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Upgrade the Web Agent Option Pack

This section contains the following topics:

Mixed-Version Upgrade Considerations

To simplify migrations and upgrades, the Web Agent Option Pack can operate with Policy Servers of different, compatible versions. This mixed-version support allows you to keep Web Agents at their current version while you upgrade Policy Servers and other Web Agents. However, mixed-version environments are not recommended for permanent use because they limit the federation functionality to that of the lesser of the two components.

Version-dependent functional limitations exist when upgrading environments that use hardware load balancers for distributing requests between web servers. Consider a deployment where two Web Agents with Web Agent Option Packs and a Policy Server are at the same older version, as shown in the following diagram:

Environment with components of the same SiteMinder version

During a rolling upgrade, the administrator upgrades the Policy Server and only one Web Agent and Option Pack to 12.51. The upgraded agent and option pack supports SAML 2.0 user consent at the IdP. Partnership B is reconfigured to require user consent at the IdP and Partnership A security configuration remains unchanged.

Partnership A functionality continues to work regardless of the option pack to which it is routed because it is not using new functionality. However, Partnership B requests (which require user consent at the IdP) fail whenever the load balancer directs the request to the older version option pack.

To prevent Partnership B request failures until both web agents are upgraded, the administrator must configure the load balancer to route Partnership B requests solely to the current option pack. This configuration is shown in the following diagram:

Routing requests across miixed SiteMinder versions

More information:

Version Compatibility

Perform an Option Pack Upgrade

Consider the following points before upgrading the Web Agent Option Pack:

The Web Agent Option Pack version must be compatible with the Policy Server version. To learn which Policy Server versions the Web Agent Option Pack is compatible with, see the CA SiteMinder® Platform Support Matrix.
When different compatible versions of the Web Agent Option Pack and Policy Server are mixed, federation functionality is limited to that of the lesser of the two components.
If the Web Agent and Web Agent Option Pack are installed on the same system, they must be the same version, including the Service Pack and CR version.

Important! When upgrading, the program automatically creates new back-up configuration files and overwrites the existing configuration files.

To upgrade the Web Agent Option Pack

Run the Web Agent Option Pack installation program. The installation program can be run as an upgrade.
For more information, see the installation instructions.
Follow the prompts to upgrade the system.

More information:

Locate the Platform Support Matrix

Version Compatibility