Destiny Auto Update Explained

The Auto update process is for minimal revisions and updates. You can configure Destiny to automatically install updates at a time you choose, eliminating the need for manual hot-patching. It is a quick, hands-free way to automatically keep your Destiny installation up to date.

Important: It is not a replacement for the Destiny upgrade process.

This process includes:

Finding and Scheduling Updates

  1. Destiny checks periodically for updates by connecting to the Auto Update server at this URL: https://destinyupdate.follettdestiny.com.

    Destiny sends its current version number to the Auto Update server. If an update is available, Destiny downloads a zip file containing the update. There may be multiple updates contained in a single download.
  2. Destiny displays a notification that the update is available in a green bar at the top of the window. Destiny also displays a link to a popup window describing the contents of the update.

    This is the only visible information to the server administrator:
    • ASP Administrator for Follett Destiny Cloud
    • Super Administrator for a consortium
    • Destiny Administrator for a district

    If you enabled the email notification for Auto Update, Destiny sends the email.

    If you configured a scheduled time for the Auto Update, Destiny creates a scheduled job.

    Note: To configure notification and automatic installation of updates, log in as the server administrator and edit the Auto Update Settings on the Options sub-tab of the Setup page.
  3. When the scheduled time arrives, or when the server administrator starts the update manually, the Auto Update process begins.

Auto Update Process

  1. Once the Auto Update process begins, Destiny's Job Manager prevents any new jobs from starting. Currently running jobs are not stopped. This allows for a graceful shutdown of the Destiny service by allowing currently running jobs to finish. This period lasts 30 minutes.
  2. After the waiting period expires, Destiny checks for jobs that are still running. If Destiny finds any jobs still in progress, it waits up to an additional 30 minutes for these to finish. Currently running jobs are never stopped. If any jobs are still running at the end of this additional period, the update fails and an email notification (if configured) is sent. Destiny displays the notification bar again for the server administrator, and if an Auto Update scheduled time is enabled, Destiny creates another scheduled job.
  3. If no jobs are running, the Auto Update process continues. Destiny creates an empty job summary file (a blank HTML file) in the DistrictResources folder. This file will be populated with information by the actual Auto Update process later.

    Destiny spawns a separate Java process to execute the Auto Update. Once this is done, Destiny changes the status of the Auto Update job to Completed in the Destiny Job Manager, but the separate Auto Update process is still running.

  4. The Auto Update process executes the update contained in the zip file and logs the results into the empty job summary file created earlier.
  5. Once the Destiny service restarts, you can view the results of the Auto Update process by opening the job summary file in the Job Manager.

For a printable version, see Destiny Auto Update Explained.