Orchid Core VMS upgrade process for SteelFin Ubuntu 14.04 servers

Introduction

In the configuration process for earlier models of IPConfigure SteelFin servers, Google Chrome and some of its dependencies were held on an old version for plugin compatibility reasons. These plugins were only used when viewing Orchid Core VMS from the server itself, not from an external workstation. As of Orchid Core VMS version 2.10.0, Orchid Core VMS no longer supports these NPAPI plugins and cannot be accessed using this older version of Google Chrome. This guide outlines the process to upgrade Google Chrome and its dependencies so that the server can be used as a workstation for more modern Orchid Core VMS versions.

The content of this article is only relevant if you use the Orchid Core VMS server itself as a workstation to view the Orchid Core VMS web interface.

Pre-upgrade checks and prerequisites

Open a terminal window by pressing ctrl+alt+T or by opening the search box and searching for "Terminal"

To see if you need to take these steps, check if Google Chrome and its dependencies are currently "held," meaning that they cannot be upgraded, by using the following command:  sudo apt-mark showholds

If the output of the command shows libnss3 packages and/or google-chrome-stable in the output (see the screenshot above), then you should follow the steps below before updating Orchid. If not, then you should already be able to upgrade Google Chrome and then Orchid Core VMS without issues (in this order).

Otherwise, you should also confirm that the server has a viable internet connection before proceeding to ensure that it can download the system updates needed.

Upgrade process

1. For each package name in the list of the output from the sudo apt-mark showholds command mentioned in the "Pre-upgrade checks and prerequisites" section above, run a sudo apt-mark unhold command:
   
   
   • sudo apt-mark unhold libnss3
   • sudo apt-mark unhold libnss3-nssdb
   • sudo apt-mark unhold libnss3-tools
   • sudo apt-mark unhold google-chrome-stable
     
     
     
     
2. Check the package holds again to make sure that there are no more libnss or Google Chrome packages in the list:  sudo apt-mark showholds
   
   If there are any Google Chrome or libnss packages remaining, please be sure to unhold them using a command from step 1 above before continuing, and re-run the sudo apt-mark showholds command to confirm that the hold has been removed.
   
   
3. Update Google Chrome
   
   
4. Perform a system update using the following commands in order (this may take several minutes):
   • sudo apt update
   • sudo apt upgrade -y
     
     
5. If the server is old enough, you may get some warnings about the GRUB configuration for the server similar to the image below. If so, please be sure to follow the next few steps very carefully. If you do not stick to these steps closely, the server may not be able to boot up successfully after you are done.
   
   
   
   In the first menu, select "keep the local version currently installed." You may then be presented with another screen asking where to install GRUB. Make sure no disks are selected (see the screenshot below) and select "Ok" to  proceed back to the system update:
   
   
   
   At this point, the update should continue until it is finished without asking you for anything else. After it is done, run the following command to update the GRUB configuration to make sure the server will boot up properly. The expected output for this command is similar to the following screenshot but may vary somewhat: sudo update-grub
   
   
   
   
6. Proceed to upgrade Orchid using the latest installer available here. Here is a link to our Orchid documentation including our Installation guide.

If you encounter any issues or are unsure how to proceed at any point, please contact our Support department.