Sun Cluster Upgrade Guide for Solaris OS

Chapter 1 Preparing to Upgrade Sun Cluster Software

This chapter provides the following information and procedures to prepare to upgrade a Sun Cluster configuration to Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software:

Upgrade Requirements and Software Support Guidelines

Observe the following requirements and software-support guidelines when you upgrade to Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software:

Upgrade of x86 based systems - On x86 based systems, you cannot upgrade from the Solaris 9 OS to the Solaris 10 OS. You must reinstall the cluster with a fresh installation of the Solaris 10 OS and Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software for x86 based systems. Follow procedures in Chapter 2, Installing Software on Global-Cluster Nodes, in Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS.
Minimum Sun Cluster software version - Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software supports the following direct upgrade paths:
- SPARC: From version 3.1 8/05 through version 3.2 1/09 - Use the standard, dual-partition, or live upgrade method.
- From version 3.2 including update releases through version 3.2 1/09 - Use the standard, dual-partition, or live upgrade method.
- From version 3.2 through version 3.2 1/09 with no Solaris upgrade or Solaris upgrade only to an update release – You can also use the rolling upgrade method.
See Choosing a Sun Cluster Upgrade Method for additional requirements and restrictions for each upgrade method.
Patch requirement - The following are the minimum Sun Cluster patch levels that are required if you upgrade from Sun Cluster 3.2 or Sun Cluster 3.2 2/08 software. Apply the appropriate patch to your cluster before you start to upgrade Sun Cluster software. These patches contain versioning functionality that is necessary for Sun Cluster upgrade:
- Solaris 9 OS - 125510–02
- Solaris 10 OS on SPARC - 125511–02
- Solaris 10 OS on x86 - 125512–02
No Sun Cluster patches are required to upgrade from Sun Cluster 3.2 1/09 software.
Minimum Solaris OS - The cluster must run on or be upgraded to at least Solaris 10 5/09 or Solaris 9 9/05 software, including the most current required patches. The Solaris 9 OS is supported only on SPARC based platforms.
New-feature support – To use any of the new features and bug fixes that are introduced in the Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 release, the cluster must run on or be upgrade to at least Solaris 10 10/09 software.
Supported hardware - The cluster hardware must be a supported configuration for Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software. Contact your Sun representative for information about current supported Sun Cluster configurations.
Architecture changes during upgrade - Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software does not support upgrade between architectures.
Software migration - Do not migrate from one type of software product to another product during Sun Cluster upgrade. For example, migration from Solaris Volume Manager disk sets to VxVM disk groups or from UFS file systems to VxFS file systems is not supported during Sun Cluster upgrade. Perform only software configuration changes that are specified by upgrade procedures of an installed software product.
ZFS root file system restriction – If the cluster uses ZFS for the root file system, you can only use the Live Upgrade method to upgrade the cluster.
Global-devices partition size - If a node uses a dedicated partition for the /global/.devices/node@nodeid file system and the partition is less than 512 Mbytes but it provides sufficient space for existing device nodes, you do not need to change the file-system size. The 512-Mbyte minimum applies to new installations of Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software.

However, you must still ensure that the global-devices file system has ample space and ample inode capacity for existing devices and for any new devices that you intend to configure. Certain configuration changes, such as adding disks, disk volumes, or metadevices, might require increasing the partition size to provide sufficient additional inodes.
Data services - You can continue to use data service software from Sun Cluster 3.1 or 3.2 releases after you upgrade the cluster to the Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 release. However, you must upgrade data-service software to the Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 version to use any new features and bug fixes that are provided in this release.
Upgrading to compatible versions - You must upgrade all software on the cluster nodes to a version that is supported by Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software. For example, if a version of an application is supported on Sun Cluster 3.1 software but is not supported on Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software, you must upgrade that application to the version that is supported on Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software, if such a version exists. See Supported Products in Sun Cluster Release Notes for information about supported products.
Downgrade - Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software does not support any downgrade of Sun Cluster software.
Limitation of scinstall for data-service upgrades - The scinstall upgrade utility only upgrades those data services that are provided with Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software. You must manually upgrade any custom or third-party data services.

Choosing a Sun Cluster Upgrade Method

The following matrixes summarize the supported upgrade methods for each Solaris OS version and platform, provided that all other requirements for any supported method are met.

Table 1–1 Upgrade From Sun Cluster 3.1 8/05 Through 3.2 1/09 Software, Including Solaris OS Upgrade


Method	Solaris 9		Solaris 10
Method	SPARC	x86	SPARC	x86
Standard upgrade	X	Direct upgrade is not permitted. You must perform a fresh installation of Solaris 10 OS for x86.	X [If you also upgrade the Solaris OS, not supported if the cluster uses ZFS for the root file system. Use the live-upgrade method only.]	X
Dual-partition upgrade	X		X	X
Live upgrade	X		X	X
Rolling upgrade	-		-	-

Table 1–2 Upgrade From Sun Cluster 3.2 Through 3.2 1/09 Software, With Solaris OS Update Only


Method	Solaris 9		Solaris 10
Method	SPARC	x86	SPARC	x86
Standard upgrade	X	X	X [If you also upgrade the Solaris OS, not supported if the cluster uses ZFS for the root file system. Use the live-upgrade method only.]	X
Dual-partition upgrade	X	X	X	X
Live upgrade	X	X	X	X
Rolling upgrade	X	X	X	X

Choose from the following methods to upgrade your cluster to Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 software:

For overview information about planning your Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 configuration, see Chapter 1, Planning the Sun Cluster Configuration, in Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS.

Standard Upgrade

In a standard upgrade, you shut down the cluster before you upgrade the cluster nodes. You return the cluster to production after all nodes are fully upgraded.

Note –

If you also upgrade the Solaris OS, do not use this upgrade method if the cluster uses ZFS for the root file system. Instead, you must use the live-upgrade method to upgrade the cluster.

Dual-Partition Upgrade

In a dual-partition upgrade, you divide the cluster into two groups of nodes. You bring down one group of nodes and upgrade those nodes. The other group of nodes continues to provide services. After you complete upgrade of the first group of nodes, you switch services to those upgraded nodes. You then upgrade the remaining nodes and boot them back into the rest of the cluster.

The cluster outage time is limited to the amount of time that is needed for the cluster to switch over services to the upgraded partition, with one exception. If you upgrade from the Sun Cluster 3.1 8/05 release and you intend to configure zone clusters (Solaris 10 only), you must temporarily take the upgraded first partition out of cluster mode to set new private-network settings that were introduced in the Sun Cluster 3.2 release.

Observe the following additional restrictions and requirements for the dual–partition upgrade method:

ZFS root file system requirement – If you also upgrade the Solaris OS, do not use this upgrade method if the cluster uses ZFS for the root file system. Instead, you must use the live-upgrade method to upgrade the cluster.
Sun Cluster HA for Sun Java^TM System Application Server EE (HADB) - If you are running the Sun Cluster HA for Sun Java System Application Server EE (HADB) data service with Sun Java System Application Server EE (HADB) software as of version 4.4, you must shut down the database before you begin the dual-partition upgrade. The HADB database does not tolerate the loss of membership that would occur when a partition of nodes is shut down for upgrade. This requirement does not apply to versions before version 4.4.
Data format changes - Do not use the dual-partition upgrade method if you intend to upgrade an application that requires that you change its data format during the application upgrade. The dual-partition upgrade method is not compatible with the extended downtime that is needed to perform data transformation.
Location of application software - Applications must be installed on nonshared storage. Shared storage is not accessible to a partition that is in noncluster mode. Therefore, it is not possible to upgrade application software that is located on shared storage.
Division of storage - Each shared storage device must be connected to a node in each group.
Single-node clusters - Dual-partition upgrade is not available to upgrade a single-node cluster. Use the standard upgrade or live upgrade method instead.
Configuration changes - Do not make cluster configuration changes that are not documented in the upgrade procedures. Such changes might not be propagated to the final cluster configuration. Also, validation attempts of such changes would fail because not all nodes are reachable during a dual-partition upgrade.

Live Upgrade

A live upgrade maintains your previous cluster configuration until you have upgraded all nodes and you commit to the upgrade. If the upgraded configuration causes a problem, you can revert to your previous cluster configuration until you can rectify the problem.

The cluster outage is limited to the amount of time that is needed to reboot the cluster nodes into the upgraded boot environment.

Observe the following additional restrictions and requirements for the live upgrade method:

Minimum Solaris OS patch level - The following are the minimum Solaris OS patch levels that are required to use Solaris Live Upgrade.
- Solaris 10 OS on SPARC — 137321–01
- Solaris 10 OS on x86 — 137322 —01
- Solaris 9 OS on SPARC — 137477–01
- Solaris 9 OS on x86 — 137478–01
Minimum version of Live Upgrade software - To use the live upgrade method, you must use the Solaris Live Upgrade packages from at least the Solaris 9 9/05 or Solaris 10 release. This requirement applies to clusters running on all Solaris OS versions, including Solaris 8 software. The live upgrade procedures provide instructions for upgrading these packages.
ZFS root file system – If you also upgrade the Solaris OS, use only the live-upgrade method to upgrade a cluster that uses ZFS for the root file system.
Dual-partition upgrade - The live upgrade method cannot be used in conjunction with a dual-partition upgrade.
Non-global zones - Unless the cluster is already running on at least Solaris 10 11/06, the live upgrade method does not support the upgrade of clusters that have non-global zones that are configured on any of the cluster nodes. Instead, use the standard upgrade or dual-partition upgrade method.
Disk space - To use the live upgrade method, you must have enough spare disk space available to make a copy of each node's boot environment. You reclaim this disk space after the upgrade is complete and you have verified and committed the upgrade. For information about space requirements for an inactive boot environment, refer to Solaris Live Upgrade Disk Space Requirements in Solaris 9 9/04 Installation Guide orAllocating Disk and Swap Space in Solaris 10 10/09 Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade.

Rolling Upgrade

In a rolling upgrade, you upgrade software to an update release on one node at a time. Services continue on the other nodes except for the time it takes to switch services from a node to be upgraded to a node that will remain in service.

Observe the following additional restrictions and requirements for the rolling upgrade method:

Minimum Sun Cluster version - The cluster must be running a Sun Cluster 3.2 release.
ZFS root file system – If you also upgrade the Solaris OS, do not use this upgrade method if the cluster uses ZFS for the root file system. Instead, you must use the live-upgrade method to upgrade the cluster.
Required patch - The following are the minimum required Sun Cluster software patch levels to use the rolling upgrade method:
- Solaris 9 OS - 125510–02
- Solaris 10 OS on SPARC - 125511–02
- Solaris 10 OS on x86 - 125512–02
Solaris upgrade paths - You can upgrade the Solaris OS only to another update version of the same release. For example, you perform a rolling upgrade from Solaris 10 5/08 to Solaris 10 10/09. But you cannot perform a rolling upgrade to upgrade from a version of Solaris 9 to a version of Solaris 10.
Hardware configuration changes - Do not make any changes to the cluster configuration during a rolling upgrade. For example, do not add to or change the cluster interconnect or quorum devices. If you need to make such a change, do so before you start the rolling upgrade procedure or wait until after all nodes are upgraded and the cluster is committed to the new software version.
Duration of the upgrade - Limit the amount of time that you take to complete a rolling upgrade of all cluster nodes. After a node is upgraded, begin the upgrade of the next cluster node as soon as possible. You can experience performance penalties and other penalties when you run a mixed-version cluster for an extended period of time.
Software configuration changes - Avoid installing new data services or issuing any administrative configuration commands during the upgrade.
New-feature availability - Until all nodes of the cluster are successfully upgraded and the upgrade is committed, new features that are introduced by the new release might not be available.