Downgrade a ByteBlower server

New versions of the ByteBlower server are released several times a year. It is recommended to run the last released version. This release includes all the latest features and improvements. How to update the server is described in this article. Sometimes one wants to compare results with a previously released version. This can be configured from the ByteBlower updater. The text below explains how to pick a new version.

This article is written for the 1x00, 2x00, 3x00, and 4x00 ByteBlower models. Downgrading on the new 5100 systems (November 2020) will be slightly different. Do contact us when you are working on this system and need to downgrade.

Downgrading reduces the feature set of the system. The ByteBlower server has limited forward compatibility, especially changes to the traffic interfaces, and management connections or the licensing can break previous releases. Don't hesitate to contact support.byteblower@excentis.com before downgrading, they will help determine the best process.

The first step is to ssh into the byteblower server. With the command excentux-update, the server restarts and boots into the ByteBlower updater mode. This will close the SSH session. 

Once the updater has booted, log back into the system. Depending on the system this might take a while. In the Update system, select the second option and press enter. This is shown in the picture below. 

The second option opens a new screen with the available version. Before each version there can be two letters:

• 'I': This version is already installed.
• 'A': This version is activated. The ByteBlower server will start this version once booted.

In this menu scroll to the version you want to run and press enter. In the picture below we select version 2.6.6 of the ByteBlower server. This is already installed, but not activated. After pressing enter, the ByteBlower updater will run perform a number of actions, and finally activate version 2.6.6.

The screen below is the result of activating version 2.6.6. The letters IA indicate that this version will start on bootup. Everything is set up in this menu we can go back to the main menu. This is done with the cancel option at the bottom of the screen. 

Once back at the main screen, the system needs to boot back into the ByteBlower server mode. This is done with the Reboot option in the menu (picture below). 

At startup, the ByteBlower server will boot the version we've just selected (2.6.6.). A final check is possible with the byteblower-get-version command or the Server view in the ByteBlower GUI.