Interested in upgrading to SAM 6.2.1? Here’s all the information you might need to upgrade, and the steps you’ll need to take to do it quickly and easily.
Prepare your Upgrade
1. Check the Release Notes for Orion SAM 6.2.1
2. Review the system requirements and ensure your server is up to spec.
3. Back Up your Database (Microsoft KB Links: 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012)
- For a quick shortcut if you have only SAM installed, this is the standard upgrade path: SAM 5.0 ⇒ SAM 6.1 ⇒ SAM 6.2
- To confirm which version of SAM you’re currently running, check the footer of any page on your Orion SAM Web Console.
- If you’re running NPM or any other modules with SAM, use the Product Upgrade Advisor tool to get an exact upgrade path to ensure you maintain compatibility while you upgrade.
5. Download the required versions from the customer portal
To download the current version, and any previous versions you require, you’ll need to log into the customer portal. Once you’ve logged in, use the License management menu to select ‘My Downloads’.
Next, select the product you want to download
And under the Server Downloads section, you’ll see the latest release selected by default. If you need an earlier version for your upgrade path, you can select it from the drop-down menu.
Complete your Upgrade
- Log into your Orion SAM server using the Local Administrator account to perform the upgrade.
- Run the installations, in order, to upgrade your product - the upgrade can be installed 'on top' of your existing older version.
- If you’re unsure of what order to use for the upgrade use the Product Upgrade Advisor tool for guidance.
- You’ll find the upgrade instructions for Orion SAM here, and a wealth of documentation, including upgrade and installation guides for all our products here.
- Always complete the configuration wizard before moving on to the next step!
- Got additional polling engines? You'll need to upgrade each of them at each step in the upgrade path to ensure they maintain compatibility. Make sure you upgrade your main poller at each step first, then update the additional pollers to match, for that step of the upgrade. Again, always complete the configuration wizard before moving on to the next step or the next polling engine.
If you run into any trouble during your upgrade, call us in Support on our toll-free numbers or submit a ticket – we’re happy to help!
Got a question that wasn’t covered here? Try these resources for help:
Upgrading SolarWinds Orion when FailOver Engine is installed
We have all been waiting for this, and now it's here: the Dameware 12.0 Release Candidate is now ready for you on the Customer Portal! Don’t wait, just download it while it’s still fresh and hot. However, if you want to learn a bit more about the new features, continue reading.
This release brings several bigger and smaller improvements, so let me highlight a few of them:
- Over the Internet (OTI) unattended sessions for Dameware Centralized users
- Allows you to remotely support users on the move, and assist remotely without the presence of the end user
- Deploy agents with OTI unattended support to end-points
- Manage agents for OTI unattended sessions to maintain high security and control
- Search Hosts in Mini Remote Control
- Support for Windows 10
- Ability to switch between the Standalone and Centralized versions without reinstallation
- And many other improvements and bug fixes
The #1 feature which I want to talk about is the ability to use unattended over the Internet sessions. You already have been able to remotely connect to a computer, but it required the assistance of the end-user, and she might not have always been available or you simply didn’t want to bother the user. Now you can connect to her computer anytime.
To start off, deploy a new agent with unattended OTI capabilities to the computer. The agent will register itself automatically with the proxy. The deployment is as easy as it always has been. The new version of the agent contains support for unattended OTI. It can be configured in the General tab of agent settings, where you can limit the agent only to local connections, or direct and remote connections. These settings can be found for example during agent deployment when you are prompted to confirm the deployment under Install Options… > Configure > General.
Right after deploying the agent, it will be visible on the Admin Console for the Central Server, and will be waiting for your approval (if you have just upgraded and are not using an evaluation copy, which has auto-approvals enabled). This gives you control over who can use remote unattended sessions, but it also gives you control in case you have several thousands end-points and you don’t want to remote to them all over the internet.
As soon as you approve the agent, it becomes available for remote sessions.
Another option is to configure auto-approvals under Central Server > Settings by setting the value of the Remote Host Auto-approve property to true. This setting will automatically display a notification banner in the admin console.
After the approval of the agent for Internet sessions, it will also appear in the new Remote Host List of the MRC console, so any technician can start to make unattended connections from this list right away.
You can also drag & drop the host from Remote Host List to your Personal Host List or Saved Host List (see below screenshot). From any of these lists you can initiate unattended OTI connections. If you already have the computer in the Personal Host List before, it will appear in the list twice and its icon will indicate direct LAN connection (red arrow in the screenshot) or unattended OTI connection (green arrow on the screenshot).
You are probably also curious about searching for a host in MRC. Simply click on Find icon in Remote Connect menu of MRC console and type hostname or IP address.
I’d love to hear from you, so if you have any feedback, please let me know in a comment or use DameWare DRS Release Candidate forum.