Upgrading ShareFile Storage Zone Controller

ryanisabelle

This post is going to be a little short. I’m going to go over the basic upgrade process for “Citrix ShareFile Storage Controllers”. This is really only necessary if the data you’re sharing is hosted on prem. If you use Citrix Cloud storage zones, you don’t have to do any of this. Also, these steps are for MINOR upgrades from 5.x. to 5.y.

Occasionally you will need to upgrade the Storage Zone Controllers either due to either being outdated, or a critical hotfix that Citrix has released to address security concerns. Follow these steps to create a backup of the configuration and upgrade the controllers to the latest version. Log into one of your ShareFile controllers. You will need to determine which one is currently the “Primary” controller.

  1. Launch Internet Explorer and enter the URL http://localhost/ConfigService/login.aspx
  2. Log in using your ShareFile credentials.
  3. Under “Primary Zone Controller” it will either say http://localhost… Or http://SharefileSZC1…(or whatever your server is named)

Next, you’ll want to make sure you’re logged into whichever controller is the primary. Go ahead and do that before proceeding. Then we’ll want to take a backup of our configuration. Just in case the worst should happen. For this, you will need SysInternals’ PSexec.exe available on the server. I have mine saved to “C:\Temp\”

  1. Launch PowerShell on the primary controller and enter the following commands. You may need to change focus to “C:\temp\” (or wherever you saved PSexec.exe).
  2. Enter the following command(s).
    • PsExec.exe -i -u “NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService” C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell
    • NOTE: If you’re environment is using a domain service account instead of the builtin “Network Service” account, you will want to update this command accordingly. See the Citrix documentation here.
  3. This will open a new PowerShell console under the context of the Network Service account. Enter the following commands to take your backup. Each bullet below is one command.
    • Import-Module “C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StorageCenter\Tools\SfConfigBR\ConfigBR.dll”
    • Get-SfConfig -PrimaryZoneController “localhost” -Passphrase “passphrase” -FilePath “filepath”

The passphrase parameter is your “ShareFile” passphrase. This was set up when it was configured. You’ll have to figure that one out. The filepath parameter, is simply the location you want your backup stored.

 Once your backup is complete, run the installer to upgrade the “Storage Zone Controller”. You will mainly click “Next” through most of the installation.

  1. Accept the EULA.
  2. When prompted, choose the option “Do not close applications. A reboot will be required.” And click “OK”.
  3. You may get an error that looks like this…
If you see this error, do what it says BEFORE you click “OK”. It won’t wait for you otherwise.
  1. Do what it says BEFORE clicking “OK”. Navigate to \\fileserver\sharename and copy “SCKeys.txt” and save it somewhere safe.
  2. Once the file has been backed up safely, Click “OK”.
  3. When prompted, uncheck the “Launch StorageZones Controller Configuration Page”. And click “Finish”.
  4. You may be prompted to reboot. Click yes.
    • If you’re not prompted, you should reboot anyway. Restart the server.

Once the server has been rebooted, you should DEFINITELY consider testing ShareFile to make sure everything is working properly and your Storage Zones are still accessible.

Once you have tested to your satisfaction, you can begin upgrading the other server. There’s no need to take a backup of the config again, since you already have one. Just run the installer following the same steps as before.

Once both servers have been upgraded and rebooted, run iisreset from the command prompt on both servers (one at a time).

  • Not really sure the reason for this. Everything seems to work fine without it. But that’s what the official Citrix documentation recommends. So DO IT.

You should obviously have verified that ShareFile still works as expected by now. But if you haven’t, do it now. And if you HAVE, you should probably do it again. Just to be safe.

That’s all there is to upgrading ShareFile Storage Zone Controllers. If these steps don’t work for you, or don’t seem right, see the Citrix Documentation. Linked below.

Thanks for reading!

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