PingFederate Server

Upgrading PingFederate on Windows using the Upgrade Utility

You can use the Upgrade Utility on Windows servers to upgrade to the current version of PingFederate.

About this task

The Upgrade Utility copies all relevant sources of your current installation into the new target directory of your choice. It doesn’t change the current installation.

Upgrade results are contained in the <pf_install_target>\pingfederate\upgrade\log\upgrade.log file.

If you used the server distribution .zip archive to install the previous version of PingFederate on Windows, you must use the Upgrade Utility to upgrade to the current version of PingFederate.

Steps

  1. Download the latest version of the PingFederate Server distribution .zip archive from the Ping Identity website.

    The distribution .zip archive is identical for both Windows and Linux.

  2. Extract the .zip to the new target directory of your choice, <pf_install_target>.

  3. Stop PingFederate.

  4. At the command prompt, change the directory to <pf_install_target>\pingfederate\upgrade\bin and enter the following command:

    upgrade  <pf_install_source>  <newLicense>] [-c] [--release-notes-reviewed]

    where: <pf_install_source>::

    The full or relative path of the base pingfederate directory where the existing PingFederate software is installed.

The pingfederate directory must have the name "pingfederate" for the Upgrade Utility to function correctly.
<newLicense>

The optional path and file name of the license to use for the upgraded PingFederate version.

If your current license is valid, the Upgrade Utility automatically copies it from the source installation to the target installation, and you don’t need to specify the <newLicense> parameter.

If your license isn’t valid, obtain a valid license file and specify its path and file name for this parameter.
-c

The optional parameter to run the tool in custom mode, which allows you to override newer default security settings (if any) and to upgrade to the newest version of each installed plugin.

--release-notes-reviewed

An optional parameter that indicates that you’ve already reviewed the release notes. This parameter prevents prompts during the upgrade that ask if you’ve read the release notes and the upgrade considerations.

The command prompt displays messages indicating upgrade progress. The process is complete when the following message appears:

Upgrade completed with  [N]  errors and  [N]  warnings

If there are errors, scroll up the command window to see them and then correct the indicated problems. Errors during the upgrade should be rare but might include problems such as missing or malformed configuration files in the source installation. The messages are also logged to the upgrade.log file in the Upgrade Utility base directory.

+ If you’re upgrading a clustered PingFederate environment, repeat from step 1 to upgrade PingFederate on each engine node.

End users might experience disruptions while you upgrade your PingFederate environment.

  1. If PingFederate is running as a service, reinstall the service:

    1. Remove the existing PingFederate service.

      For more information, see Uninstalling PingFederate from a Windows server.

    2. Install the new PingFederate service.

      For more information, see Installing the PingFederate service on Windows manually.

    3. For a clustered PingFederate environment, reinstall the PingFederate service on all nodes.

    Start the new PingFederate installation.

If you’re upgrading a clustered PingFederate environment, start the new PingFederate instance on the console node.

If you’ve configured single sign-on using OpenID Connect (OIDC) as the console authentication scheme and set the endpoint settings back to your PingFederate environment, start the new PingFederate instance on the console node and one of the engine nodes.

  1. Verify the new installation’s version:

    1. Open the new installation’s administrative console.

    2. On the toolbar, click the Question Mark icon. On the Help menu, click About.

    3. Verify that the pop-up shows the new version.

  2. If you’re upgrading a clustered PingFederate environment:

    1. Start the new installation on each engine node, and then go to System → Server → Cluster Management and ensure all nodes are shown.

    2. On the Cluster Management page, click Replicate Configuration.

  1. Although the upgrade utility automatically merges, migrates, and copies the language packs' .properties files into the upgraded PingFederate installation, verify the language packs in the upgrade installation by looking at the .properties files located in the upgraded <pf_install_target>\pingfederate\server\default\conf\language-packs directory.

    • Standard .properties files include pingfederate-email-messages.properties, pingfederate-messages.properties, and pingfederate-sms-messages.properties. During upgrade, these files are migrated and merged into the upgraded PingFederate installation.

    • Localized .properties files (for example, pingfederate-messages_fr_CA.properties), are also migrated and merged into the upgraded PingFederate installation.

    • If the PingOne MFA or PingOne Protect integration kit was installed on PingFederate, you must manually migrate its .properties file after the upgrade.

    • All other .properties files in <pf_install_target>\pingfederate\server\default\conf\language-packs that don’t fit the previous criteria are copied (not merged) into the upgraded PingFederate installation.

Next steps

After upgrading PingFederate, perform the Post-upgrade tasks.