Upgrade IT Service Intelligence on a single instance

This topic describes how to upgrade Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) on an on-premises search head. ITSI supports upgrades from up to three versions prior to the one you're upgrading to. To upgrade from earlier versions, perform a step upgrade. Splunk Cloud Platform customers work with Splunk Support to coordinate upgrades to IT Service Intelligence.

Before upgrading

Before you upgrade ITSI, you must perform all prerequisite steps specified in Before you upgrade IT Service Intelligence.

If upgrading to a Python 3 release of Splunk (version 8.x), you must upgrade IT Service Intelligence and all other apps before upgrading Splunk Enterprise. For more information, see Python 3 migration with ITSI.

Step 1. Install the latest version of ITSI

On a single-instance deployment, a single Splunk Enterprise instance serves as both the search head and indexer.

You must upgrade ITSI by extracting the ITSI installation package. ITSI does not support installation using the app manager in Splunk Web or using the splunk install app command at the command line.

1. Log in to splunk.com with your Splunk.com ID.
2. Download the latest Splunk IT Service Intelligence product.
3. If you're upgrading from a pre-4.6.0 ITSI version to version 4.6.0 or later, stop the Rules Engine before upgrading so it can pick up the fields added to the KV store for migration:
   1. Within Splunk Web, go to Settings > Searches, reports, and alerts.
   2. In the App dropdown, select All.
   3. Use the filter to locate the itsi_event_grouping search.
   4. Click Actions > Disable.
4. Stop your Splunk platform instance:

   cd $SPLUNK_HOME/bin
   ./splunk stop
   

5. Extract the ITSI installation package into $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps. For example:

   tar -xvf splunk-it-service-intelligence_<latest_version>.spl -C $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps
   

   On Windows, rename the file extension from .spl to .tgz first and use a third-party utility like 7-Zip to perform the extraction.

6. Start your Splunk software.

   cd $SPLUNK_HOME/bin
   ./splunk start
   

7. On the migration screen, for Skip over localized failures, choose whether to skip over the following types of failures:
   • Missing dependencies in service KPIs, such as a missing macro
   • Multiple entity split or filter fields in KPI base searches
   • Missing dependencies in KPI base searches
   • Missing dependencies in correlation searches
   • Duplicate services

   Skipping over these failures means the problematic objects aren't migrated. You'll receive a list of skipped objects when the upgrade completes.

8. Click Start Upgrade. The migration script runs to migrate existing ITSI knowledge objects to the new version.
9. When the upgrade completes, open the ITSI homepage.
10. Re-enable the itsi_event_grouping search.

To check migration related logs, run the following Splunk search:

index=_internal "[itsi.migration]"

Step 2: (Optional) Enable the Metrics Backfill Process Queue modular input

A new metrics-based summary index was introduced in ITSI version 4.6.0. To provide a more continuous experience, a backfill process queue modular input was added to migrate data from the itsi_summary index to the new metrics-based index. For more information about the metrics index, see ITSI metrics summary index reference in the Administration Manual.

In version 4.6.1, the modular input for backfill functionality is disabled by default as opposed to running automatically. If you upgraded to version 4.6.1 or later and you need to use the Service Analyzer to inspect service or KPI data from before the upgrade, enable the backfill modular input. If you choose not to enable it, note that sparklines on the Service Analyzer might appear flat for about 1-15 minutes due to lack of data.

1. Within ITSI, go to Settings > Data Inputs.
2. Open the modular input called IT Service Intelligence Metrics Backfill Process Queue.
3. Click Enable.

Optionally, you can modify the default configurations to backfill more or less data. If you do modify the defaults, first determine if your environment can backfill data at a higher rate than set by the default throttle and concurrent search settings.

Step 3. Upgrade indexers

You must place the SA-IndexCreation add-on on all indexers. For non-clustered distributed environments, copy SA-IndexCreation to $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/ on individual indexers. Indexers must be running a compatible version of Splunk Enterprise. If you upgrade your indexers, verify whether you must also upgrade your search heads. For information, see Splunk Enterprise version compatibility.

If you have an indexer cluster, use the configuration bundle method to replicate SA-IndexCreation across all peer nodes. On the master node, place a copy of SA-IndexCreation in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/master-apps/. For information about updating peers in an indexer cluster, see Manage app deployment across all peers in the Splunk Enterprise Managing Indexers and Clusters of Indexers manual.

Step 4. (Optional) Upgrade ITSI license components

If your environment uses a separate license manager, you must also upgrade the SA-ITSI-Licensechecker and SA-UserAccess components on that manager.

Step 5. Validate the upgrade

The Splunk IT Service Intelligence upgrade process is now complete. Objects disabled during the upgrade process are automatically reenabled. The ITSI shows the following message: IT Service Intelligence upgrade has completed successfully.

1. In Splunk Web, click Help > About to verify that the upgrade was successful.
2. Clear the browser cache of the browser you use to access Splunk Web. If you do not clear the browser cache, some pages might fail to load.

You can also check the installed version, latest version, and previous version by running the following search:

| rest splunk_server=local /services/apps/local/itsi | stats values(version) as itsi_installed_version | join [|inputlookup itsi_migration_check]

After upgrading

Perform the following steps after upgrading IT Service Intelligence.

1. If there's a problem with the new version, see Troubleshoot an upgrade of IT Service Intelligence.
2. If the upgrade fails, see Roll back an upgrade of ITSI.
3. See the Version-specific upgrade notes for ITSI for the version you upgraded to.