There are many methods available for installing the latest update(aka hotfix) for ColdFusion. Hostek recommends utilizing the Windows control panel method which will update your ColdFusion version to the latest hotfix with a single click. This is available for customers utilizing ColdFusion 10, 11, 2016, and 2018 on Windows. Please refer to our Applying ColdFusion updates via WCP article for detailed steps on how you can use this feature to your advantage.
ColdFusion is one of the most powerful development platforms for building web applications and is developed and frequently updated by Adobe. Jump to updating to latest hotfix steps >> ColdFusion Major versions vs Minor (hotfixes) Every couple of years Adobe releases a new major release of ColdFusion that provides support for new features and capabilities, as well as enhancing security and performance of already existing features. As with any programming language and/or software there are …
For customers who are not taking advantage of our Windows control panel, you can still update your ColdFusion server to the latest hotfix using the manual installation method. This article will cover the Windows and Linux manual installation process.
First, you’ll see a GIF illustration of the process, then I’ll cover the details of the process in text.
Prepare
We strongly recommend that you backup your ColdFusion install just before installing the latest update. This is usually as simple as copying the ColdFusion install directory to another location. The updater will also take its own backups and includes an uninstaller.jar file for rolling back updates, but we recommend taking another backup just in case something goes wrong with that process.
Update on Windows Process
1. Get the updater jar file
The first step in manually updating ColdFusion is to get the updater jar file itself. The easiest way to accomplish this is within the ColdFusion admin by opening the Server Updates page and clicking Download next to an available update. This will automatically download the latest hotfix/update for your version of ColdFusion. Important: make note of where the file is downloaded to because you’ll need it later.
If you don’t have access to the ColdFusion admin, you can download the update manually from Adobe on the ColdFusion Updates page.
2. Run the jar with java
Next, you’ll want to launch the updater with administrative privileges. On Windows, launch cmd as administrator. On Linux, use sudo to escalate your privileges. When you’re finished downloading the file and launching an administrative command shell, run the below command.
java -jar <path to jar file>
If you get an error that is not a recognized command, then you will need to either update your system environment Path variable or you can specify the full path to the java executable.
Once you run the updater, you should be met with a GUI on Windows or a text-based menu on Linux.
3. Finish the installer
Once you’re in the interactive update installer, step through the process just as you would with a normal installer. Here’s a brief overview.
Provide the correct ColdFusion install location. The updater will assume a default location based on your operating system, and usually, it’s correct. If you have an atypical ColdFusion install then you’ll need to provide the custom install path. The installer will not continue if the install path is invalid.
Review and accept the terms and conditions.
If you’re using multi-instance, then you can select which instances you would like to update at this time.
Wait for the installer to finish and confirm that the update was successful
Once complete, you should see the update directory and update log within <cf install path>/<instance name>/hf-updates/<update id>.
Update on Linux Process
1. Get the updater jar file
You can obtain Adobe’s official update JARs from here 74.
To download the JAR file on Linux, we’d recommend utilizing the wget command. In this example we will be installing the latest hotfix for ColdFusion 2018 Update 1, therefore we will be grabbing the download URL for the ColdFusion (2018 Release) located at the above URL.
Once we have the download URL for the JAR file you can run the following command via the Linux command line.
This will download the .JAR file in your present working directory on your server.
2. Run the jar with Java
Newer releases of ColdFusion come bundled with a default JRE. We will be utilizing the default JRE to install the latest hotfix. Once you’ve successfully downloaded the JAR file from Adobe’s official download website we will need to stop ColdFusion. This can be done with the following command.
/opt/coldfusion2018/cfusion/bin stop
Please keep in mind that the path above will vary depending on the version of ColdFusion you’re utilizing. After ColdFusion has been stopped successfully we can then run the JAR just downloaded with Java. Since we’re using ColdFusion 2018 in this example we would run the following command.
/opt/coldfusion2016/jre/bin/java -jar ~/hotfix-001-311402.jar
The above command will begin the update process and automatically restart your ColdFusion service. After the update is completed successfully you can review the Adobe update log file at <cf install path>/<instance name>/hf-updates/<update id> for any errors.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed the latest update for ColdFusion. If you have any issues with this process, then our world-class team of ColdFusion experts can help. Contact us for more information.
You can also refer to our article that contains steps you can take for uninstalling a ColdFusion hotfix in the event any issues arise.
How to uninstall a ColdFusion update (Hotfix)