The Stibo Patch Operations Tool (SPOT) program initiates an encrypted exchange between the customer site and the update mirrors at Stibo Systems. This program runs off either the STEP application server or on a dedicated SPOT support installation PC.
The communication sequence between the SPOT program and the update mirror is as follows:
- SPOT stores the current thin snapshot of version information to updates.stibosystems.com.
- SPOT fetches the desired recipe of the software bundles to download.
- SPOT downloads the actual bundles.
- SPOT stores the updated thin snapshot of the version information to updates.stibosystems.com.
Storing the thin snapshots to updates.stibosystems.com serves two purposes. It enables:
- Stibo Systems to support the STEP environment by providing complete version information.
- Easy creation of the exact software configuration for additional Test / QA environments and in the case of disaster recovery.
Both the metadata (including the thin snapshot) and the bundle recipe, together with the actual bundles, are cached by SPOT and only the files that are actually needed are ever downloaded, so the amount of data transferred is as low as possible.
The SPOT program can be found in the home directory of the STEP installation on the application server. On a Linux server, this will typically be in /opt/stibo/step. On a Windows server, this will typically be in E:\stibo\step.
Using the Upgrade Command to Add Components
To help simplify the analysis process and make it easier to work with components, the --upgrade command can be executed to look for possible upgrades to the components installed on a STEP system. Users can also run the command to search for a component not already installed to verify availability and compatibility with their version of STEP.
The --upgrade (or -u) command is used to calculate the newest possible version of the listed components that can be installed given different restrictions on how large of an upgrade is allowed. This command never changes the STEP system or performs any automatic upgrading.
To further facilitate the process, the upgrade options output that is displayed upon running the --upgrade command includes a recipe file that can later be applied to the system.
Outlined below are the different upgrade command options with examples. The name of the actual component(s) should be used in place of what is shown in the examples.
|
Upgrade Options |
Examples |
|---|---|
|
Upgrading one component |
To upgrade the Experian component, use: --upgrade=experian |
|
Upgrading several components |
To upgrade both Experian and Loqate, use: --upgrade=experian,local-loqate |
|
Upgrading the baseline (the STEP version such as 9.0, 9.1) |
The baseline can also be upgraded by using the component name step: --upgrade=step Pick the release of the baseline by specifying a prefix: --upgrade=step:9.1 When a prefix is specified, the newest version matching the prefix will be tried. |
Installation candidates (components that have not yet been installed) can also be found by using the --upgrade command, as described above.
Upgrade levels
The calculation used to determine upgrades can potentially produce suggestions for up to five levels of upgrade. Only the upgrades that bring newer versions of the listed components will be shown in the result. Below, the options shown are sorted by how aggressive the update would be with regard to introducing new component versions.
|
Level |
Description |
|
Listed |
This is the most conservative upgrade possible where only the listed components are touched. |
|
Dependents |
This level allows upgrading of:
|
|
Dependencies |
This level, listed with DEPENDENCIES_BUT_NOT_BASELINE in the file name, allows upgrading of:
|
|
Baseline within Maintenance Patch |
This level, listed with BASELINE_WITHIN_MP in the file name, allows upgrading of all components, including the STEP baseline, but only to the latest maintenance patch of the same release as the one currently installed. For example, if the system has step-8.2-mp1 installed, then this level would look for the newest MP of that release, possibly 8.2-mp3, but not 8.3. |
|
Baseline |
This is the least conservative upgrade level, which allows upgrading of all components, including the STEP baseline to the latest released version. |
The upgrade options are shown on screen with the upgrade file recipes listed. Users can use standard commands to view a detailed change log, prepare for an installation, and to apply changes to their STEP system.
For example: --upgrade=inmemory
Found 3 possible upgrades to choose from: ====================================================================== Option 1: Upgrade only the listed components Components: * assetloader: Keep at 7.0.14 (newest available: 7.0.24) * inmemory: Upgrade from 7.0.10 (newest available: 7.0.23) * spot: Keep at 7.0.48 (newest available 7.0.65) File: /home/step/admin/spot/recipes/upgrade/upgrade.LISTED.2017-11-01-15-24-28.spr
====================================================================== Option 2: Upgrade to latest maintenance patch within the same STEP release + All components Components: * assetloader: Keep at 7.0.14 (newest available: 7.0.24) * inmemory: Upgrade from 7.0.10 to 7.0.15 (newest available: 7.0.23) * spot: Keep at 7.0.48 (newest available 7.0.65) * step: Upgrade from 8.0-mp3-2016-09-06-14-12-00 to 8.0-mp4-2016-10-04-10-10-27 (newest available: 8.2-mp3-2017-11-02-07-39-51)
File: /home/step/admin/spot/recipes/upgrade/upgrade.BASELINE_WITHIN_MP.2017-11-01-15-24-28.spr ====================================================================== Option 3: Upgrade to latest STEP release (full upgrade) + All components Components: * assetloader: Keep at 7.0.14 (newest available: 7.0.24) * inmemory: Upgrade from 7.0.10 to 7.0.14 (newest available: 7.0.23) * spot: Keep at 7.0.48 (newest available 7.0.65) * step: Upgrade from 8.0-mp3-2016-09-06-14-12-00 to 8.1-mp5-2017-10-02-16-10-00 (newest available: 8.2-mp3-2017-11-02-07-39-51)
File: /home/step/admin/spot/recipes/upgrade/upgrade.BASELINE.2017-11-01-15-24-28.spr
If the system is ignoring any components or if the system cannot find a way to upgrade the components specified, the applicable messaging will be shown on the screen. All ignored versions will not be considered when trying to find an upgrade.
Starting with STEP 8.3 and with all subsequent versions, the --upgrade command can be used in place of the installation commands. For example, --upgrade=wikimetadata or –-upgrade=acrolinx.
Using SPOT to Remove Components
SPOT is able to remove components by naming the specific components to remove. For example, to remove the 'acrolinx' component, you will add 'rm:acrolinx' to the argument '--apply,' like this:
spot --apply=rm:acrolinx
It is possible to apply a recipe along with removing a component, but the parts of the recipe need to be separated with a comma. For example:
spot --apply=to:wikimetadata/7.0/wikimetadata-7.0.5.spr,rm:acrolinx
Using SPOT to Clear Cache
The cache maintained by SPOT for files downloaded from the updates server can grow quite large, and on some systems with very little disk space, it is possible to exhaust the free space on the system leading to errors. To mitigate the problem with too small file systems, SPOT deletes the entire cache if there is less than five (5) GB of free disk space when SPOT is started.
A manual option to trigger the cleanup has also been added: --cleancache
Using --cleancache will remove the SPOT cache before using the cache.
Note: The best solution to running out of disk space is to ensure that the file system for STEP is large enough. There are many other things that can cause space to be consumed that SPOT can do nothing about.