Updating to the Latest Release

Recap: You are either a customer with a full license, or a prospect evaluating the app and using a trial license.

You are here to either a) update your production build to the latest maintenance release, b) upgrade from the trial version to the full version, or c) update your trial version with a newer trial version. You’ve also reviewed the Release Notes, Admin Manual, made backups, etc….

Updating the Cisco CDR Reporting and Analytics app

If your Splunk server has internet access

• Open up your Splunk, log in as an administrator, and in the apps list click the gear icon, or on some pages Manage Apps.
• Search for ​“sideview” in your apps. This should bring up a list of several apps:
  • Canary
  • Cisco CDR Reporting and Analytics
• For each that has an update waiting, click the ​“Update to X.X.X” link and follow the instructions (preferably in the order listed above).
• NOTE: if you’re updating from a very old version and do not have the Canary app installed yet, take a brief detour back to our install docs to fix that.

If your Splunk server does NOT have internet access

• Visit these pages and click Download to download the following apps to your local system as tar.gz files.
  • Canary https://​splunkbase​.splunk​.com/​a​p​p​/4697
  • Cisco CDR Reporting and Analytics app https://​splunkbase​.splunk​.com/​a​p​p/669
• Log in to Splunk as an administrator, and from the apps list click the gear icon (or on some pages Manage Apps).
• For both of the downloaded apps, click the second button in the upper right, Install app from file.
• Follow the little wizard each time, selecting each file in turn.
  • You WILL want to check the ​“upgrade app” option each time.
  • You do not need to restart Splunk in between the two apps – just be sure to do it after the second app is installed.
  • If for any reason it doesn’t ask to restart after the last one, please click Settings then Server Controls, and restart Splunk from there.

Updating the license (if needed)

Trial Version to Full Version, Extending Your Trial, or Renewing Full Version

1. Find your new license key, which should be in an email from us and clearly marked.
2. Log into the Splunk UI as an admin user.
3. Open the Cisco CDR Reporting and Analytics app.
4. Click Setup, then Update license.
   
5. Paste in your new license key, then click the Update License button.
   
6. After updating, you’ll see license information including company and expiration date.

Updating forwarders, if necessary

New versions of the TA for Cisco CDR Reporting and Analytics only come out occasionally, but they do come out. When that happens you’ll need to update your forwarder.

• Download the TA directly from Splunkbase.
• Save the file onto your local system.
• Use Gunzip and tar, or an application like Winzip, to uncompress the .tgz file. 
  • With 7‑zip on Windows … 
    • Right-click on the file, select 7‑zip -> ​“Open Archive”
    • Drill down until you see a folder called ​“TA_​cisco_​cdr”
    • Drag/​Extract that folder to a temporary location on your system.
  • With gunzip or tar, we’re not giving any hints unless you ask specifically. We figure you wouldn’t be using those utilities unless you knew how to use them. 🙂
• Copy the TA_​cisco_​cdr directory into $SPLUNK_​HOME/​etc/​apps/​on your forwarder host.
• Restart the Splunk instance on your forwarder host.
  

WARNING – Do not overwrite your specific inputs.conf file! Your specific inputs and configurations *should* be stored in a directory ​“TA_​cisco_​cdr/​local/​”, and if it is, we won’t overwrite those. But better to check than to have to restore configurations later! 

More advanced scenarios

If you are using any of the following:

• The Splunk Deployment Server
• Multiple Forwarders
• Heavy Forwarders
• Or any other more interesting combination

Then see our docs on Advanced Forwarder Updating

Troubleshooting

Not that we expect problems, but Splunk is a complex system, and all sorts of interesting things can go wrong.

The majority of the time if there’s anything wrong it’s just that your browser is caching things it shouldn’t and using old copies of updated files. Please try clearing your browser cache (instructions vary based on your browser – Google is your friend), and check again. Also, try to reproduce the problem in Incognito mode or a new Private Window, depending on your browser. If that doesn’t resolve your problems, please contact us for help or email [email protected]​sideviewapps.​com!

The other issue we find is that after updating both apps, you may get a screen telling you ​“Page not found”.

This is a bug in Splunk that we’re currently helping them to chase down. It’s not serious and is only some misdirection on the part of the update page. Just click the ​“here” in the middle, and everything will be fine!

If you have any comments at all about the documentation, please send them to [email protected]​sideviewapps.​com.