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Version 16 of the Zixi Broadcaster includes some changes that require special attention when upgrading from previous versions of the Zixi Broadcaster to V16 or downgrading from V16 back to previous versions. 

There are two options for upgrading to V16:

License Server Changes

With V16 of the Zixi Broadcaster, an additional license server is being used by the Broadcaster and needs to be whitelisted in firewalls on networks hosting the Zixi Broadcaster.  The new FQDN to whitelist is license2.zixi.com.  The existing FQDN, license.zixi.com, is also still in use and needs to be whitelisted. 

The IP addresses for the following license servers are static should be whitelisted. When whitelisting, the FQDN will not be supported:

  • 52.72.218.41

  • 34.195.97.223

  • 3.140.62.221

  • 3.137.16.26

Upgrading to V16 Using the UI Upgrade Mechanism

With the addition of ARM builds on Linux, the installation directory for Zixi Broadcaster/ZEC has been updated in V16.  Previously, the Linux X86 64-bit Broadcaster was extracted to a directory named zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder

  • The new directory for the Linux X86 64-bit Broadcaster is zixi_broadcaster-linux64

  • The directory for the ARM Graviton2 build is zixi_broadcaster-graviton2 .

  • The directory for the ARM Raspberry Pi build is zixi_broadcaster-raspberry

  • The Graviton2 build uses the neoverse-n1 compile flag and can be used on any ARM v8 64-bit processor compatible with this compile flag. 

  • The Raspberry Pi build can be used on any ARM v8 64-bit processor.

When you upgrade a Broadcaster from Linux X86 64-bit V15 or prior versions to v16 using the web UI, the new installation directory will be created and the following config files will be copied over to the new directory:

  • broadcaster-config.xml

  • broadcaster-info.xml

  • profiles.xml

  • broadcaster.lic

The ./files directory in the original installation directory, zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder, is not copied over to the new installation directory, zixi_broadcaster-linux64, but instead a symlink is created from the old directory to the new directory.  This directory can be very large with transport stream recordings and copying it to the new installation directory risks filling the hard drive, so the symlink is the safer option for an automated upgrade.

Note

Currently the ./cache directory inside the Broadcaster installation directory is not copied nor is a symlink is created in the new installation directory.  This is an oversight in the upgrade mechanism and until resolved, you will need to do this manually as shown below.  The cache directory is only used for time-shifting.  If you are not using time-shifting, nothing needs to be done

To copy the Broadcaster installation directory and to create the symlink in the new directory:

Run the following commands:

Code Block
languagebash
$ service zixibc stop
$ cd zixi_broadcaster-linux64
$ rm -r cache
$ ln -s ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/cache .
$ service zixibc start

      

After moving the config files, the zixibc service, which runs the Broadcaster as a service, will be restarted to point to the v16 Broadcaster in the new “zixi_broadcaster-linux64” directory.

Info

Because of the symlink to the ./files folder in the “zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder” installation directory, that original installation directory cannot be deleted without user intervention.  If you would like to delete the previous installation directory, you can remove the symlink and move the ./files/ directory to the “zixi_broadcaster-linux64” directory.  However, once you remove the previous installation directory you will not be able to quickly switch back to the previous Broadcaster release.

Upgrading to V16 Manually

If you would like to manually upgrade from a previous Broadcaster release to V16, follow the steps below as root user:

To upgrade manually:

  1. Verify the previous Broadcaster has been installed in zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder.  The typical parent directory will be /zixi but it may be different.

  2. In the parent directory, extract the V16 Broadcaster installation file.  It will create a directory called zixi_broadcaster-linux64.

    Code Block
    $ tar xvf zixi_broadcaster-16.4.44543.linux64.tar.xz
  3. Run the Broadcaster installation script:

    Code Block
    $ cd zixi_broadcaster-linux64 
    $ InstallMe.sh
  4. Stop the Broadcaster service:

    Code Block
    $ service zixibc stop
  5. Copy the config and licensing files to the new installation directory directory: $ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/broadcaster-config.xml .$ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/broadcaster-info.xml .$ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/profiles.xml .$ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/broadcaster.lic .

    Code Block
    $ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/broadcaster-config.xml
    $ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/broadcaster-info.xml
    $ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/profiles.xml
    $ cp ../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/broadcaster.lic
  6. Update Broadcaster “root” folder in broadcaster-info.xml if necessary.  The default for the files root folder is ./files which is relative to the installation folder.  If the files root folder was ./files in the previous installation directory then you can simply move the contents over:

    Code Block
    $ cd ./files
    $ mv ../../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/files/* 
    $ cd ..
  7. If the files root folder in the previous installation was changed to an absolute path, then copying broadcaster-info.xml is sufficient.

  8. If time-shifting is being used the time-shift data files need to be moved over:

    Code Block
    $ cd ./cache 
    $ mv ../../zixi_broadcaster-centos7-transcoder/cache/* 
    $ cd ..
  9. Restart the broadcaster service:

    Code Block
    $ service zixibc restart