Upgrade Overview for 12.4.1.0

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Upgrade NetWitness Platform

This document provides information about the benefits and process of upgrading NetWitness Platform to 12.4.1.0. If you are using NetWitness Platform 12.2 or later versions, you can directly upgrade to NetWitness Platform 12.4.1 with AlmaLinux OS upgrade. Ensure you go through the pre-requisites and pre-upgrade tasks before you upgrade NetWitness Platform. You can upgrade NetWitness Platform using four different options depending upon your Internet connectivity. After upgrading, you should also perform certain post upgrade tasks and post upgrade sanity checks listed in this guide to complete the upgrade process successfully. The instructions in this document apply to both physical and virtual hosts (including AWS, Azure Public Cloud, and Google Cloud Platform) unless stated to the contrary.

IMPORTANT: The custom search patterns you created using the search.ini file in version 12.3.1 or earlier will not be migrated to the new search.xml file format used in version 12.4 and later. As a result, those custom search patterns will not be available from the Content Library > More > Search Pattern Rule tab after you upgrade to version 12.4 or later. For more information, see Manage Search Pattern Rules topic in the Centralized Content Management Guide for NetWitness.

IMPORTANT: NetWitness 12.4 and later versions (AlmaLinux) do not support numeric usernames. This means that customers who use Pam Securid with only numbers as usernames cannot be added to the groups after upgrading to 12.4. For more information on this limitation, see https://www.webconn.tech/kb/are-all-numeric-usernames-allowed-in-almalinux-8.

Note: NetWitness Platform now supports installing multiple servers of UEBA in your environment. For more information, see Configure Multiple UEBA Servers topic in the NetWitness UEBA Configuration Guide.

There are many exciting new features that you can enable after you have upgraded to 12.4.1.0. For a detailed description of the new features in this release, see the Release Notes for NetWitness Platform 12.4.1.0. Go to the NetWitness All Versions Documents page and find NetWitness Platform guides to troubleshoot issues. For more information on the new features released in the previous releases, see https://community.netwitness.com/t5/netwitness-platform-online/what-s-new-in-previous-releases-11-x-to-12-x/ta-p/695650.

Kernel-Panic State and Fail-to-Boot Error

When you upgrade the NetWitness Platform to version 12.4.1.0, you may encounter Kernel-Panic state
and fail to boot error. This issue occurs when Kernel updates fail to generate the required initramfs and vmlinuz binaries
which are equivalent to the latest kernel required for booting the OS. This can lead to a kernel panic state
if the node is rebooted without these files and can cause a NetWitness upgrade failure.
In this case, you must contact NetWitness Customer Support as there is a hotfix available for this issue.

Upgrade Paths Supported for 12.4.1.0

The following upgrade paths are supported for NetWitness 12.4.1.0:

• NetWitness 12.4.0.0 to 12.4.1.0
• NetWitness 12.3.1.0 to 12.4.1.0
• NetWitness 12.3.0.0 to 12.4.1.0
• NetWitness 12.2.0.1 to 12.4.1.0
• NetWitness 12.2.0.0 to 12.4.1.0

NetWitness Upgrade Guidelines for Azure

In-place upgrades on Azure VMs are supported when followed by the Standard Configuration outlined in the Azure Installation Guide. The customer is responsible for ensuring that no VM policies at the Azure Subscription level interfere with the VM's operating system, such as configurations related to the Azure Control Plane.

If you follow the Azure Installation Guide correctly, you should experience a smooth upgrade process without encountering any warnings. However, deviating from these guidelines or adding extra configurations, such as those involving the Azure Control Plane, can lead to errors, as shown below:

Running in Mixed Mode Environment

NetWitness Platform supports mixed mode during upgrade. Mixed mode occurs when some services are upgraded to the latest version and some services are still on the older versions.

For more information, see Running in Mixed Mode in the NetWitness Hosts and Services Getting Started Guide.

Note:
- If it takes a longer duration for upgrading all the hosts in your environment, contact NetWitness support to avoid encountering any issues.
- If you are running Endpoint Log Hybrid in mixed mode, make sure Endpoint Broker is on the same version as one of the Endpoint Servers.
- Mixed mode is not supported for ESA hosts in NetWitness Platform.

Upgrade Considerations for ESA Hosts

IMPORTANT: The NetWitness server, ESA primary host, and ESA secondary host must all be on the same NetWitness Platform version.

• You can only manage the ESA deployments and Data Sources through Centralized Content Management. Go to  (CONFIGURE) > Policies > Content > Event Stream Analysis page to manage the ESA deployments and Data Sources. Refer the following figure.

  

• You can only manage the ESA Rules in the ESA Rules page. Refer the following figure.

  

• After upgrading to the 12.4.1.0 version, all the ESA deployments will be migrated to  (CONFIGURE) > Policies page. Each deployment will be converted into a policy and group and will be available to manage only after the upgrade of the Correlation servers to the 12.4.1.0 version. Make sure that you plan the upgrade process so that Correlation servers are upgraded immediately after the Admin Server is done. The deployments will not be accessible until the corresponding Correlation servers are upgraded. However, the correlation servers will still continue to process the Alerts and Events.

• You must upgrade the ESA hosts immediately after upgrading the Admin Server.

  For more information on Centralized Content Management and managing the deployments, see Centralized Content Management Guide for NetWitness.

Upgrade or Install Windows Legacy Collection

Refer to Windows Legacy Collection Guide for NetWitness for NetWitness Legacy Windows Collection Upgrade & Installation Instructions.

Note: After you upgrade or install Windows Legacy Collection, reboot the system to ensure that Log Collection functions correctly.

Terminologies

Name	Description
AVX	Advanced Vector Extensions
VMX	Virtual Machine Extension
NFS	Network File System
BTRFS	B-Tree File System
DPDK	Data Plane Development Kit