This chapter covers common aspects of upgrading an OpenAM deployment, whether you are moving to a new maintenance release, upgrading to a new major release, or migrating from a legacy release to a newer OpenAM release.
Release levels, and how much change to expect in a maintenance, minor, or major release, are defined in the Administration Guide section, ForgeRock Product Release Levels. Release levels are identified by version number.
How much you must do to upgrade OpenAM software depends on the magnitude of the differences between the version you currently use and the new version.
Maintenance releases have a limited effect on current functionality but contain necessary bug and security fixes. You should keep up to date with maintenance releases as the fixes are important and the risk of affecting service is minimal.
When upgrading to a new major or minor release, always plan and test the changes before carrying out the upgrade in production. Make sure you read release notes for intervening versions with care, identifying any changes likely to affect your deployment, and then plan accordingly.
These suggestions are true both for OpenAM server components, and also for policy agents.
To upgrade from OpenAM server 9.5 and later you can use the Upgrade Wizard. The OpenAM server Upgrade Wizard, added in OpenAM 10.0.0, appears when you replace a deployed OpenAM server .war with a newer version and browse to the deployment URL. The Upgrade Wizard brings the OpenAM configuration, including the version number, up to date with the new version. The CLI counterpart of the Upgrade Wizard is , which you install as described in To Set Up Configuration Tools.
For legacy releases, meaning OpenAM server version 9.0 and earlier including Sun Access Manager and OpenSSO releases, you must reinstall and configure OpenAM server rather than upgrade. Moving to a new release from a legacy release is therefore a migration, rather than a simple upgrade.