Updating Frends and Agents
Frends gets regular updates which might contain new features or bug fixes. Sometimes you might notice unexpected behaviour, for example, in the Control Panel or in Processes, which might be resolved by a Frends update. Hence, it is important to keep your Frends up to date. A Frends update is done in two parts. First the Control Panel will be updated, and then the Agents. You can find information about different Frends versions from the release notes. You can check your Frends version from the lower right corner of the Control Panel. To begin a Frends version update you need to schedule it by contacting your dedicated Service Manager or support@frends.com
Updating the Control Panel
The Control Panel will be updated first. During the update you cannot access the Control Panel. Processes will continue running in the Agents as they are configured, since Processes are run by Agents, and they don't need a connection to the Control Panel after the Process Trigger has been activated. Processes using a Manual Trigger are not running, since those can only be triggered from the Control Panel. The update will take about 10 to 15 minutes. After the Control Panel has been updated, the Agents will be updated.
Updating Agents
After the Control Panel has been updated, the Agents should be updated next. Agents will continue running Processes even though their version is older than the Control Panel's version, but you cannot deploy new Processes or new versions of Processes to Agent Groups that have Agents using an older version.
An Agent update is done one Agent at a time. The update is first done for Agents in the Development Agent Group. Production Agents will be updated last. When an Agent is being updated, Processes in that Agent are not running, so the update causes some downtime for Processes. Although, if an Agent Group has multiple Agents (High Availability), an Agent will continue running Processes while another Agent is being updated.
If the Agent is a PaaS Agent, the Frends Team will update the Agent. If the Agent is a Self Service Agent, you can download the new Agent installer from the Environments View. It is advised to pause the Agent Service before running the installer, so there won't be any new Process Instances starting in the Agent when the Agent is updated. After pausing the service, you should also check the Control Panel that any Processes are finished before running the installer, since running the installer while Processes are running will terminate them. After all Processes have finished you can safely stop the Agent service. Stopping the service before Processes have finished will also terminate them. After shutting down the Agent Service you can run the installer to update the Agent. After the installation has finished you should see that the Agent version is the same as the Control Panel version from the Environments View. You should also monitor Processes to ensure that they work as expected after the update.
The next article is Introduction to Updating Agent certificate