4. 4
Events in the series
☞ Standalone UiPath Orchestrator Upgrade (IaaS/PaaS) [2022.4 to 2023.4]
❍ Orchestrator Insights (Looker) installation
❍ Test Manager and Action Center Upgrade
❍ Automation Suite (Installation)
❍ Automation Suite (Upgrade)
6. 6
Key Drivers for upgrade
Major reasons for Upgrade:
• Your UiPath Orchestrator currently does not fall
under supported product lifecycle version.
(Refer link here )
• Majority of features used in your environment
are nearing deprecation timeline mentioned
here
• You are looking for or awaiting new features
and bug fixes that can be found in most recent
releases of UiPath Orchestrators as mentioned
here
Key factors to consider while choosing new
version:
• Check compatibility matrix (Refer link here)
• Verify upgrade paths (Single step vs 2 step
upgrade) using this reference link.
• Chose between latest vs (n-1) LTS versions.
• Always refer release notes for new features.
• Upgrade non-production setup and document
learnings before proceeding with Production
upgrades.
** Refer slide notes for more details
Extended support for version 2020.10 will be expiring in oct’2023.
7. 7
Upgrade approaches.
Upgrade in Place - Upgrade of current
environments on existing hardware (in
use/production). Upgrade one environment
(i.e. Dev, Test, Prod) at a time as testing of
processes allows to move forward sequentially.
Upgrade in Parallel - Install of latest version of
UiPath software on new hardware for all
environments, allowing to test and migrate
processes onto new environments while all existing
environments in production remain unaffected.
DEV
TEST
PROD
Orch
Robot
Studio
DEV
TEST
PROD
Orch
Robot
Studio
DEV
TEST
PROD
Orch
Robot
Studio
Existing Environment Parallel Environment
8. 8
Sample Upgrade High Level Plan
Plan Preparation Execution Monitor
• Evaluate pros and cons of
LTS vs FTS versions and
compatibility matrix
• Evaluate pros and cons of
In-place vs Parallel upgrade
• Evaluate Support Model
(including UiPath
dependencies)
• Determine target upgrade
version and timeline
• Involve IT, Infra, Security
team and other business
stakeholders in discussions
to align on an upgrade plan
• Review existing Infra and
UiPath Platform Setup
• Security Assessment
• License Assessment
• Build new or update existing
Infra per the Methodology
chosen
• Provision any service
accounts required with
admin access rights
• Prepare the rollback plan
• Upgrade NON-PROD
environment and conduct
impact analysis; address any
issues identified.
• Communication to
stakeholders on downtime
• Back up your automation
packages, configuration file,
and database
• Stop all services including job
triggers and robots etc. (You
could use maintenance mode
using Orchestrator APIs)
• Upgrade PROD environment.
• For each environment,
upgrade Orchestrator first,
then Robot/Studio if required
• Monitor jobs for a 1-2 weeks. Fix
Prod specific issues if any
• For UiPath product specific
issues, create a P1 ticket with
UiPath Support
• Once stable, decommission old
servers and Robots if any
9. 9
Key Upgrade considerations
As a good practice, for dependencies always use Runtime Rule = “Strict”
Prepare an upgrade plan and document the procedure
Always backup your environment before upgrading - config files/installation folder,
Database, Packages repository. Also ensure there are no pending jobs.
Prepare a roll back plan and document the procedure
Keep a copy of original version of the Workflows before making updates for upgrade
Studio and Robot should strictly have the same version (including patches)
Ensure certificate details are correctly applied during the upgrade
Validate SMTP server settings details on Orchestrator post upgrade
** Refer slide notes for more details
10. 10
Multinode setup with no
Disaster Recovery
Improved resiliency and performance
• Better performance and reduced load on single
node.
• Better traffic distribution controlled and facilitated by
load balancer.
Failover
• Failure resistance as multiple Orchestrator nodes
are available.
• High availability add on can be deployed as a
single node or as a cluster to support failover.
Scalability
• Ability to easily deploy more nodes in future
without compromising on much downtime.
• This model can be easily scaled to suit any
needs, including Active/Passive and Active/Active
disaster recovery deployments
11. 11
IaaS Upgrade
• Run directly via msi on Primary node
• Generate parameter config file on primary node server using Generate-ParametersFile
powershell utility
• Copy the parametersFile.json file from Primary on to secondary server
• Run msi via cmd line by passing arguments on secondary server. Example as below –
.UiPathOrchestrator.msi PARAMETERS_FILE=parametersFile.json
SECONDARY_NODE=1 CONFIRM_BLOCK_CLASSIC_EXECUTIONS=1 /l*vx
UpgradeLogs.txt /passive
• Start the sites on both servers
• Start validation
Ref link - https://docs.uipath.com/orchestrator/standalone/2023.4/installation-guide/updating-using-the-windows-installer#multi-node-environment
13. 13
HAA Upgrade
• To use the latest HAA version you must perform a fresh installation. You cannot directly
upgrade from a previous HAA version to the latest HAA version.
• Convert setup back to single node
• Turn off the HAA flag in Orchestrator configs
• To uninstall HAA, run the following command:
• sudo ./rl_uninstall.sh
• Perform fresh installation
• Validate the HAA portal to verify cluster in healthy state and license/admin settings
• Turn off the HAA flag in Orchestrator configs
• Convert setup back to multinode node and perform sanity
Ref link - https://docs.uipath.com/orchestrator/standalone/2023.4/installation-guide/haa-upgrading
15. 15
PaaS Upgrade
Stop the services
Take wwwroot folder back via FTP for all App services
Prepare the Orchestrator, Identity upgrade script (-action should be update)
Validate all required details provided in the script
Run the upgrade script for Orchestrator & Identity
Start validation
Ref link - https://docs.uipath.com/orchestrator/standalone/2023.4/installation-guide/updating-using-the-azure-script
Reference links:
UiPath Product lifecycle:https://docs.uipath.com/overview-guide/docs/product-lifecycle
UiPath general support terms: https://docs.uipath.com/overview-guide/docs/general-support-terms
UiPath Out of support version: https://docs.uipath.com/overview-guide/docs/out-of-support-versions
UiPath Compatibility Matrix: https://docs.uipath.com/overview-guide/docs/compatibility-matrix#standalone
UiPath Upgrade paths: https://docs.uipath.com/overview-guide/docs/orchestrator-upgrade-paths
UiPath deprecations timeline: https://docs.uipath.com/overview-guide/docs/deprecation-timeline#upcoming-removals-4
Supported tools and accelerators to facilitate upgrade:
https://docs.uipath.com/studio/docs/project-dependencies-mass-update
https://marketplace.uipath.com/listings/orchestrator-manager
https://marketplace.uipath.com/listings/export-schedules-calendar-for-orchestrator/reviews
Reference Material
Read more about Always on Availability Groups –
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/availability-groups/windows/always-on-availability-groups-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver16
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/availability-groups/windows/overview-of-always-on-availability-groups-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver16
Notes:SQL Server farm can be composed of minimum 2 machines.
The feature AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AOG) is present in:
SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition
SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition (up to 8 secondary replicas)
SQL Server 2016 Standard Edition, but Basic Availability, with 2 nodes only
SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition (up to 8 secondary replicas)
If AlwaysOn feature is not an option (because of the high cost), then the classical Windows Failover Cluster, with one Active node and one Passive node and External storage for Database files can be use
A Network Load Balancer (software NLB, like F5 BIG-IP, NGINX, Zen Load Balancer, HAProxy) is required when Orchestrator is installed on multiple servers in a High Availability configuration.
Minimum requirements are to be a Layer 7 HTTP Load Balancer, configured with Round Robin algorithm, no affinity or sticky session.