Introduction

Updating BlueMind from a major version to another is an extremely particular operation: as subscriptions and packages vary from one version to the next, the lower version is unable to apply new elements.

This is why we provide a detailed description of the BlueMind 3.0 to BlueMind 3.5 update procedure in this page. Please make sure you read the entire procedure in order to be familiar with the order of operations, in particular if your IT equipment includes machines using the Outlook connector.

For any other simple update, please refer to the dedicated page: Updating BlueMind

Prerequisites

Pre-Update version

Before you update to BlueMind 3.5, you must have the latest 3.0 version installed. To find the latest available version, please refer to our downloads page: https://download.bluemind.net/bm-download/3.0

If the most up-to-date version of BlueMind isn't installed, then update it (Updating BlueMind).

Outlook Connectors

Specific operations are required before updating to BlueMind 3.5. If your IT equipment includes machines using the Outlook connector, please refer to the paragraph at the bottom of this page: Updating the Outlook connector.

Accessing the installation wizard

To perform the update, you need to access the installation wizard (http://<your.server.com>/setup) for which a password was provided during the installation of BlueMind.

If this password was lost, there are two ways to reset it:

1. Before any installation operation, access the admin console as global admin0 > System Management > System Configuration > "Reverse Proxy" tab:
   fill in the new password and save.
2. By command line:
   

   • log into the BlueMind server as root and type the following command line:

     rm -f /etc/nginx/sw.htpasswd; htpasswd -b -c /etc/nginx/sw.htpasswd admin admin

   • log into the /setup url and use "admin/admin" as username and password 
     You MUST perform this step, even if you are in the process of performing the BlueMind update.

Repository signature 

Repositories are now signed for all supported Ubuntu/Debian distributions.

Repository signature is required for Ubuntu 18.04 and Debian 9 which are supported by BlueMind 3.5.9.

You may, if you need or want to, manually import the key on all our supported distributions using the following command:

curl https://pkg.bluemind.net/bluemind-deb.asc | apt-key add -

Otherwise, a warning may come up during earlier version updates. This will not disrupt updates however.

Procedure

The update process requires specific subscription installation steps: before you are able to update to BlueMind 3.5 your subscription must be up to date and in the future version BEFORE you are able to install the new subscription-specific installation package.

• Install the required packages:

  • bm-setup-wizard: a special version of the installation and update wizard
  • bm-plugin-core-lic: in-application subscription information display tool
  • apt-transport-https : allows access to BlueMind repository in https (in BlueMind 3.0 the package wasn't required because repository was accessible in http mode, which is not permitted anymore)
  Debian/Ubuntu RedHat/CentOS

  
  

  You are currently viewing the documentation for BlueMind version 3.5, whose support will end on June 30, 2024.

  We invite you to update your installations and consult the documentation for BlueMind version 4.8.

  
  

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  aptitude install bm-plugin-core-lic bm-setup-wizard apt-transport-https

  
  

  You are currently viewing the documentation for BlueMind version 3.5, whose support will end on June 30, 2024.

  We invite you to update your installations and consult the documentation for BlueMind version 4.8.

  
  

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  rpm -e --nodeps bm-installation-wizard
  yum install  bm-plugin-core-lic bm-setup-wizard apt-transport-https

  NB: if you've already performed updates on your BlueMind install (e.g. to update from BlueMind 3.0.39 to 3.0.40), these packages may already be installed. In this case, simply move on to the next steps.

• Restart BlueMind:

  bmctl restart

• Update the subscription with the new version 3.5 subscription from the admin console:
  • while logged in as admin0, go to System Management > Install a subscription
  • using the "Update the subscription" button, search for the file containing the subscription key provided by BlueMind and open it.
    BlueMind installs the subscription.
    Registration is immediate and doesn't require you to restart BlueMind.

• Update the packages on the server (on all servers concerned):

  aptitude update
  aptitude dist-upgrade

• The following new packages are available:

  • bm-plugin-core-subscription: subscription management
  • bm-connector-outlook* and bm-plugin-core-outlook*: Outlook connector
  • bm-plugin-core-ad-import*: ActiveDirectory import tool

  * optional packages, to be installed as needed

  On the main server, install the new packages and restart the BlueMind service:

  Debian/Ubuntu RedHat/CentOS

  
  

  You are currently viewing the documentation for BlueMind version 3.5, whose support will end on June 30, 2024.

  We invite you to update your installations and consult the documentation for BlueMind version 4.8.

  
  

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  aptitude install bm-plugin-core-subscription bm-connector-outlook bm-plugin-admin-console-ad-import bm-plugin-core-ad-import
  bmctl restart

  
  

  You are currently viewing the documentation for BlueMind version 3.5, whose support will end on June 30, 2024.

  We invite you to update your installations and consult the documentation for BlueMind version 4.8.

  
  

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  yum install bm-plugin-core-subscription bm-connector-outlook bm-plugin-admin-console-ad-import bm-plugin-core-ad-import
  bmctl restart

• Connect to the update url: https://<your server>/setup and follow the installation wizard's instructions:
  
  NB: version numbers may vary

• When the update is complete, the BlueMind welcome page opens and the wizard displays access links to the applications:
  

Post-install actions 

Email indexing

Once the update is complete, you must run message indexing jobs.

To do this, while logged in as admin0 :

• go to the scheduled jobs page in the admin console > System Management > Scheduled Jobs
• select "global.virt" domain in the combobox on top-right of the page

• select the scheduled job named ConsolidateMailSpoolIndexJob which is responsible for message indexing – this job only – then click "Start now":
  

  The message archiving job may take a long time – it processes 16Gb of data in 4,600 seconds (i.e. 1 hour 12 mins). However, the process is transparent to users who can continue to use BlueMind in the meantime.

  As users' messages are indexed, the new search engine will appear in their webmail. All users will therefore neither see it as soon as the system update is complete nor at the same time.

Backups

Old backups not being usable with the new version, make sure you delete them from the server if you haven't done so at the beginning of the update procedure.

In order to have a usable backup, run DataProtect as soon as the update is complete.

Cyrus configuration

After updating, the maximum number of imap processes allowed by Cyrus must be set again.

To do this, you can either edit the file /etc/cyrus.conf using command line, or – as of now -- set it in the BlueMind admin console:

• log into the admin console as admin0
• go to System Management > System Configuration > Mail tab

• in the Cyrus section, enter the desired value in the "max child" box:
  

  Calculating the approximate number of processes required

  In general, consider approximately 1.5 times the number of users for mixed webmail/thick client use. On installs with many users using thick clients, allow for approximately 3 times the number of users.

  To calculate the number of processes used currently:

  pgrep -c imap
• click "Save" to apply changes.
  Cyrus restarts automatically.

Updating the Outlook connector

Foreword: about version 3.0 before updating

The Outlook connector uses a Windows service dedicated to its own updates: AutoUpdateService

Before you are able to download a new major BlueMind version such as 3.5, the Outlook connector (and in particular its update service) must be in a version recent enough to be able to handle downloading and installing the next version. Only connectors installed in version 3.0.39 (technical version 3.0.14366) or above are able to download version 3.5 and update correctly.

Checking the connector's version on a computer

To find out what connector version you have installed, hover over the BlueMind synchronization logo in Outlook, without clicking: a tooltip appears, showing the connector version:

If the version number is equal to or greater than 3.0.14366, or starts with 3.1, then the connector is compatible.

Update sequence of operations 

When moving to BlueMind 3.5, it is common, and possibly necessary (see above), to update to the latest 3.0.x version before moving to the latest 3.5.x.

You must therefore be very careful with the sequence of operations so that the connectors from versions earlier than 3.0.39 can be updated.

For example: you want to update from 3.0.36 to 3.5.5-4.

• First you need to update the server from 3.0.36 to 3.0.39.
• Older connector versions (which includes 3.0.36) only start checking for updates after the first successful synchronization. The server must therefore stay in version 3.0.39 until all client machines using Outlook have retrieved version 3.0.39 of the connector and in particular its new update service.
  As the connector's service only checks for updates every hour, you must wait at least one full hour to make sure that as many machine connectors as possible have correctly moved to 3.0.39.
• If this timespan has not been reached or not all machines were running, you will have to install connector 3.5 manually on all Outlook clients that had not reached version 3.0.39 before the server switching to 3.5.

The typical sequence of operations is:

1. Updating BlueMind to the latest 3.0.x version available
2. Waiting for (or forcing) the synchronization and update of Outlook connectors on client machines running 3.0.x
3. Updating to BlueMind 3.5 (see above)
4. Waiting for synchronization and update of Outlook connectors to 3.5
5. If needed, manually updating the connectors that haven't been updated automatically.

Monitoring/Checking update status

The file /var/log/nginx/access.log is used to view http requests made by the connector update service.

3.0 requests either look like this:

10.1.100.135 - - [19/Jul/2017:08:41:56 +0200] "GET /settings/settings/download/outlookx86?file=BUILD_NUMBER HTTP/1.1" 200 6 "-" "-"

or like this:

10.1.100.135 - - [19/Jul/2017:08:41:56 +0200] "GET /settings/settings/download/outlookx64?file=BUILD_NUMBER HTTP/1.1" 200 6 "-" "-"

The IP shown (10.1.100.135) typically is the client machine's. If devices or proxys are placed between the machines and the BlueMind nginx server, the IP address shown may belong to these devices. It is therefore up to network administrators to know where to locate the information needed to re-assign requests to client machines.

The request shown here for example purposes, shows a connector checking for its own updates. If an update is available, a second request follows, this time to download the new connector:

10.1.100.135 - - [19/Jul/2017:08:41:57 +0200] "GET /settings/settings/download/outlookx86?file=SetupAddin.msi HTTP/1.1" 200 8037888 "-" "-"

After this request, you can consider the connector on the machine with IP number 10.1.100.135 as up to date.

3.5.x connector/update service requests are slightly different. They include the key word VERSION instead of BUILD_NUMBER:

10.1.101.137 - - [19/Jul/2017:09:08:56 +0200] "GET /settings/settings/download/outlookx86?file=VERSION HTTP/1.1" 200 9 "-" "-"

When you go on the server, you can check which version the update service returns:

$ curl -k https://localhost/settings/settings/download/outlookx64?file=VERSION
3.1.23247

$ curl -k https://localhost/settings/settings/download/outlookx64?file=BUILD_NUMBER
23247

Known bugs and workarounds

Redhat/centos servers with BlueMind versions < 3.5.5-5

The Outlook connector package is incomplete in versions 3.5 earlier than 3.5.5-5

You can work around this issue by running the following command on the BlueMind server:

/usr/share/bm-connector-outlook/repack-cert.sh