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Performing Updates

In order to take advantage of new Binary Ninja Ultimate features, the Enterprise server will occasionally need to be updated. Updates should generally be fairly straightforward, but will sometimes require some additional steps or considerations.

Updating Your License

Note

If you are using your own server.pem and server.key as described here, you should not replace either of those files with the ones provided by us.

If you just need to update your license (e.g. because you've extended support) or license bundle (e.g. because you've added more seats):

  1. Go to the Server Deployment for the server installation in the Customer Portal.
  2. Click the "Download Server" button.
  3. Choose "Download Bundle"
  4. Extract the new license files (license.dat and license-bundle.b64), server certificate (server.pem), and server key (server.key) from the downloaded bundle.
  5. Stop the Enterprise server with manage_server stop.
  6. Overwrite the old files with the new ones.
  7. Re-start the Enterprise server with manage_server start.

When the server starts back up, it should seamlessly switch to the new licenses that have been provided and you should be back up and running.

Updating Your Server

The best way to update your Enterprise server will depend partly on how it was installed. Please see the appropriate section below for your installation.

Warning

Please also be advised that there may be limitations on what client versions can access your server. See the Client Compatibility section below for more information.

Online Update

Warning

Before updating, please check the section below for any specific considerations regarding your current Enterprise server version.

Danger

Updating can, in rare circumstances, result in data corruption or data loss. Please consider backing up your server before performing an update to be safe!

Assuming there aren't any (or you have addressed them), updating an Enterprise server that has an active internet connection is simple:

  1. Run manage_server update to perform the update.
  2. Run manage_server stop to stop the server.
  3. Run manage_server start to re-start the server.

Note

An updated copy of the Enterprise server can be obtained via the Binary Ninja customer portal.

Offline Update

Warning

Before updating, please check the section below for any specific considerations regarding your current Enterprise server version.

Danger

Updating can, in rare circumstances, result in data corruption or data loss. Please consider backing up your server before performing an update to be safe!

There are two different ways of upgrading an offline Enterprise server installation. Which you choose is mostly a matter of preference/convenience.

Using Customer Portal

The first option is to log into the Binary Ninja customer portal to download an updated copy of the Enterprise server if you have access to its server deployment:

  1. Go to the Server Deployment for the server installation in the Customer Portal.
  2. Click the "Download Server" button.
  3. In the dialog, select the version of the server you want to update to.
  4. Download the offline images matching your server's host platform.
  5. Download the server bundle for the same version.
  6. Move these files to the offline host.
  7. Ensure the server is stopped with ./manage_server stop.
  8. Extract manage_server from the bundle .zip over the existing manage_server.
    • Remember to ensure this is owned by the correct user and is executable for them!
    • On macOS, you may need to use xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./manage_server if it refuses to execute because it is a downloaded file.
  9. Use manage_server update --offline -i <path/to/images> to perform the update.
  10. Re-start the server with manage_server start.

Using manage_server

The second option is to use manage_server on an internet-connected machine to update and download the new images for you. This is most helpful in the situation where you aren't the 'owner' of the server, and thus can't use the previous option.

You will, however, need a copy of the Enterprise server license.dat, otherwise manage_server will not be capable of authenticating to download the updates.

To do this:

  1. On the internet-connected host, run manage_server update, which will update manage_server itself and download the new server images.
  2. Use manage_server get_bundle to download all the files required for offline deployment.
  3. Move enterprise_bundle.tar to your offline host and un-tar it, which should create an enterprise_server folder with all the required files.
  4. Ensure the server is not running.
  5. Replace manage_server with the one from the enterprise_server folder from step 3.
    • Remember to ensure this is owned by the correct user and is executable for them!
    • On macOS, you may need to use xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./manage_server if it refuses to execute because it is a downloaded file.
  6. Use manage_server update --offline -i <path/to/images.tar> to perform the update (images.tar should be inside the enterprise_server folder from step 3).
  7. Re-start the server with manage_server start.

Client Compatibility

Binary Ninja assumes users will typically change versions in a positive direction. This same assumption holds for Enterprise as well. While an older client or server may work with a newer client or server, we only test for and guarantee compatibility within a specific version pair.

These are the stable versions that are expected to work together and have been tested prior to release:

Client Version Server Version
3.0.3233 1.0.174
3.1.3469 1.0.176
3.2.3814 1.1.162
3.3.4077 1.1.187
3.4.4271 1.2.264
3.5.4526 1.2.293
4.0.4911 1.2.308
4.1.5747 1.2.332
4.2.6455 1.2.342
5.0.7290 1.2.352
5.1.8005 1.2.359
5.1.8104 1.2.418
5.2.8614 1.2.437, 1.2.431
5.2.8722 2.0.525, 1.2.483
6.0.10601 2.0.599
6.0.10905 2.0.599

Warning

If you are using clients from the dev channel, the above may not be guaranteed to be compatible. Generally speaking, we expect you to be running the latest version of the dev channel on both the client and the server to guarantee compatibility. We don't often break things (intentionally or otherwise), but when we do, it will come without warning.

If you encounter a problem with compatibility, and you are using a combination from the list above, please report it to us either via email (enterprise@vector35.com) or GitHub.

Version-Specific Considerations

Occasionally, a change from an older version of Enterprise to a newer version has some caveats or extra required steps to follow. Please check the instructions below to see if any of these apply to your update.

Upgrading From Enterprise 1.x to Enterprise 2.x

Warning

We do not recommend trying to upgrade a server before version 1.2.431 to version 2.x. While upgrading from earlier versions should work, our testing has focused on backups from 1.2.431 and later. If possible, upgrade your server within version 1.x first before upgrading to version 2.x.

Version 2.0 of the Enterprise server has completely changed how objects are stored and updated from PostgreSQL 14 to PostgreSQL 17. As a result of these changes, there is unfortunately no way to upgrade without a complete backup and restore of all Enterprise server data. Going forward, we hope to be able to perform these migrations without necessitating a full restore. However, taking a full backup before any upgrade is still recommended.

To create the Enterprise server backup, while the server is still running, perform a backup, then stop the server:

./manage_server backup
./manage_server stop

Once you have successfully completed the backup, proceed to the Installation guide to install Enterprise 2.x. You should be able to do this without uninstalling the previous server, although you will need to be in a different folder than the original. This does, however, assume you have enough storage space for all the data. If you have used any bind mounts for your 1.x server, do not re-use them for the 2.x server. The data layout is not compatible between the two.

After the installation has completed and you have the new server started, you should be able to perform a restore and then restart the server:

./manage_server restore --file /path/to/bn_enterprise_backup.tar
./manage_server stop
./manage_server start

When the server restarts, it should perform any remaining migrations necessary and then proceed to normal operation.

If, at this point, anything is not working, check the Troubleshooting guide or contact support at enterprise@vector35.com.

Upgrading From Enterprise <2.0.599 to >=2.0.599

Client Updates

Client update files are no longer mounted from disk, and are now hosted in object storage.

See the documentation for how to sync your existing client update files.

Client Installers

Client installers are no longer mounted from disk, and are now hosted in object storage.

See the documentation for how to move your existing installers.