Preparations

During the upgrade process, you must use the default application user, mzadmin, and correct password whenever you are prompted to enter it.

The preparation steps will not affect the running system and can be done in advance.

Note!

For users who have custom agents created in Development Toolkit:

If you have custom agents created using Development Toolkit, these agents cannot be included in the upgrade. For information on how to remove them before proceeding with the upgrade procedure, see Upgrade and Downgrade in Installation and Setup .

Note!

For systems using Configuration Spaces:

Configuration Spaces is replaced with the new Workflow Packages functionality. Prior to upgrading make sure to export the configuration from inactive configuration spaces that you want to keep, as only the active space is carried across during the upgrade process.

For further information regarding Configuration Spaces, and how to use them, see Configuration Spaces in the 8.3 documentation.

Before proceeding with the upgrade, make the following preparations:

Verify that you are running MediationZone version 8.3.x. You can check the current version by opening the About window in the Desktop, where the current version is listed in the Pico Version section. If the system is running an earlier version, you need to upgrade it to an 8.3.x version first. See the documentation space for the version you are currently running for more information.
Install either Oracle JDK 17 or OpenJDK 17 on the server(s) where the Platform Container and Execution Containers are running.
Verify that the System Requirements are met. If the operating system, or database need to be upgraded, this should be done prior to the upgrade. This has to be done for all machines that are hosting the system.
Ensure that the environment variables are set correctly:

Variable	Description

Variable	Description
MZ_HOME	This environment variable specifies where the software is installed. Note! You should use an absolute path instead of a symlink for the MZ_HOME directory to avoid any issue during installation or upgrade.
JAVA_HOME	This environment variable specifies where the JDK is installed.
PATH	This environment variable specifies the search path and must contain the following directories: `$JAVA_HOME/bin:$MZ_HOME/bin`

Make a backup of all your configurations with System Export. This can be done either in Desktop, which is described in System Exporter or by using the mzsh systemexport command:
mzsh mzadmin/<password> systemexport <backup directory>/<filename>

Make an online backup of the database(s). For further information regarding how to perform an online backup, see Backup and Disaster Recovery Procedures.

If you are upgrading from 8.3.x, it is important to make a backup of MZ_HOME for system restore in case of upgrade failure.
To make a backup of your MZ_HOME, you can use the following command:

cd $MZ_HOME/../
tar -zcvf mzhome_backup.tgz <MZ_HOME directory>
mv mzhome_backup.tgz <backup directory>

If you are performing an upgrade of a system with large configurations, you may need to increase the maximum number of file descriptors.

Create a directory to use when unpacking this release and future releases. For the purpose of these instructions, this designated directory is referred to as the staging directory.

Place the *.tgz file from your release delivery into the staging directory.
Use a command line tool, go to the staging directory, and unpack the *.tgz file by running the following command:
tar xvzf <filename>.tgz
A directory is then created in the staging directory, containing the software to be installed. For the purpose of these instructions, this directory is referred to as the release content directory.
Copy the MZ license file into the release content directory.

Enter the release content directory and prepare the install.xml file by running the following command:
The *.mzp packages have now been extracted, and the install.xml has been extracted into the release content directory.