Troubleshooting Hipchat Server Upgrades

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Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the server and data center platforms.

This is for an outdated version of Hipchat Server

 This article applies to a version of Hipchat Server which will be deprecated soon. After that period the version will no longer be supported.

When will my version be deprecated?

The following versions have been deprecated:

  • Hipchat Server 1.3 (EOL Date: Aug 17, 2017)
  • Hipchat Server 2.0 (EOL Date: Jun 17, 2018)
  • Hipchat Server 2.1 (EOL Date: Dec 8, 2018)

The following version will be deprecated soon:

  • Hipchat Server 2.2 (EOL Date: May 30, 2019)

You can read more about Atlassian's End of Life policy here.

You should upgrade to a more recent version of Hipchat Server as soon as you can to take advantage of new features, and security and bug fixes.

Reminder: Remember to create a backup before you upgrade, either with a virtualization snapshot or using a data backup/export. See Back up and restore Hipchat Server for more details.

Upgrading from Hipchat Server 1.3 or older?

If you're upgrading from Hipchat Server 1.3 or older, you'll need at least 5GB of free disk space on the root partition. The upgrade will take at least 60 minutes to complete, and will require a reboot once it completes.

If you have trouble upgrading from 1.3, you may need to upgrade from the command line using

hipchat upgrade --force-upgrade
Upgrading from Hipchat Server 1.4.x?

Upgrades from Hipchat Server 1.4.0 - 1.4.2 require that you run some extra command line steps before you upgrade.


wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/hipchat-server-stable/utils/chat-113.tar.gz
tar -zxvf chat-113.tar.gz
cd chat-113 && sudo dont-blame-hipchat -c './install.sh'
 

Then, run hipchat upgrade --upgrade as usual.

If you have trouble upgrading from the web UI, we recommend upgrading using the CLI instead. Upgrades can take up to 10 minutes or more to complete if upgrading from version 1.4.0 and newer. 

Info

  • Upgrade via the WebUI (just makes a shell call to the CLI) is the same as using the Hipchat CLI - hipchat upgrade. 
  • apt-get by itself is not the same as hipchat upgrade. 
    • We strongly advise against upgrading any Hipchat server components separately, unless instructed to otherwise by Atlassian Support. 
    • Any changes to Hipchat server update sources, unofficial updates to packages, installation of additional packages not included with Hipchat Server, Ubuntu update, database update, etc. may cause the application to perform poorly or encounter unexpected problems. 
  • The Hipchat Server upgrade process (hipchat upgrade -u) or via the web UI is the only supported method.  
    • The upgrade will include any software upgrades applicable to Hipchat Server components, as well as upgrades to the Operating System, when required. 
  • Hipchat server is a virtual appliance with a specific set of packages tailored for proper operation of the application. Users should not upgrade internal components on their own.  Doing so will place the server into an unsupported configuration. 
  • Servers at 1.3.9 and older run Ubuntu version 12.04.
  • Servers at 1.4.0 and newer run Ubuntu version 14.04.
  • The upgrade from 1.3.9 and older not only includes an upgrade of Hipchat Server components, but it also includes a full operating system upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04. 
  • Please give the upgrade time to complete, and be aware that a server reboot is required after upgrading in order to boot into the new kernel and Operating System.

Connectivity

Run the following command from the HipChat Server terminal / SSH console to see if you can reach AWS upgrade file from the server:

wget -S --spider https://s3.amazonaws.com/hipchat-server-stable/update/production/hcs-2.4.1-2018.07.19.134050.tar.gz

(info) Take note that the hcs-2.4.1-2018.07.19.134050.tar.gz parameter is to be replaced by the value obtained from the Hipchat Server Release Notes

A successful connection will show the following result, for example:

admin@hipchat:~$ wget -S --spider https://s3.amazonaws.com/hipchat-server-stable/update/production/hcs-2.4.1-2018.07.19.134050.tar.gz
Spider mode enabled. Check if remote file exists.
--2018-10-16 00:13:26--  https://s3.amazonaws.com/hipchat-server-stable/update/production/hcs-2.4.1-2018.07.19.134050.tar.gz
Resolving s3.amazonaws.com (s3.amazonaws.com)... 52.216.164.77
Connecting to s3.amazonaws.com (s3.amazonaws.com)|52.216.164.77|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
  HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  x-amz-id-2: Z/vNmzpJOYKtlUnoGXFeJloMKOJiiNloyF9baMl1m0SxkkMKgUB0ONcpzvwpE8QyQkwkwL5TmMs=
  x-amz-request-id: CCD859E89960E534
  Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2018 00:13:27 GMT
  Last-Modified: Tue, 04 Sep 2018 14:09:38 GMT
  ETag: "3ca32603ed302e400a3e6a42add18565-169"
  Accept-Ranges: bytes
  Content-Type: application/x-tar
  Content-Length: 1416609271
  Server: AmazonS3
Length: 1416609271 (1.3G) [application/x-tar]
Remote file exists.

Upgrade Logs

The following logs are essential for troubleshooting upgrades:

  • /var/log/hipchat/update.log
  • /var/log/chef.log
  • /var/log/hipchat/hup.log
  • /var/log/schema_upgrade.log

It is suggested that these logs be included whenever an upgrade issue is raised with Support. If in doubt, generate a diagnostics log bundle as mentioned below:

Upgrade Diagnostics

The Hipchat Server Support Toolkit includes a function to gather up information the current state of the server in the event of a failed upgrade. The upgrade diagnostics will generate an archive that can be sent to support. The archive will contain information useful for troubleshooting issues related to upgrading Hipchat Server.  Please follow the instructions in the linked article for installing and running the tool.

Hipchat Server's built in diagnostics tool can also help provide useful information to support.  The diagnostic can be invoked by running the following from the Hipchat Server's command line:

hipchat diagnostics -b

The above command will generate an encrypted bundle and passphrase.  Please send both the bundle and passphrase to Hipchat Server Support for further analysis. 

Forcing An Upgrade

Beginning with Hipchat server 1.2 build 1.2.7, we have included a --force-upgrade option.  The force-upgrade option will force an upgrade from the very beginning.  A user can re-attempt the upgrade using this syntax:

hipchat upgrade --force-upgrade

Offline upgrades as of v2.0 build 1.4.0

See How to perform offline upgrades in Hipchat Server for details.

Known Issues

  • Firewall rule that blocks outbound access to required update servers (wget will fail)
  • A proxy server is required for internet access, but, the Hipchat Server is not configured to use it:
  • User is trying to upgrade the server to a certain version/build on the Beta channel but has configured the upgrade on Production channel instead (verify via hipchat upgrade --show or from Server admin > Upgrade)
  • Interruptions or reboot while an upgrade is occurring
  • Internet/network/power outage blocks part of an upgrade

Knowledge Base Articles

Last modified on Nov 2, 2018

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