With Univention Corporate Server 5.0-0, the fifth major release of Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is now available. It provides several feature improvements and extensions, new properties as well as various improvements and bugfixes. Here is an overview of the most important changes:

Prerequisite for updating is at least UCS 4.4-8 with UCS 4.4-8 erratum 972. Only then the available update will be shown. Is is recommended to install all other pending errata too before the update is started.

If the update is started via Univention Management Console: Before the actual update starts, some tests are performed, e.g. if all installed Apps would be available on UCS 5.0. At this point, the web interface is already in maintenance mode and nothing is shown but a progress bar. If one test fails, the update will be canceled and a message is written to /var/log/univention/updater.log. To read these in the web frontend, log in to Univention Management Console, open the Software update module and click on "View log file".

During the update some services in the domain may not be available temporarily, that is why the update should occur in a maintenance window. It is recommended to test the update in a separate test environment prior to the actual update. The test environment should be identical to the production environment. Depending on the system performance, network connection and the installed software the update will take between 20 minutes and several hours. In large environments it may be useful to consult the [ucs-performance-guide].

Please note that simultaneous operation of UCS and Debian on a UEFI system starting with UCS 5.0-0 is not supported.

The reason for this is the GRUB boot loader of Univention Corporate Server, which partly uses the same configuration files as Debian. An already installed Debian leads to the fact that UCS cannot be booted (any more) after the installation of or an update to UCS 5.0. A subsequent installation of Debian will also result in UCS 5.0 not being able to boot.

At the following help article further hints to this topic are collected: https://help.univention.com/t/17768

This section is relevant for environments where a local repository is set up. The installed (major) version of UCS determines which packages a local repository provides. A repository running on a UCS server with version 4.x will only provide packages up to UCS 4.x, a repository server running on UCS 5 will only provide packages for UCS 5 and newer versions. To upgrade systems to UCS 5 in an environment with a local repository, the following are some of the options. First, a local UCS 5 repository server must be set up.

To upgrade a system in the domain to UCS 5, the server should first be upgraded to the latest package level available for UCS 4.x. Then the repository server used by the system is switched to the local UCS 5 repository by changing the Univention Configuration Registry variable repository/online/server. The system can now be upgraded to UCS 5 via the Univention Management Console or via the command line.

The design and functionality of the portal in UCS 5 has been fundamentally revised. Adjustments may need to be made to the portal configuration after the update to UCS 5.

Manually crafted Python code needs to be checked for compatibility with Python 3.7 before the Update and adjusted accordingly. This includes Univention Configuration Registry templates containing Python code. Customized AD-Connector mapping templates are an example for this. See also the [developer-reference] for advice.

It must be checked whether sufficient disk space is available. A standard installation requires a minimum of 6-10 GB of disk space. The update requires approximately 1-2 GB additional disk space to download and install the packages, depending on the size of the existing installation.

For the update, a login should be performed on the system's local console as user root, and the update should be initiated there. Alternatively, the update can be conducted using Univention Management Console.

Remote updating via SSH is not recommended as this may result in the update procedure being canceled, e.g., if the network connection is interrupted. In consequence, this can affect the system severely. If updating should occur over a network connection nevertheless, it must be verified that the update continues in case of disconnection from the network. This can be achieved, e.g., using the tools tmux, screen and at. These tools are installed on all UCS system roles by default.

Univention provides a script that checks for problems which would prevent the successful update of the system. Prior to the update, this script can be downloaded and executed on the UCS system.

# download
curl -OOf https://updates.software-univention.de/download/univention-update-checks/pre-update-checks-5.0-0{.gpg,}

# verify and run script
apt-key verify pre-update-checks-5.0-0{.gpg,} &&
  bash pre-update-checks-5.0-0

...

Starting pre-update checks ...

Checking app_appliance ...                        OK
Checking block_update_of_NT_DC ...                OK
Checking cyrus_integration ...                    OK
Checking disk_space ...                           OK
Checking hold_packages ...                        OK
Checking ldap_connection ...                      OK
Checking ldap_schema ...                          OK
...

Following the update, new or updated join scripts need to be executed. This can be done in two ways: Either using the UMC module Domain join or by running the command univention-run-join-scripts as user root.

Subsequently the UCS system needs to be restarted.

Listed are the changes since UCS 4.4-8: