How to upgrade Subsonic on CENT OS VPS (GigaPros)

[sno crash]

I'm in the middle of a setup with GigaPros, which I'm documenting here: http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9518

An issue came up which I don't believe I've seen addressed on the forum. They are running CENTOS, and the Subsonic version is outdated and needs to be upgraded. The first time I put the request in, they (GigaPros) rebuilt the VPS, which wiped out the installation as well as the music library.

They (GigaPros) are asking which downloadable version of Subsonic they should use and how should it be properly upgraded so that the data and music remains intact? I can get access to the folder that has the database, so I could in theory keep a backup copy of that. But how does the application itself get updated?

I'm not sure how to direct them on this - does anyone know from their own experience?

[supra92]

This mostly depends on whether they are going with the standalone Jetty engine version, or if they're running a java servlet container like Tomcat. There are plusses and minuses for both methods, but having used both I ultimately wound up rolling with Tomcat. The simple way to upgrade the Subsonic application within Tomcat is thusly:

1. Stop the Tomcat service.
2. Move the old $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/subsonic directory someplace else.
3. Drop the new Subsonic's .WAR file in $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps directory.
4. Fire up the Tomcat service.

Step 4 will automatically unpack the .WAR file and create the entire new subsonic directory structure underneath webapps. Assuming you've left the database stuff in /var/subsonic untouched, you should be ready to rock'n'roll with the new SS version.

Hope this helps, and cheers,
Supra92

[sno crash]

Thanks for that. So, given that this is a VPS service, is that something that I could actually do myself? Or is this something they would have to do? I'm assuming they would because I don't see that directory structure anywhere.

This mostly depends on whether they are going with the standalone Jetty engine version, or if they're running a java servlet container like Tomcat. There are plusses and minuses for both methods, but having used both I ultimately wound up rolling with Tomcat. The simple way to upgrade the Subsonic application within Tomcat is thusly:

1. Stop the Tomcat service.
2. Move the old $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/subsonic directory someplace else.
3. Drop the new Subsonic's .WAR file in $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps directory.
4. Fire up the Tomcat service.

Step 4 will automatically unpack the .WAR file and create the entire new subsonic directory structure underneath webapps. Assuming you've left the database stuff in /var/subsonic untouched, you should be ready to rock'n'roll with the new SS version.

Hope this helps, and cheers,
Supra92