ColdFusion 2021 Update 2 there is no link to the Hotfix 02 File

[spcooney]

I need to do my updates manually so I need all of the files (hotfix and repos).

The page below does not currently contain a link to the hotfix 002 file.

https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/kb/coldfusion-2021-updates.html

I used the format of the link to update 001 to create the link below which will download the hotfix 002 file but again this link is not on the updates page.

https://cfdownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/coldfusion/2021/updates/hotfix-002-328618.jar

Can someone please get the link to the hotfix file added to the 2021 updates page.  Thanks.

[spcooney]

Apologies for the hasty post.  I guess the method has been changed from the way that it has always been.  I found that inside of the linked packages zip inside of the bundles folder there is an "\updateinstallers" folder that contains the hotfix files.

\bundles\updateinstallers\hotfix-002-328618

Steve

[Charlie Arehart]

I can confirm the confusion related to this, and I'll note I've reported it to Adobe earlier today.

That said, I don't know if it's so much a "mistake" as a change in how they think manual updates should be applied. Let me share some thoughts that may help others who come across this.

First, as you may have noticed, the section on manual updating in the technote for update 2 has changed from a focus from the "old" apprroach of just using the jar (whose URL you offered)--and which is what has been the approach for all updates since CF10, including even in the technote for CF2021 update 1.

Instead, in the technote for update 2 a new (and I'd argue somewhat convoluted) approach is shown (which would indeed be unique to CF2021) of using the new package manager (of extracting the zip, and an xml fule, as well as with references made there to a folder of /bundles, and the cfpm tool).

And note if you look closely in that update 2 technote section on manual updating, they DO mention a few lines down at least USING that jar (with the very filename you mention), but again curiously they do not offer a link to get JUST that jar.

And I agree that they should, both on the update 2 technote (like they had linked to it on the update 1 technote) and also on that general updates overview page for CF2021 (that you link to), which currently offers the zip link for both updates (as "Hotfix and Package repository"), but they only offered the jar for update 1 (as simply "File:").

Again, I have already reached out to Adobe support today about this and they replied that they are looking into it. We can hope they may at least add the link, as you ask (on both that updates overview page, and on the technote for update 2), but I hope they may also clarify whether/when.why one may want to use the "extract a zip and more" approach vs just the "run a jar" approach. 🙂

Or if/as anyone else may come to understand things, this may be as good a place as any to talk it out. (For instance, does it matter perhaps whether one is intending to use the cfpm approach to do updates, rather than the more traditional CF Admin or jar approach? If so, what are the pros/cons? And shouldn't that distinction be made more clear in those "manual" steps of the technote?)

Anyway, I realize you just wanted to see that jar linked to, and I agree that's the least we want to see accomplished. 🙂

[Charlie Arehart]

Also, FWIW, I was writing that reply in response to the original post. I had not seen your follow on "apologies" reply. (I got pulled into some work and so it took a while to finish the reply.)

That said, I still stand by what I offered, and still think there's value to what you've posted here. 🙂

And of course I do still hope Adobe adds a link to the jar in both the technote and the update overview page. Then I hope they add more to explain this change of approach. 🙂

[spcooney]

No problem! Thanks Charlie it is always a pleasure to get your insights on ColdFusion server administration.  While not a very vocal member I have been a ColdFusion server Admin since the early 2000's and your content on ColdFusion has been very helpful to me over the past few years.  It is greatly appreciated, please keep up the great work and CF advocacy.

Steve

[paule12345]

I went through the CF2021 update 2 today and indeed found it convoluted.   

First, the automated updater in CF Admin didn't work (it never works, in my experience, but I gave it a shot anyway).   I run the CF service under a different user account, perhaps that's why the automated updater never works for me.  It was unable to stop the CF service and properly apply the update.   The update log showed files/folders unable to be moved/deleted, yada yada.   So back to the old tried and true update from the command line...

The technote mentions :

"Update "packagesurl" in cfusion/lib/neo_updates.xml of cfusion and all its child instances to point to <InstallerReposityUnzippedPath>/bundles/bundlesdependency.json present inside the downloaded folder"

I did not understand the point of updating the neo_updates.xml since it seems to tell the CF admin *automated* installer where to find packages, but since we're doing manual updates, what's the point of that?  I skipped that step.

Once I manually got the coldfusion service terminated, I ran the JAR from the command line and everything seems to have updated ok.    Then, updated the connector just in case.

Does CF 2021 update 2 require an additional patch for the Query of Queries bug that CF 2018 update 12 has?

[michaelg11604920]

I had a similar issue to this. I couldn't install it through the CF Administrator. I kept running into errors. The log file showed that a few files couldn't be copied. Errors that didn't seem to really make sense given that it was copying other files in the directory. Didn't seem like a permission issue.

So then I installed it manually the way I know how through the Jar file from the zip download. I get 1 non fatal error ("com.adobe.ia.action.ServiceStopCheck"), but it seemed to work. Coldfusion started back up and shows the update in settings summary.

However the Package Manager -> Packages page is completely screwed up now. It throws this error:

"Element updateSettings.isStandAlone is undefined in APPLICATION."

I manually uninstalled Update 2 and then manually reinstalled it. Again services stopped during update and then restarted. I get the same "com.adobe.ia.action.ServiceStopCheck" error in the installation log file. And the Packages page still doesn't work.

I don't know why it has to be so hard. I've always had to manually install these updates. This is the first time it's broken something. I'm not sure what to do besides completely reinstall Coldfusion and hope for the best. CF 2021 definitely complicated things in my mind. Or I'm just not fully understanding something. Update 1 went smoothly..

I concur that Updating "packagesurl" in cfusion/lib/neo_updates.xml made no sense at all?? And do I change the packagesurl back after installation?

And what from the zip file should I copy into CF_SCRIPTS/scrips/ajax? None of the files match at all? Please improve the install and instructions. Please!

[michaelg11604920]

Ok. It turns out me updating the neo_updates.xml caused at least one of the errors. I think VS Code added an extra ending tag on </port> inadvertently. Going into cfpm and typing help clued me into this based on the error it gave me. Still, the directions are very strange. I'm still not confident update 2 worked properly. Having issues with the cfimage tag now. Hopefully unrelated.

[spcooney]

I have never successfully run the updates through the CF Admin (we have pretty strict security and our systems do not have access to the outside internet without requessts and jumping through many hoops) so I have always doen the updates manually.  The changes in 2021 have led to my needing to download a few more files to get the updates to work.  Below are the steps I use from my documentation so I can reopeat these somewhat convoluted steps each time.  I hope they can help someone more successfully run updates manually. (apologies for this comment box decimating my "outline" format.  I hope they are still clear steps.)

How to Hotfix ColdFusion 2021

• Download the Patch files you will be installing: Hotfix Page
  1. You will need the hotfix file: Example hotfix-001-325996.jar
  2. We do not have outside web access so I need to get the "Package repository:" Example: packages-cf2021-001-325996.zip
• Copy the files to the server you wish to update
  1. The jar file for clarity should be put into the(our method to keep them organized): C:\ColdFusionINSTALL\INSTANCE\hf-updates\XXXX.jar
     1. This folder may need to be created on a new install
  2. The "Package repository" should be placed in a folder: C:\packagerepo
     1. This file usually unzips to a "bundles" folder but the contents of "bundles" needs to be in the C:\packagerepo

• ONE TIME STEP: If this is the first hotfix you are running you will need to make a couple of changes in the ColdFusion Administrator.
  1. Go to "Package Manager → Settings" and change "Package Site: Site URL" to C:\packagerepo\bundlesdependency.json
  2. You can also, if not set, set the proxy settings on this page as well
     1. Proxy Host: http://YOURPROXYURL
     2. Proxy Port: 80 
  3. Stop and restart ColdFusion if you needed to make these additions.  If they already existed all this could be skipped.
• All the files should now be setup so now we can run the update.
  1. Open a prompt as an administrator to run the jar
     1. Windows: <cf_root>/jre/bin/java.exe -jar C:\ColdFusionINSTALL\INSTANCE\hf-updates\/hotfix-XXX-XXXXXX.jar
        Linux-based platforms: <cf_root>/jre/bin/java -jar  /ColdFusionINSTALL/INSTANCE/hf-updates/hotfix-XXX-XXXXXX.jar (sudo)

• Occasionally the install will have problems restarting the ColdFusion service. 
  1. Open the task manager and stop all coldfusion processes then restart the service manually.

Once you have restarted it is always a good idea to load the ColdFusion Administartor and check out the settings summary to see that the version is what you expect.

[paule12345]

Another headscratcher was this note in the technote:

"If you've created a mapping of the cf_scripts folder, you must copy the contents of the downloaded zip into CF_SCRIPTS/scrips/ajax folder to download the ajax package."

I think they mean to say if you've created a copy of CF_SCRIPTS folder elsewhere on your server, you need to copy the updated CF_SCRIPTS files from C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot\cf_scripts over to that location.   There are no "cf_scripts" files in the "downloaded zip"