Upgrading everRun Software Using an Upgrade Kit
This topic describes how to use an upgrade kit of everRun software to upgrade the system software. The topic also explains how to download the kit and then upload it to the system, if you need to do so before upgrading the system. (If you want to upgrade a system with a DVD, see Upgrading everRun From Release 7.3.4.0 with a DVD.) You can optionally control the upgrade by enabling pauses. Inspecting a system during a pause is useful for verifying or reconfiguring third-party tools or other services that are not managed by the system.
Caution: Do not update the CentOS host operating system of the everRun system from any source other than Stratus. Use only the CentOS release that is installed with the everRun software.
Prerequisites:
- Before upgrading an everRun system, you should perform various system checks. For detailed information, access the Knowledge Base to search for the article Pre-upgrade system check for everRun (KB-4061). See Accessing Knowledge Base Articles.
- All PMs and VMs must be in good health before upgrading the system software. Before starting an upgrade, examine the everRun Availability Console to verify that there are no alerts indicating PM or VM problems.
- Eject any VCDs or USB media from the VMs before upgrading the system software. If VCD or USB media is still connected to the VMs, it prevents the system from migrating the VMs and putting the PMs into maintenance mode for the upgrade process.
- To verify that the system meets the requirements of the upgrade kit, use the Qualify button or the AVCLI kit-qualify command, as described in this topic.
Note:
The upgrade also upgrades the AVCLI software on the system; however, if you have installed AVCLI on a remote management computer, you must manually upgrade AVCLI to the most recent version on the remote computer. You can obtain AVCLI software from the
Drivers and Tools section of the
Downloads page at
https://www.stratus.com/services-support/downloads/?tab=everrun. For information about how to manually install AVCLI on a remote computer see
AVCLI Command Overview.
The steps are:
I. To download the upgrade kit
Note: The Upgrade Kits page of the everRun Availability Console allows only two saved kits. If the pages lists two kits and you want to download another kit, you first need to delete a kit.
- Open the Downloads page at https://www.stratus.com/services-support/downloads/?tab=everrun.
- Scroll down to the upgrade section and then click the upgrade link to download the kit.
- Navigate to a location on a local computer to save the file. If necessary, transfer the file to the remote management computer running the everRun Availability Console.
II. To upload the upgrade kit to the system
Upload the upgrade kit, if necessary, using one of the following methods:
- The Upgrade Kits page
- In the everRun Availability Console, click Upgrade Kits in the left-hand navigation panel.
- On the Upgrade Kits page, click the Add a Kit button beneath the masthead, which opens the everRun - Kit Upload Wizard.
- In the everRun - Kit Upload Wizard dialog box, click Choose File (in Google Chrome) or Browse (in Firefox or Internet Explorer), and then browse to select a .kit file.
- After you have selected a .kit file, click Upload, Import, or Finish (they perform the same function). A message such as Uploading file (DO NOT CLOSE WIZARD) appears while the file is uploading. The upload may require up to two minutes for a file stored locally, to ten or more minutes for a file stored over a network. If the upload fails, the wizard displays the message Failed to upload file.
After the upload is complete, the wizard closes and the Upgrade Kits page lists the state and version number of the upgrade kit. The Qualify, Upgrade, and Delete buttons also appear with the Add a Kit button.
- If more than one upgrade kit is loaded, select the one to use.
III. To qualify the software
Qualify the software to verify that your system meets the requirements of the upgrade kit. (Qualifying the software is recommended, but not required.)
Do so using one of the following methods:
- On the Upgrade Kits page, select the upgrade kit you want to qualify and then click Qualify.
- Issue the command avcli kit-qualify.
The qualification may require up to six minutes. If the qualification succeeds, continue with the next step.
If the qualification fails, a pop-up window appears with messages indicating the cause of the failure. These messages may indicate unsupported releases, insufficient storage, partition problems, VMs that need to be shutdown, or other information associated with upgrading the system. For example, if the system has insufficient disk space to complete the upgrade, the message Insufficient free space appears reporting the amount of space needed. If you need help resolving a qualification issue, search for the qualification error message in the Knowledge Base in the Stratus Customer Service Portal at https://support.stratus.com.
IV. To upgrade the system software
-
Begin the upgrade using one of the following methods:
- On the Upgrade Kits page, click Upgrade.
- Issue the command avcli kit-upgrade.
A Confirm window appears, stating that you have chosen to upgrade the system and displaying a message asking you to confirm the upgrade to the selected upgrade kit. The window also includes a check box for you to enable pauses, allowing you to control the upgrade. Enable pauses by clicking the box Pause after individual node upgrades.
-
Click Yes to continue the upgrade.
The upgrade begins. If you enabled pauses, the diagram illustrating the upgrade steps displays the current state of the upgrade. When the upgrade pauses, you must click Finalize to continue.
After one node has been upgraded, but the other node has not yet been upgraded, the nodes are running different versions of the software. During this time, the masthead displays the message System is running with mismatched versions.
Note: After upgrading to
everRun Release 7.5.0.5, shut down and then restart all running VMs, to enable features and performance improvements available to VMs in Release 7.5.0.5. Doing so immediately after the upgrade is not necessary, but shutting down and restarting VMs is a requirement for enabling VMs to run with the full capability available in Release 7.5.0.5. For information on shutting down and then starting VMs, see
Managing the Operation of a Virtual Machine.
After the upgrade is complete, check for updated virtIO drivers on all Windows-based VMs, as described in Updating the VirtIO Drivers (Windows-based VMs).
Product Support and Downloads