stop assure1-db
   

   You will start it again during the upgrade process as described in the in-place upgrade documentation, before running Package update on the redundant server.

6. If your version 5 installation contains any custom (non Assure1 default) MySQL tables or databases, ensure that they are compatible with MySQL EE prior to starting the upgrade. The upgrade may fail if you have incompatible MySQL database or tables .

Upgrading to Version 6

To upgrade to Unified Assurance version 6 on an existing Linux system (in-place upgrade), including upgrading your database from Linux 7 to Linux 8, follow the steps in Upgrading Unified Assurance on an Existing Linux System.

To upgrade to Unified Assurance version 6 on a new Linux 8 system (forklift upgrade), follow the steps in Upgrading Unified Assurance to a New Linux System.

Troubleshooting the Upgrade

• If you do not disable and stop Database Watchdog before to the upgrade, even if the upgrade process succeeds, the UI will be unreachable.

  Instead of using the Server UI to perform the updates, you must run the command manually using the Unified Assurance Package Manager in order to access to UI again after the upgrade.

  To resolve this:

  1. Delete the $A1BASEDIR/var/DBAvailability.json file on the presentation server:

  2. When access to the UI is restored, navigate to the Service UI and restart the Database Watchdog on all servers it is running on.

• If you do not stop the redundant database before upgrading the presentation server, the Package update process fails.

  To resolve this, stop the database on the redundant partner and rerun Package update.