How to use Remote Upgrade

Owned by Svetlana Sheptiy
Last updated: Dec 21, 2023
3 min read
  1. New releases of Snare Agents are regularly released by Intersect Alliance. They can be obtained by logging in to your Snare customer portal, SLDM , and navigate to Download Software for the latest releases.  Two files are provided for each release that are required to be installed into SAM:
    • the first file is the Release MetaFile (in SLDM referred to as Metadata). This file ends in .txt and provides details about the release and is signed by Intersect Alliance to validate the release. For example Snare-Windows-Agent-v5.2.0-multiarch.sign.txt.
    • the second file is an Executable file. This file ends in .exe, for example Snare-Windows-Agent-v5.2.0-multiarch.exe.

    Note

    Please note that the metafile will not be available in v5.1, but will be available in SLDM post v5.1 agents released.
  2. Navigate to SAM | Settings | Upgrade Agents and place the .txt and .exe into the directory nominated as the Releases directory. Note: if the directory does not exist, please create it.
  3. Click on Scan for new/existing releases to display the release information.

  4. Click the Action Enable to enable that release for possible upgrade.  The Status of the release is Enabled but will only be automatically deployed if the status of the Upgrade Subsystem is Enabled and agents are selected for upgrade.



    How to Disable a Release

    Navigate to SAM | Settings | Upgrade Agents and click Disable next to the release you want to disable.

    All Agents that were scheduled for that release will now revert to being listed as 'Up-to-date' and no further upgrades of the agents will take place.

    How to Remove a Release

    Navigate to SAM | Settings | Upgrade Agents and click Delete next to the release you want to remove.

    Removing a release will remove the associated files of that release from the filesystem on the computer the SAM is running on.  All Agents that were scheduled for that release will now revert to being listed as 'Up-to-date' and no further upgrades of the agents will take place. 

  5. Navigate to Agents | All and click the mode Upgrade.   A summary of the agents is displayed.  The Upgrade Subsystem status and Release status must be Enabled to review the actions below.


    Agents may be locked to prevent against accidental upgrades. If the agent has the unlocked symbol against the agent, it will allow the upgrade. Agents may be locked when upgrade status is Up-to-date, Upgrade Available or Not Supported.

  6. Click Deploy Release for details on the release to be deployed.

    Step 1 - Select Release
    Select the release from the list.  The releases will be displayed only if found in the Releases Directory and if the release is enabled.
    Step 2 - Select Agents
    Select the individual agent by clicking on its row.  Once clicked, it will be highlighted green, and the Deploy button will become available.
    Step 3 - Deploy
    Clicking Reset will clear the selections.  Click Deploy to start the upgrade and deploy the nominated release to the selected agent(s).  The upgrade status of the agent(s) will display as Pending (based on the Settings | Upgrade Agents | Concurrent upgrade threshold value) until there is a spare concurrency slot in which they can upgrade, and as per note below.

    Pending

    Waiting for the agent to communicate with SAM will be up to 90 minutes depending on the agent last communicated with SAM, and so after clicking Deploy it will display the status as Pending.  To circumvent this time delay, you may restart the agent service for the agents you want to deploy.

    When the agent(s) has finished upgrading, the agent upgrade status will display Up-to-date and if the page is refreshed you will see the Type field updated to the new version.