Upgrading to v18.x from v16.10
The newest version of ExaVault contains critical security updates as compared to the legacy version 16.10. Any user of 16.10 should upgrade to 18.x as soon as possible.
Version 18.x also includes the following major improvements and changes:
References to our previous brand names Smartfile and Veristack are replaced with ExaVault everywhere.
License key updating is now automatic, meaning you will never need to manually upload a license key ever again. Paid and Enterprise license renewals will be seamlessly processed.
Our previous PDF and document viewer has been replaced with a higher quality PDF viewer that is less error-prone. The new viewer does not support annotations or electronic signatures, however, we are not aware of any v16.10 customers actually using these features. Please contact us before upgrading if you required one of these capabilities.
The previous "Django" administration panel which provided direct access to the internal database is no longer included or supported.
User roles are replaced with attributes on the User object. (Existing users will be seamlessly migrated.)
SMS-based 2FA now requires that you provide your own Twilio credentials.
Exciting new paid features are now supported, including automatic updates, SSO, 2FA, and automatic registration and renewal of SSL certificates.
This upgrade will require downtime for your current production system. You need to power down your existing installation VM long enough to copy the data to the new VM.
As part of the name change from SmartFile to ExaVault, the upgrade process to v18.x involves renaming several databases and folders on disk. This is to ensure that your appliance will completely match a fresh installation and match the documentation. This part of the upgrade is performed automatically when you start the appliance later in the process.
Firewall Changes Involved
The new version of ExaVault changes the passive port range that is used for FTP transfers. The change was made to align with and match Files.com, our parent company. You will need to update your firewall rules to open ports 40000-49999 for FTP passive ports.
Preparation
Prior to the upgrade, please perform the following steps:
Make a backup first of the entire production VM including primary and secondary disks. While we've never seen anyone experience a failure following these upgrade instructions, taking a backup first provides a safeguard against the unforeseen interrupting a step that can't be recovered.
Save a copy of the network configuration locally. This will be needed to build a new netplan file. This configuration is likely found in the file /etc/network/interfaces
Launching The New VM Instance
We support two environments for launching the ExaVault VM: VMWare and EC2.
EC2 Instructions
Launch a new EC2 instance using the appropriate ExaVault v18.x AMI for your region. We recommend using a m7i.xlarge instance type.
VMWare Instructions
ExaVault is distributed as a .ova file for VMWare.
Configuring and Finalizing the Upgrade
Connect to the appliance using your VM console or via SSH. The VM uses a nonstandard port for SSH, so you must specify port 10022 for an SSH connection.
Execute the following commands in a shell to configure and finalize the upgrade to version 18.x. By default, you'll connect using the admin user, so we've added sudo to the commands because they require administrator access to your server.
Create the /data dir:
Remount the existing disk. Replace the device with your device name:
Start the application:
Allow a few minutes for your appliance to upgrade all database names.
If anything fails to start, check the logs for errors:
Once the appliance is started, the exavault-admin-dashboard container should be running. Use a web browser to access the appliance manager on port 9002. Access the configuration page and save your configuration.
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