Upgrade Wowza 4.0.x to 4.3.x

Update Nov 18 2015. New upgrade process. This tutorial will show how to upgrade wowza to a newer version based on the update process wowza has provided.

Reference Guide: https://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?579
Reference Guide Update: https://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?197-software-updates
Download package: You need a wowza acccount now (Don’t worry its free)

*Note. first the download was freely available. now you need a wowza account first. From the My Downloads tab you can select the new zipfile
Current build: WowzaStreamingEngine-Update-4.3.0.01.zip

You dont need a new developer license when upgrading:

It looks like it should be easier to upgrade Wowza now to a newer version. I am using a developer license in this process to show how to upgrade. My WowzaStreamingEngine server is running on:

Ubuntu server 12.04 LTS – precise -32 bit / works also on CentOS 6.7 – 64bit

From this point i will start the upgrade. This is a guide as is. Always try to upgrade in a test environment.

Note: Always make an extra backup of your wowza system. After the update as shown in this tutorial you will loose the applications you have made!!.

Step1: license
I thought i needed a new license, but it isn’t asked in the update process and even after the update to 4.3.0 im still running on the same license:D

Step2: download update

Go to the tmp folder

cd /tmp

Download the zip package to your server:

Where WOWZADOWNLOAD is the link you can copy from the My Downloads tab

wget WOWZADOWNLOAD

I assume you have zip installed on your server.

Step3: copy update file
Copy the zip file  to the update directory (/usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/updates/)

cp WowzaStreamingEngine-Update-4.3.0.01.zip /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/updates/

 Step4: update directory
Go the update directory:

cd /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/updates/

and unzip the file to a newly made directory based on the same name as the zip file. The -d says it should be unzipped to a directory

unzip WowzaStreamingEngine-Update-4.3.0.01.zip -d WowzaStreamingEngine-Update-4.3.0.01

You will now see the zip file but also a directory with all the files unzipped

Step5: linux update
Time to start the update process. In this case im using the linux version, so we have to go to the linux update directory

cd /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine/updates/WowzaStreamingEngine-Update-4.3.0.01/linux

Step6: permissions update.sh
Before we can run the update we have to set some permissions on the update.sh file

chmod +x update.sh

Step7: run the update
Time to run the update and see if we are getting issues

./update.sh

Step8: error:
First error: Streaming Engine still running:

Verifying running as administrative user
Verifying Java 1.6 or greater is available
Locating installation directory
Wowza Streaming Engine appears to be running. Please stop it before continuing.

We have to stop the running server first. The command depends on the distro you are using. use the command you normally use to stop the wowza server

service WowzaStreamingEngine stop

After the server has stopped. we start again from Step7. Run the update.sh again

Step9: error 2
Second error: Streaming Engine Manager still running

Verifying running as administrative user
Verifying Java 1.6 or greater is available
Locating installation directory
Wowza Streaming Engine Manager appears to be running. Please stop it before continuing.

So also with the previous one we have to stop the service first

service WowzaStreamingEngineManager stop

Ok. let’s try it again from Step7 to run the update.sh again

Step10: upgrade process

This is the result im looking for:

Verifying running as administrative user
Verifying Java 1.6 or greater is available
Locating installation directory
Running Wowza Streaming Engine update installer
This will update your installation at: /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.0.0
Currently installed version : Wowza Streaming Engine 4.0.0.00 - Build 10425
This will update your installation to : Wowza Streaming Engine 4.0.3 - Build 10989
Are you sure you want to continue? (y/n)

Are you sure you want to continue?: Y

And again some information:

========================================
Changes in Wowza Streaming Engine 4.0.3 Build 10989

* Fixed the default H.264 default transcoder
* Fixed Wowza Streaming Engine Manager saving incorrect values (upper vs. lower case) for implementation and profile in transcoder templates
* Fixed bug where IStreamRecordManagerActionNotify.onCreateRecord was called instead of calling IStreamRecordActionNotify.onCreateRecorder()
* Modified StreamRecorder to check the outputFile parameter for an .mp4 or .flv file extension and if missing, add one based upon the fileFormat parameter
* Fixed ajp13 port improperly binding to tcp port 1 instead of disabling it by setting it to -1 in the startmgr.sh file
* Added java option for Wowza Streaming Engine Manager to prefer IP4 v4 stack (preferIPv4Stack=true)
* Removed call to VBS script that checked JAVA_HOME environment variable when running as a service. If the JAVA_HOME variable was incorrect, it would hang the service with attempts to query the user (which they weren't aware of). Replaced with more checks in batch files and added logging to batch.log in the bin folder to help diagnose issues when running as a service on Windows
* Fixed issue where Streaming Engine and Streaming Engine Manager in different time zones prevented users from signing in to Wowza Streaming Engine Manager
* Fixed RTMP reconnect timeout logic for Push Publishing to Akamai
* Fixed SanJose, Smooth, and DASH to correctly handle the wowzaPlayStart and wowzaPlayDuration manifest URL query parameters for VOD streaming using SMIL files
* Fixed MPEG-DASH VOD streaming so it provides correct segment duration values in the manifest for content with 44.1kHz audio
* Added integer Streams/Properties property nameGroupRemoveDelayTime that controls when stream name groups are deleted (value in milliseconds, default is zero, values less than zero will turn off removal of stream name groups)
* Added integer VHost/Properties property startupStreamsDelayTime to control the delay time (milliseconds) between streams started in StartupStreams.xml (default is zero)
* Improved startup streams system to use handler thread pool thread for starting streams
* Fixed transcoder decoder shutdown leak with default H.264, MP2, and MP4 decoders
* Fixed transcoder memory leak with default H.264 encoder
* Fixed NVENC H.264 encoder to properly use bitrate setting specified in transcoder template
* Added new pushPublishDefaultAkamaiDomainSuffix property to allow the default Akamai domain suffix ("akamaihd.net") to be modified for HLS streams being pushed

Press Enter to continue.

Press Enter

The backup and upgrade process will start

Detected operating system: linux
Checking file versions.
Backing up current files.
Successfully created backup: /usr/local/WowzaStreamingEngine-4.0.0/updates/backup/4.0.3.zip
Updating installation.
Restoring file permissions.
The update process completed successfully.
Keep a copy of this update zipfile. It is needed in case you want to restore to the previous version.
Only this version of the update will restore the prior version replaced by this update.

and… it should be done?

Yes it is. In the message it says a backup has been made. Lets check if it did.

Step11: Restart the services

Time to bring the server back online

I thought in a logical way to start the StreamingEngine first and after that the StreamingManager, but i have to do it the other way around.  So first start the EngineManager and after that the Engine:

service WowzaStreamingEngineManager start
service WowzaStreamingEngine start

Step12: browser manager

Time to go to your browser and open the manager interface <ipaddress>:8088 and login

in my scenario i made some test applications before i started the update process. All of them are still there.

But i’ve checked the backup that has been made. It doesn’t contain the applications prior the update. So just in case. ALWAYS make a backup of your complete installation.

In case you want to check the backup zip file copy it to a directory in for example your home folder and unzip it to check what’s in the file.

 

Conclusion: wowza made it much better this way to do an upgrade to a newer version in my opinion. Even the fun part is that my incoming stream has connected automaticly again and went back online again.

Check the Rollback scenario

 

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9 years ago

[…] tutorial is a follow up on the update process shown in this article Reference […]