About upgrading an RMS deployment

If you are using RMS to collect asset data, you can upgrade to CCS to benefit from new and improved data collection features offered by CCS 11.0. RMS agent-less data collection is now called raw-data collection. Raw-data based collection lets you collect asset data from your enterprise network. The collected data is then evaluated against a standard in CCS. You can collect raw-data using both agent-less and agent-based methods. CCS 11.0 introduces the CCS Manager, which is a replacement for the data processing service. CCS Manager performs all the roles of the Data Processing Service and also provides built-in support for agent-less and agent-based data collection. For agent-based data collection, CCS 11.0 introduces the CCS Agent. Both agent-less and agent-based data collection methods support data collection from the following platforms.

  • Windows

  • UNIX

  • Oracle

  • Microsoft SQL Server

You can continue to use the RMS Information Server and BV-Controls to collect data from the following platforms:

  • Exchange

  • NDS

  • NetWare

  • VMware

If you are collecting raw-data using the agent-based method, you can also configure the agents to collect message based data. Message based data collection is not supported on NDS and NetWare platforms.

While migrating from an existing RMS deployment to CCS, you can either:

  • Perform a full migration by configuring the CCS Managers to collect data from all target computers.

  • Perform a phased migration by configuring CCS Manager to collect data from a group of computers and continuing to use the RMS Information Server to collect data from a group of computers.

    You can choose to perform a phased migration if your existing deployment size is large. You can migrate to using CCS Managers in place of RMS Information Servers, only with a few computers at a time. In case of a phased migration, CCS 11.0 will continue to collect data from the RMS Information Server until you upgrade that RMS Information deployment to a CCS Manager deployment.

You can upgrade the following CCS components in your deployment:

  • Upgrade CCS Application Server and CCS Directory Server.

  • Upgrade Data Processing Service to CCS Manager.

CCS Manager performs all the roles of the Data Processing Service and also provides built-in support to collect data directly from agent-less and agent-based target computers. As such for data collection, components such as the RMS Information Server, Enterprise Configuration Service (ECS), Master Query Engine (MQE), Slave Query Engine (SQE), BV-Controls for various platforms are no longer required.

CCS Manager can collect raw-data using both agent-less and agent-based methods, and message based data using the agent-based method.

Raw-data based collection lets you collect asset data from your enterprise network. The collected data is then evaluated against a standard in CCS. You can collect raw-data using the agent-less method or the agent-based method.

See About raw-data collection.

Message based collection lets you collect and interpret asset data from your enterprise network before sending the data to CCS. The CCS Agent installed on each computer in the enterprise network performs the actual task of data collection and interpretation. The CCS Agent interprets the data against the standards or policies and presents the data to CCS in the form of messages.

See About message based data collection.

You can replace the following RMS components in your deployment:

  • Replace the BV-Control for UNIX Agents with the CCS Agents.

    In your existing deployment, if you are collecting data from UNIX computers using the BV-Control for UNIX Agents, you can replace those agents with the CCS Agents. It is recommended that until you complete the upgrade and perform data collection from the new deployment for the first time, you should maintain a co-existence of the BV-Control for UNIX Agents and the CCS Agents. Later, once you are sure that you are able to collect data from the new CCS Agents, you can remove the BV-Control for UNIX Agents from the target computers, and upgrade the remaining BV-Control for UNIX Agents in your deployment.

  • Replace the Windows Query Engines with CCS Manager. You can replace 4 Query Engines with 1 CCS Manager.

    In your existing deployment, if you are collecting data from Windows computers, you may have Query Engines performing data collection in a domain. You may have many such domains, each domain having a set of query engines performing data collection on target computers within that domain.

    In CCS 11.0, you can have CCS Managers performing the data collection in place of the Query Engines. The CCS Manager can collect data directly from the target computers either through agent-less or agent-based methods. One CCS Manager can support a large number of target computers, as such while upgrading to CCS 11.0, you can replace 4 Query Engines with one CCS Manager. If your existing domains contain less number of Query Engines, and you require to place a CCS Manager for query engines from multiple domains, then ensure that there is a domain trust relationship between the domains that host the CCS Manager and the Query Engines.

    For example, if Domain-1 contains 2 Query Engines, and Domain-2 contains 2 Query Engines, you can place 1 CCS Manager in place of the 4 Query Engines. If you place the CCS Manager in Domain-1, ensure that there is a trust relation between Domain-1 and Domain-2 for the CCS Manager to perform data collection from target computers in Domain-2.

    For hardware requirements of the CCS Manager, See Hardware and operating system requirements.

    It is recommended that until you complete the upgrade and perform data collection from the new deployment for the first time, you should maintain a co-existence of the Query Engine and the CCS Manager. Later, once you are sure that you are able to collect data from the new CCS deployment, you can remove the Query Engine from the computer.

CCS 11.0 introduces routing rules. Routing rules let you determine the entire route plan for data collection. With routing rules, you can now control the distribution of data collection jobs for assets based on IP range, Subnet, Expressions or Asset groups. While planning for the upgrade, consider how you want to plan the data collection. If you are performing a phased migration, consider which sites or assets you want to upgrade depending on how you will be configuring the routing rules to perform data collection on those assets.

If your existing deployment contains both CCS and RMS installations, See Upgrading an existing CCS and RMS deployment to CCS 11.0

If your existing deployment contains only RMS installation, See Moving from an RMS-only deployment to CCS 11.0

Imported Document ID: HOWTO76467
Legacy ID: v65843280_v74603629

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