BuildMaster 2023.4 Automatic Agent Update

paul_6112

Hi Support,
How do I get the Inedo Agent to automatically update please?

From the support article;
https://docs.inedo.com/docs/inedoagent-installation-upgrading
There is specifically the link to automatic updates;
https://docs.inedo.com/docs/buildmaster/administration/agents#automatic-updates

However, despite having an older v46 and v49 agents (which desperately need upgrading) I'm not obviously seeing or being offered any way to upgrade to the latest agent automatically...

I've tried on both a Proxy connected system and directly on the internet to attempt to rule out any kind of connection problem.

Thanks,
Paul

atripp

Hi @paul_6112 ,

I just updated the documentation to clarify our Inedo Agent Upgrade guidance:

You shouldn't upgrade unless you are directed by a version of your Inedo tool (Otter, BuildMaster, etc) or an Inedo support engineer.

In this case, you wouldn't be prompted to upgrade if you're using v46 or v49, so we really don't suggest upgrading. There's zero benefit and a nonzero cost (time to upgrade, risk of problems, etc).

Keep in mind that the Inedo Agent is really just a lightweight "agent host", and the "actual agent" is upgraded transparently all the time.

Cheers,
Alana

paul_6112

Hi Alana,
Hhhmm, as per the release notes;
https://docs.inedo.com/docs/inedoagent-versions

v49 is listed as an unsupported version with a critical bug..

My expectation was v49 agents would therefore be upgraded to v51..

I admit I did install a v46 agent as an older supported version to see if it would be upgraded.

Thanks,
Paul

atripp

Hi @paul_6112,

There are no issues w/ using v49 or v50 in newer versions of BuildMaster; the bug is just with older (but still supported) versions of BuildMaster.

The "critical bug" is that an improperly-formatted encryption key in the agent's configuration file will cause the agent to not crash, but instead fallback to unencrypted mode. Newer versions of BuildMaster will detect this configuration problem. v46 does not have this bug.

Cheers,
Alana

paul_6112

Hi Alana,
Thanks for the confirmation about v49;
However, and sorry for flogging a dead horse if you will forgive the expression, back to Security teams in a similar position to the jQuery issue..

On this page;
https://docs.inedo.com/docs/inedoagent-versions

Its clearly stated that v51 is a supported version, and v49 is an unsupported version.

The language used is "you should install the latest version"

And a clear upgrade statement around unsupported versions;

How can I justify to the security teams that I am running unsupported software version, as its black and white at that level..

2nd question, so I can actually test that the automatic upgrade does work, which version of the Agent should be installed to prove it would take place ?

Thanks,
Paul

atripp

Hi @paul_6112 ,

How can I justify to the security teams that I am running unsupported software version

Well.... technically none of your software is supported since you are a free user

But otherwise you can either upgrade the agents or link them to this post where an Inedo engineer advised it's fine in your scenario. Or if you can suggest a way to clarify the docs... we recently reformatted that download page and split into "supported" and "unsupported".

So I can actually test that the automatic upgrade does work, which version of the Agent should be installed to prove it would take place ?

Without digging in the code I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure this functionality was disabled in BuildMaster 7 - the sentence mentioning it in the docs was obviously not removed. Instead, you will likely get some kind of warning on older versions.

The failure rate was relatively low (~0.1% or so), but it's high enough that it's not worth risk for customers.

Thanks,
Alana

paul_6112

Hi Alana,

Well.... technically none of your software is supported since you are a free user

https://inedo.com/buildmaster/pricing

I'm currently getting my money's worth on this forum after an upgrade to v2023

Thanks,
Paul