Can older version of elasticsearch be deleted when 2 versions exist?

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

After upgraded from version 17.3 to 17.4 RU02, the CASearchServer folder contains 2 elasticsearch folders (elasticsearch-7.17.6 and elasticsearch-2.1.1)

In the CA Service Management Search Server service, the PATH is set to executable "...\elasticsearch-7.17.6\..." folder.

So, is elasticsearch-2.1.1 still used?  Can this folder be deleted?

Environment

CA Service Desk Manager v17.3 and up

Cause

When the GA version of SDM 17.3 is installed, the 2.1.1 version of Elasticsearch is included.  With the later upgrade like 17.4 RU02, a newer version of Elasticsearch is installed, but the older version is not automatically removed.

Resolution

It should be safe to delete the folder for the older elasticsearch-2.1.1.  To be the safest, we recommend creating a zip archive of that folder before deleting it.  If something goes wrong or you need to uninstall the later RU patch, the older version can be restored.

You should try this in a test environment first before continuing in production.

Additional Information

Since 17.3 RU06, the Elasticsearch is not with version 2.1.1 anymore. For example, 17.3 RU06 has version 7.10.2 and 17.4 RU02 has version 7.17.6. This article applies to all versions--when the newer version is installed, it is safe to remove the older version.