Overview of Upgrading a Sun Cluster Configuration

This section provides the following guidelines to upgrade a Sun Cluster configuration:

• Upgrade Requirements and Support Guidelines

• Choosing a Sun Cluster Upgrade Method

Upgrade Requirements and Support Guidelines

Observe the following requirements and support guidelines when you upgrade to Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software:

• The cluster must run on or be upgraded to at least Solaris 8 2/02 software, including the most current required patches.

• The cluster hardware must be a supported configuration for Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software. Contact your Sun representative for information about current supported Sun Cluster configurations.

• You must upgrade all software to a version that is supported by Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software. For example, if a data service is supported on Sun Cluster 3.0 software but is not supported on Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software, you must upgrade that data service to the version of that data service that is supported on Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software. See “Supported Products” in Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 Release Notes for Solaris OS for support information about specific data services.

• If the related application of a data service is not supported on Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software, you must upgrade that application to a supported release.

• The scinstall upgrade utility only upgrades those data services that are provided with Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software. You must manually upgrade any custom or third-party data services.

• For upgrade from a Sun Cluster 3.0 release, have available the test IP addresses to use with your public-network adapters when NAFO groups are converted to Internet Protocol (IP) Network Multipathing groups. The scinstall upgrade utility prompts you for a test IP address for each public-network adapter in the cluster. A test IP address must be on the same subnet as the primary IP address for the adapter.

  See the IP Network Multipathing Administration Guide (Solaris 8) or System Administration Guide: IP Services (Solaris 9) for information about test IP addresses for IP Network Multipathing groups.

• Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software supports only nonrolling upgrade from Solaris 8 software to Solaris 9 software.

• Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software supports direct upgrade only from Sun Cluster 3.x software.

• Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software does not support any downgrade of Sun Cluster software.

• Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software does not support upgrade between architectures.

• Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software does not support the Live Upgrade method to upgrade Solaris software in a Sun Cluster configuration.

Choosing a Sun Cluster Upgrade Method

Choose one of the following methods to upgrade your cluster to Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 software:

• Nonrolling upgrade – In a nonrolling upgrade, you shut down the cluster before you upgrade the cluster nodes. You return the cluster to production after all nodes are fully upgraded. You must use the nonrolling-upgrade method if one or more of the following conditions apply:

  • You are upgrading from Sun Cluster 3.0 software.

  • You are upgrading from Solaris 8 software to Solaris 9 software.

  • Any software products that you are upgrading, such as applications or databases, require that the same version of the software is running on all cluster nodes at the same time.

  • You are upgrading the Sun Cluster-module software for Sun Management Center.

  • You are also upgrading VxVM or VxFS.

• Rolling upgrade – In a rolling upgrade, you upgrade one node of the cluster at a time. The cluster remains in production with services running on the other nodes. You can use the rolling-upgrade method only if all of the following conditions apply:

  • You are upgrading from Sun Cluster 3.1 software.

  • You are upgrading the Solaris operating system only to a Solaris update, if at all.

  • For any applications or databases you must upgrade, the current version of the software can coexist in a running cluster with the upgrade version of that software.

  If your cluster configuration meets the requirements to perform a rolling upgrade, you can still choose to perform a nonrolling upgrade instead. A nonrolling upgrade might be preferable to a rolling upgrade if you wanted to use the Cluster Control Panel to issue commands to all cluster nodes at the same time and you could tolerate the cluster downtime.

For overview information about planning your Sun Cluster 3.1 9/04 configuration, see Chapter 1, Planning the Sun Cluster Configuration.