# yCrash upgrade - best practices

This document summarizes the best practices that one can follow when upgrading to a new version of yCrash.

# Standalone Server Setup (Bare Metal/Virtual Machine)

# 1. Installation Folder

Make sure the folder in which yCrash is installed has its current version number.

Example: if you have downloaded the 'yc-2_0.zip' installation file, then unzip its contents in to the /opt/ycrash/yc-2_0 folder.

# 2. Copy old launch script settings

In the earlier installations, you might have increased the memory size, enabled SSL,... by modifying the settings in launch-yc-server.sh (or launch-yc-server.bat). Make sure you copy these launch script settings from the old version to the new installation.

💡 Tip: Carry out the below steps only if you haven't done so in earlier installations. You don't have to do it in every upgrade.

# 3. Separate Upload Directory

By default, yCrash tool stores all the uploaded dump files in the same directory in which it has been installed. It's best practice to store them in a different directory outside the installed directory, for the following reasons:

a. When you upgrade to a new version of yCrash, you will not lose the historically uploaded incidents.

b. You can allocate sufficient storage for the dumps on a different file mount.

In the launch-yc-server.sh (or launch-yc-server.bat) file there is a -DuploadDir=. property. By default, it points to the current directory. This is the directory where uploaded dump files are stored. Let's say you want to store the dumps in the /opt/ycrash/dumps folder, then specify this new directory path in the property i.e.,
-DuploadDir=/opt/ycrash/dumps

# 4. Separate Log Directory

By default, yCrash tool stores all its logs in the same directory in which it has been installed. It's best practice to store them in a different directory which has sufficient storage.

In the launch-yc-server.sh (or launch-yc-server.bat) file there is a -DlogDir=. property. By default, it points to the current directory. This is the directory where all log files will be stored. Let's say you want to store the logs in the /opt/ycrash/logs folder, then specify this new directory path in the property i.e.,
-DlogDir=/opt/ycrash/logs

# Container Orchestration Setup (Kubernetes/OpenShift)

To keep data persistent when deploying in Kubernetes or OpenShift, you'll need to use PersistentVolume (PV) and PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) resources to manage your storage. Here’s how you can do it:

# 1. Create PersistentVolumes (PVs)

Define PersistentVolumes that correspond to the storage you want to use for logDir and uploadDir.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: logdir-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  hostPath:
    path: /mnt/data/logdir
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: uploaddir-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  hostPath:
    path: /mnt/data/uploaddir

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Note: hostPath is used for demonstration. In production, you would typically use network-based storage like NFS, GlusterFS, AWS EBS, etc.

# 2. Create PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs)

Define PersistentVolumeClaims that request the storage from the corresponding PVs.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: logdir-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: uploaddir-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi

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# 3. Update the Deployment

Modify your deployment configuration to mount the PVCs into your container, ensuring the paths match those specified in your Dockerfile.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: yc-server
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: yc-server
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: yc-server
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: yc-server
        image: yc-server:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
        volumeMounts:
        - name: logdir-storage
          mountPath: /opt/workspace/yc/logDir
        - name: uploaddir-storage
          mountPath: /opt/workspace/yc/uploadDir
          subPath: license.lic
        - name: license
          mountPath: /opt/workspace/yc/uploadDir/license.lic
      volumes:
      - name: logdir-storage
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: logdir-pvc
      - name: uploaddir-storage
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: uploaddir-pvc
      - name: license
        configMap: # or secret if it's stored as a secret
          name: license-config

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# 4. Create ConfigMap or Secret for License

If the license file needs to be provided, you can create it as a ConfigMap or Secret:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: license-config
data:
  license.lic: |
    # license content here

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# 5. Deploy in Kubernetes/OpenShift

Finally, apply the YAML files to your Kubernetes/OpenShift cluster:

kubectl apply -f logdir-pv.yaml
kubectl apply -f uploaddir-pv.yaml
kubectl apply -f logdir-pvc.yaml
kubectl apply -f uploaddir-pvc.yaml
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

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This setup will ensure that the logs and uploaded files persist across pod restarts or rescheduling, and that the license.lic file is correctly placed within the upload directory.

Note:

When running yCrash inside a Docker or containerized environment, always configure -DuploadDir and -DlogDir using absolute paths (such as /opt/workspace/yc/uploads and /opt/workspace/yc/logs) that are backed by writable volumes. Avoid using relative paths (such as .), as the container working directory may not be writable and can cause file upload or logging failures.

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