How to safely update chromedriver on selenium nodes - selenium

Question

I have a selenium grid setup with one hub and 5 nodes. they both use the same version of selenium server 2.41.0.
On the nodes there are already chromedriver setup in the same folder as selenium sever.
Now the task is to update the chromedriver without broken any existing jenkins tests.
I have tried manually go to each nodes and update the chromedriver file. But, the tests on jenkins will throw WebDriverException saying unable to create driver.
What could be the issue here?
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a', time: '2014-03-27 17:17:32'
System info: host: 'dseleniumnode05.xxx-dev.com', ip: 'xx.xx.xx.xxx', os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.11.10-100.fc18.x86_64', java.version: '1.7.0_45'
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
14:08:37.077 INFO - Executing: [new session: Capabilities [{platform=LINUX, browserName=chrome, proxy={socksUsername=null, noProxy=null, httpProxy=proxy.xxx-stage.com:80, socksPassword=null, ftpProxy=null, sslProxy=proxy.xxx-stage.com:443, proxyAutoconfigUrl=null, proxyType=MANUAL, class=org.openqa.selenium.Proxy, autodetect=false, hCode=1182650898, socksProxy=null}, version=, chrome.switches=[--start-maximized]}]] at URL: /session)
14:08:37.078 INFO - Creating a new session for Capabilities [{platform=LINUX, browserName=chrome, proxy={socksUsername=null, noProxy=null, httpProxy=proxy.xxx-stage.com:80, socksPassword=null, ftpProxy=null, sslProxy=proxy.xxx-stage.com:443, proxyAutoconfigUrl=null, proxyType=MANUAL, class=org.openqa.selenium.Proxy, autodetect=false, hCode=1182650898, socksProxy=null}, version=, chrome.switches=[--start-maximized]}]
Starting ChromeDriver (v2.10.267518) on port 13326
Only local connections are allowed.
[0.500][WARNING]: PAC support disabled because there is no system implementation
14:09:38.101 WARN - Exception thrown
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a', time: '2014-03-27 17:17:32'
System info: host: 'dseleniumnode05.xxx-dev.com', ip: 'xx.xx.xx.xxx', os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.11.10-100.fc18.x86_64', java.version: '1.7.0_45'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.report(FutureTask.java:122)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:188)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession.execute(DefaultSession.java:177)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession.<init>(DefaultSession.java:113)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession.createSession(DefaultSession.java:90)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultDriverSessions.newSession(DefaultDriverSessions.java:96)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.handler.NewSession.handle(NewSession.java:63)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.rest.ResultConfig.handle(ResultConfig.java:202)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.JsonHttpRemoteConfig.handleRequest(JsonHttpRemoteConfig.java:193)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DriverServlet.handleRequest(DriverServlet.java:174)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DriverServlet.doPost(DriverServlet.java:140)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DriverServlet.service(DriverServlet.java:112)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)
at org.openqa.jetty.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:428)
at org.openqa.jetty.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.dispatch(ServletHandler.java:680)
at org.openqa.jetty.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(ServletHandler.java:571)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.HttpContext.handle(HttpContext.java:1526)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.HttpContext.handle(HttpContext.java:1479)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.HttpServer.service(HttpServer.java:920)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.HttpConnection.service(HttpConnection.java:820)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.HttpConnection.handleNext(HttpConnection.java:986)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:837)
at org.openqa.jetty.http.SocketListener.handleConnection(SocketListener.java:243)
at org.openqa.jetty.util.ThreadedServer.handle(ThreadedServer.java:358)
at org.openqa.jetty.util.ThreadPool$PoolThread.run(ThreadPool.java:537)
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a', time: '2014-03-27 17:17:32'
System info: host: 'dseleniumnode05.xxx-dev.com', ip: 'xx.xx.xx.xxx', os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.11.10-100.fc18.x86_64', java.version: '1.7.0_45'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultDriverFactory.callConstructor(DefaultDriverFactory.java:72)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultDriverFactory.newInstance(DefaultDriverFactory.java:56)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession$BrowserCreator.call(DefaultSession.java:216)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession$BrowserCreator.call(DefaultSession.java:1)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultSession$1.run(DefaultSession.java:170)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.DefaultDriverFactory.callConstructor(DefaultDriverFactory.java:62)
... 8 more
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
(Driver info: chromedriver=2.10.267518,platform=Linux 3.11.10-100.fc18.x86_64 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 60.52 seconds
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a', time: '2014-03-27 17:17:32'
System info: host: 'dseleniumnode05.xxx-dev.com', ip: 'xx.xx.xx.xxx', os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '3.11.10-100.fc18.x86_64', java.version: '1.7.0_45'
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.createThrowable(ErrorHandler.java:193)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.throwIfResponseFailed(ErrorHandler.java:145)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:595)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.startSession(RemoteWebDriver.java:240)
at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.startSession(ChromeDriver.java:181)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:126)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:139)
at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:160)
at org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver.<init>(ChromeDriver.java:128)
... 13 more
14:09:38.103 WARN - Exception: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
(Driver info: chromedriver=2.10.267518,platform=Linux 3.11.10-100.fc18.x86_64 x86_64) (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 60.52 seconds

Answer 1

the matter is that instance of driver is created on host machine (using existing chromdriver file there). Obviously once you substitute updated chrome driver file (of a newer version) older one -> everything should work fine after driver instance reinitizalization.
To initialize driver , I'm using following java piece of code:
public static WebDriver driverSetUp(WebDriver driver) throws MalformedURLException {
DesiredCapabilities capability = DesiredCapabilities.chrome();
log.info("Google chrome is selected");
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "....path/chromedriver.exe");
capability.setBrowserName("chrome");
capability.setPlatform(org.openqa.selenium.Platform.WINDOWS);
String webDriverURL = "http://" + environmentData.getHubIP() + ":" + environmentData.getHubPort() + "/wd/hub";
driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL(webDriverURL), capability);
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
driver.manage().window().setSize(new Dimension(1920, 1080));
return driver;
}
Try it out and let us know whether issue persists. Thanks.