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August 8, 2018 at 7:00 AM

How to stay 'Up to Date' with Snow Software

This blog post is all about installation sources and manual/automatic updates. Download installers, in case you want to perform a fresh installation. Configure your Snow Update Service to receive automatic product updates or to manually apply offline updates. Current Product Versions Get product versions of all Snow products here .

Installation Sources

Snow License Manager http://ftp.snowsoftware.com/SetupPackages/CurrentProductVersions/SLM/
Snow Inventory Server http://ftp.snowsoftware.com/SetupPackages/CurrentProductVersions/Inventory server/
Snow Integration Manager http://ftp.snowsoftware.com/SetupPackages/CurrentProductVersions/SIM/
Snow Update Service

All Snow products are being updated via Snow Update Service, which is a separate component coming with each application. It has two operation modes, which are described below.

sus

You can open the Snow Update Service GUI here: C:\ProgramFiles\SnowSoftware\SnowUpdate Service\SnowSoftware.Update.Gui.exe

Automatic Update

This is the default setting. Snow Update Service relies on an internet connection to gather updates from the central Snow Update server. It will download updates the following components:

Snow Inventory
Snow License Manager
Snow Management and Configuration Center
Software Recognition Service
Snow Automation Platform (if applicable)

This schedule can be viewed/changed in the Snow Update Service GUI under 'Change settings'.

Manual Update (Offline Mode) As obvious, Snow Update Service requires an internet connection. If, for whatever reason, there is no internet connection available, you can use the builtin Offline Mode.

Let's say, we want to update the software using the offline mode. Go to 'change settings' and click 'Use offline mode'. Hit 'Save' afterwards. New menu entries appeared in the left menu.

First, you need to export the Product Manifest by hitting 'Export product manifest' in the left menu. Safe this file to your local computer.

Visit the Snow Software Updates Portal , click 'Software Update'. Put in your email address in (the download link will be sent there) and upload the product manifest file. Hit 'Request package'.

After the creation process, download the package and transfer it to the server. In the Snow Update Service GUI, hit 'Install offline updates' and refer to the update file. Finally, hit 'Install'.

You may have missed Snow Integration Manager in the list of automatically updated applications above. This is because it is currently not included in Snow Update Service and therefore needs to be updated manually.

The following download paths are used to download updates:

All Snow product updates https://updates.snowsoftware.com/us/ApplicationService.asmx
SRS https://updates.snowsoftware.com/us/SoftwareRecognitionService.asmx
SUS self-update https://updates.snowsoftware.com/us/ApplicationService.asmx

For more information make sure to read thru the User Guide: Snow Update Service

/Marcel

Portal User
7 years ago
Hello, Is it possible to provide up-to-date installation sources on the FTP ? Because update from SLM9 to 9.3 / INV6 to 6.0.06 throught SUS is very long...
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- DavidH
  7 years ago
  Hi ‌, I also think that would be a good idea! You are not the first person to ask about this, for example this thread was also talking about that . Taking the version found on the FTP and then waiting for SUS can feel painful. I also wonder if Snow would consider putting up latest versions on the FTP... ‌, might you consider that? David
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  - Community Manager (Flexera Software)
    7 years ago
    Hi ‌, hi ‌, I know the pain of installing SLM 9.0.1 and then upgrading to the latest version via SUS. It's the same for us internally. It seems that since 9.x we don't generate installers for every minor version anymore as we did with 8.x. Something I will try to investigate. /marcel Customer Success Manager Did someone answer your question? Make sure to mark it as answered! Welcome to Snow! Discover more here: Welcome to Snow – Where to start and things to know
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DirkNijs
8 years ago
Hi everyone, YES! We could solve it! Snow was helping to solve... And indeed, the problem was the key... I still don't know why, but somewhere I lost the original key. Once we restored the old key, the "old" Snowservice could be restarted and updated to the latest version... Thanks for your posts!
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DirkNijs
8 years ago
Hi Marcel, I just started updating our INV servers from 5.3 to 6.0. For three of our servers this went well, as expected. One server started the update and suddenly he stopped it. I rebooted the server, tried again, but I got an error, stating he cannot do the update. I checked the logs and the event viewer, and noticed the original Snow Server service was stopped too. I tried many things, but I could not get it up. My question is now: how can I revert the installation? (This was mentioned by my Windows support team) Thanks for your support! Regards, Dirk
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- Community Manager (Flexera Software)
  8 years ago
  Hi Dirk, are you talking about three/four Snow Inventory Master Servers? Or are some of these machines equipped with a Snow Inventory Service Gateway? Service Gateways can easily be re-installed using the builtin uninstallation and installation wizard. Reverting the installation is most likely only possible by resetting the database alongside with the server application, because in the upgrade process the upgrade procedure makes changes to the database. As long as you have a backup of your SnowInventory database you should be on the safe side. Please reach out to Snow Support and request assistance. Please set the urgency and impact level accordingly to receive high priority. Please also let your account manager know of your issue by setting him/her as a member of the watch list. If there is anything that you need, please let us know! /marcel
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  - DirkNijs
    8 years ago
    Hi Marcel, thanks for your advice! In our case, I think I made a mistake (someone from Snow support will help to solve it): We have two servers next to each other and I update one from 5.3 to 5.4 and upgraded immediately to 6.0.4... I think I had to update the both servers first together to 5.4 and I had to upgrade both together to 6.0.0... I noticed the one which was "left behind", the service was stopped and could not be started anymore. After some investigation, I noticed the key in the config was already updated to the new version (for version 6) and of course the service could not start again... to be continued :-)
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DavidH
8 years ago
Hi ‌, We've noticed that the Snow Update Service sometimes leaves downloaded files behind in C:\Program Files\Snow Software\Snow Update Service\Downloads\ Is it safe to manually clear down the content of that ( Downloads ) folder? Or might that cause problems for the Update Service? If possible we'd like to tidy this up... Thanks for your advice. Regards, David
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- Community Manager (Flexera Software)
  8 years ago
  Hi ‌, Snow Update Service (SUS) stores product update files in this directory. It should be safe to delete files because of the following reason: SUS checks whether an update file is located in this directory before installing. If it is not there, the file will be downloaded. I would recommend you to not delete, but first move the files to another directory. If there are any issues, you can drag them back quickly. In general, you can find logging information - as stated here - under C:\Program Files\Snow Software\Logs\UpdateService . /marcel
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  - DavidH
    8 years ago
    Thanks ‌, that's good to know ... and good advice to move the files first. Regards, David
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