How to Upgrade ControlUp and Some New Features in 8.2

by Ray Davis, CTA

In this short blog, I am going to show you how to upgrade ControlUp from 8.1 to 8.2 and show some basic screenshots of ControlUp SOLVE. I am excited because ControlUp 8.2 is changing the game and introducing some great features.

I am not a ControlUp employee, and this is my experience and opinion only.

ControlUp has saved me many times in many areas and is a must for any organization with any EUC setup. There is still a lot I must learn in ControlUp so I can use it even more. It is a fantastic tool for any Engineer/Admin.

Below is some information on Version 8.2 and some of its additional functionality:

ControlUp can now monitor Citrix Cloud, which is a massive win for me. It will mirror the delivery group structure in CVAD. ControlUp added a new product called SOLVE, which gives you comprehensive, real-time monitoring and analysis in a hosted web application. This is something I have wanted for a long time.

Many folks seem not to understand the licensing around this and think that ControlUp is just out to get more money. Yes, it does require Ultimate licensing, but there is so much more than just the money aspect. They added a lot of good stuff in the Ultimate package that makes your Admin experience and the user experience even better. Ultimate gives you SOLVE and, of course, Automation, which is a must.

ControlUp has gone above and beyond for me in many situations. They gave me tons of training. The reps always reach out to me to check in to see if I need anything (yes, I used this to get custom SBA to tie into other products). Their support team is on top of their game, the Slack channel is always giving me the answers I need, and most of all, the product works well. To me, it’s a straightforward concept and should be a simple choice for many folks.

Basic Infrastructure Design

Firewall Ports used by Hybrid Cloud: https://support.ControlUp.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001228945-Communication-Ports-used-by-ControlUp-Hybrid-Cloud

Upgrade Procedure

Before you start the upgrade, close any ControlUp console instances that might be running and launch the new console executable, enter your login credentials, and log on to your existing organization.

When you sign into the ControlUp interface, you will receive a notification asking you to download the new version. You can also go and download it as well, but this option works well for me. I like it because it’s like, “hey, upgrade me, what are you waiting on?” I have one server that I use for my console only, and then I have two servers that are my monitors and data collectors.

If you are not sure what the Data Collectors are, this will help you. Long story short: “Data collectors increase the performance capabilities of both your console and monitor.”

https://support.ControlUp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002162597-ControlUp-Data-Collector

On my Console Server, I will back up my config. I just copied it to a file share in my case.

%AppData%\ControlUp

This is cool, and now it will use native AD. Good, add on.

Upgrade Monitors

Before:

Right-click and click upgrade. This took about five minutes or so in my environment.

As you can see, they are on the new version now. About 10 minutes to upgrade them. Nothing too hard.

Upgrade Data Collectors Agents

In my case, I used the Monitors for the Data collectors. This is not the best practice. It’s best practice to have dedicated machines as data collectors.

Upgrading the Agent on the Data Collectors

Upgrading the Agents

You will see a yellow notification if they are behind.

Right-click the device, click agent control, and Upgrade/Install Remote Agent.

At times, when upgrading, the agent will fail. If this happens, I remove the server and re-add it, and then it upgrades it with no problem.

Example:

I had Rory Monaghan looking over this blog, and he gave me some very valuable information:

One other thing I noticed, you had agent upgrades fail when pushed from the Console. One potential reason for this is that if someone installed the agent on a machine using the MSI rather than via the Console, the Console push fails. I work on a team of 4. Sometimes someone builds a new server or thinks they are helping during the upgrade process by uninstalling and installing the MSI, which in turn means next time I upgrade, the Console upgrade option fails.

Example:

You can do it at the higher level as well, as Rory showed me in the screenshot.

Rory gave me some good advice around this as well. I will be using this for my service desk. Thank you, Rory!

One of the reasons for missing data to Insights is that when a Monitor Server reboots or even when the service stops, it clears its agent to monitor connections. I discovered this too as I generate reports using ControlUp data: GitHub – Rorymon/ControlUp: ControlUp Resources and Scripts.

One final thing I do is restart the Monitor Service on the Monitors. The reasoning behind this is that I did an upgrade before, and data wasn’t being sent to Insights. I contacted support, and this was what they did. You don’t have to do this. I do it based on prior experience, and it is no big deal. It’s simple enough.

You will notice some add-ons in the toolbar at the top.

I am going to start a trial.

This is really neat, and it’s the ControlUp console but all WEB.

This is my favorite part, and it gives you a high-level diagram that will allow you to click on each object and see an overview of what is going on. You can drill down and get granular on each section. This is an excellent tool for the help desk.