Upgrade to RPI v7.x

Overview

Redpoint Interaction (RPI) v7.x is the first cloud-native version of RPI, providing you with the latest in security, reliability, and flexibility.

Benefits

Make sure you have access to the best of RPI by upgrading to v7!

Some benefits include:

You no longer need to provision servers (virtual machines/VMs) to install RPI and its related services. VMs have limitations in terms of reliability, performance, and scalability, and can often be costly to maintain at the scale needed for perhaps just a subset of processes.
You can make use of cloud-native services that provide increased security and reliability.
You can now not only make use of cloud services, but also the flexibility that comes from running in containers. Auto-scale makes it possible for a container to scale out to accommodate a resource-intensive process and then scale back down, ultimately resulting in overall environment cost savings.
You’ll no longer need to deploy multiple servers for high availability and/or disaster recovery. Deploying in containers ensures that if a single container/pod fails, another one will spin up for seamless recovery, making your environment more resilient. (See the next section for information about how specific RPI features also contribute to increased resilience.)

Although you can install Kubernetes on-prem, doing so does not allow you to take advantage of the cloud services offered by providers such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

Resilience

In addition to the increase in resilience related to containerization in general, upgrading to the latest version of RPI provides features that specifically improve resilience:

RPI v7.4 (available August 2024)

Dedicated Queue Listener Containers
Queue Readers (dedicated container for draining/processing RPI queues)
- Relevant to web events, web forms, visitor profiles, etc.
- Previously managed via system tasks, which were much less resilient and scalable

RPI v7.3

Ops DB Housekeeping: Utilize Batching at Audit Data Deletion
- This can help with mitigating contention issues

RPI v7.2

Auto-Replay Interaction: optionally configure an interaction to “auto-replay” on failure
- Can include specific error strings to trigger auto-replay or always auto-replay
Improved Error Handling on “Execute Reader” failures at Export File Generation
- Common transient error, added additional retry capability

RPI v7.1

Connection Resilience for SQL Server Error Code 18401 (related to transient errors)
Interaction Workflow Queueing
- Setting max # of workflow executions at any given time
- Ability to set interaction priority
- Ability to set max time in queue

Refer to the RPI release notes for more information about the new features added in each version.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites include:

Have a Kubernetes solution available to use. (Turnkey Cloud Solutions)
Install kubectl. (Install and Set Up kubectl on Linux)
Have a SQL Server instance available to use for RPI databases.
Request access to Redpoint's container registry. Open a ticket with support@redpointglobal.com requesting access to the RPI repository.
Have a license key to activate RPI. Contact Redpoint Support for an activation key.
Install the latest version of .NET Desktop Runtime and ASP.NET Core Runtime.

If you use Postgres as your data warehouse, there has been a change in the driver that RPI uses. RPI v6 used ODBC, while v7 uses the .NET version. The upgrade will not replace any of those connection strings, so you must perform this action manually.

Check availability of plugins in v7

If you are upgrading from a previous version of RPI, use the Redpoint Interaction Upgrade Helper prior to upgrade to check availability of plugins in the v7 version. This executable is available at DeploymentFiles\Utilities. When run in a command line window, the Helper requests that a v6 Pulse database connection string be entered. Assuming that it is able to connect, it checks for v7 compatibility of all plugins currently in use. If one or more incompatible plugins is found, their details are displayed, and the option to output the same to a file is provided.

The resultant file contains details of the plugins in question, along with a series of v7 environment variables, which can serve as a starting point for the new v7 cluster.

Example:

CODE

{
  "General": {
    "ConnectionStrings__OperationalDatabase": "Server=localhost,2433;Database=Pulse;UID=[x];PWD=[x];ConnectRetryCount=12;ConnectRetryInterval=10;Encrypt=false",
    "ConnectionStrings__LoggingDatabase": "[not set]",
    "RPI__ServiceHostName": "local.rphelios.net",
    "RPI__SMTP__EmailSenderAddress": "[x]",
    "RPI__SMTP__Address": "[x]",
    "RPI__SMTP__Port": 587,
    "RPI__SMTP__EnableSSL": false,
    "RPI__SMTP__UseCredentials": false
  },
  "Execution": {
    "RPIExecution__QueueListener__IsEnabled": true,
    "RPIExecution__QueueListener__QueuePath": "RPIListenerQueue"
  },
  "InteractionAPI": {
    "RPIClient__HelpStartPageURL": "[x]"
  }
}

Installation

Once you’ve ensured you meet the prerequisites, use the guide to install the newest version of RPI 7.x.

FAQs

What will happen to RPI v6.x?

Redpoint is committed to supporting you and ensuring that you have the necessary time to plan for this infrastructure change. January 2025 is the target for end of life for v6.x, but we’ll work closely with you to ensure no interruption in service.

Innovation to RPI v6.x will be limited. We will continue to resolve any bugs.

How do I schedule an upgrade?

Contact support@redpointglobal.com.

Will I be charged for an upgrade?

Licensing will not be an additional cost, nor will our standard support costs. However, there may be additional internal costs for the hosting organization to deploy the new infrastructure or there may be services costs to assist with the migration.

A connector our organization uses is not available in the latest release of v7.x, when will it be available?

Redpoint will publish a list of connectors slated for release in upcoming iterations of v7. Redpoint Product Management will continue to work closely with the Customer Success and Services teams to identify priority connectors for inclusion in future releases. If you have questions please contact your Customer Success or Account Director or email support@redpointglobal.com.

Can I run Linux containers on my existing Windows server?

It may work, but this is not recommended for a production environment.

One of the many benefits of Kubernetes, when deployed correctly into a multi-node cluster, is high availability. By deploying a containerized version of RPI onto a single node, you do not get this benefit, so it defeats the purpose.

What skillset is needed to maintain a containerized environment?

While the general recommendation is to run any containerized workload in Kubernetes, this is not a hard requirement. Depending on your preferred container platform, you will want engineers experienced with that platform.

General container layer management (pulling images from registries, working with helm charts and the values files that customize the deployments, monitoring the environment).
Networking, networking, networking.
- Applications must make connections to external resources such as databases and storage systems. Those require the networking to be in place and working. Engineers must understand their network and how to allow traffic through to the necessary resources elsewhere on their network.
- Engineers must also understand ingress controllers and how to allow traffic from the “external network” into their cluster network.