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Types of Upgrades  



Two types of cluster upgrades are available: concurrent and rolling. The type of upgrade you use depends on whether you want to maintain the availability of the cluster during the upgrade and whether you have more than one system disk. Review this chapter and then perform the preliminary tasks for the upgrade procedure (concurrent or rolling) that best suits your configuration.

Concurrent Upgrade  

This section describes the following:

How a Concurrent Upgrade Works  

During a concurrent upgrade, you must shut down the entire cluster and upgrade each system disk. No one can use the cluster until you upgrade each system disk and reboot each computer. When the cluster reboots, each computer will run the upgraded version of the OpenVMS operating system.

If all systems in the OpenVMS Cluster environment are booted from one system disk, you must perform a concurrent upgrade.

Preparing Your System for a Concurrent Upgrade  

To prepare for a concurrent upgrade:

  1. Log in locally to the SYSTEM account.

    If you have more than one system disk, make sure that you have performed the preupgrade tasks on each system disk that you are upgrading. Make sure the target system disk is not mounted on any other node in the cluster and remains dismounted during the upgrade. It should be mounted only on the system that is performing the upgrade. (For information about dismounting disks, refer to Preparing Your System for a Rolling Upgrade.) Then go to Upgrading the OpenVMS Operating System and perform an upgrade on each system disk. You do not have to reboot the operating system media for each upgrade. You only need to choose option 1 from the menu for each upgrade.
  2. Shut down all systems by entering the following command on each system (satellites first, then the boot nodes):
       $ @SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN
  3. When the procedure asks whether an automatic system reboot should be performed, enter N (NO).
  4. Choose the CLUSTER_SHUTDOWN option.
  5. When the shutdown procedure is finished on all nodes, halt each system by pressing either Ctrl/P or the Halt button. For more information about halting your computer, refer to Halting the Integrity Server to Recover from Hangs and Crashes.
  6. If you have only one system disk for your cluster, go to Upgrading the OpenVMS Operating System to begin the upgrade procedure.

    After the upgrade is complete, you are instructed to reboot each computer in the OpenVMS Cluster environment before beginning other postupgrade procedures.

Rolling Upgrade  

This section describes the following:

How a Rolling Upgrade Works  

A rolling upgrade allows you to have a mixed-version cluster. During a rolling upgrade, you keep some of the computers in the cluster running and available while you upgrade others (you must have more than one system disk). You upgrade each system disk individually, allowing old and new versions of the operating system to run together in the same cluster.

Notes and Restrictions  

The following restrictions apply to rolling upgrades. Refer to the HP OpenVMS Version 8.2-1 New Features and Release Notes for additional compatibility issues and restrictions.

Preparing Your System for a Rolling Upgrade  

To prepare for a rolling upgrade, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to any node where the target disk is mounted as a data disk rather than as the system disk. (That disk must be the one on which you already performed the preupgrade tasks described in Before Upgrading the OpenVMS Operating System.)
  2. Check the votes and make adjustments to maintain the proper quorum so the cluster can continue to operate throughout the upgrade. (HP OpenVMS Cluster Systems describes this procedure in detail.)
  3. Use the DCL command DISMOUNT/CLUSTER to dismount the data disk. (You can also perform this operation using the SYSMAN utility.)

    Note that you can ignore messages from nodes where the specified data disk is being used as the system disk.
  4. Verify that the data disk has been dismounted successfully by entering the following commands:
       $ MCR SYSMAN
       SYSMAN> SET ENVIRONMENT/CLUSTER
       SYSMAN> DO SHOW DEVICE disk-name 
    Examine the display to be sure the disk is not mounted on any nodes as a data disk. Noting the value listed in the Trans Count field can help you make that determination: A value of less than 50 indicates that the disk is mounted as a data disk rather than as the system disk; a much larger value (for example, 300) indicates that the disk most likely is the system disk.
  5. If the disk is still mounted on any nodes as a data disk, use the SYSMAN utility to dismount the disk; otherwise, exit the SYSMAN utility.
  6. Use the following command to shut down any nodes that boot from the system disk you are upgrading (shut down satellite nodes first):
    $ @SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN
    1. When the procedure asks whether an automatic system reboot should be performed, enter N (NO).
    2. Choose the REMOVE_NODE option.

If a proper quorum is not maintained at any time during the upgrade procedure, the shutdown procedure hangs the cluster. If the cluster hangs during a shutdown, you can use the IPC facility to adjust quorum from the system console of a system that is still a cluster member.

From an OpenVMS Alpha cluster member, press Ctrl/P and enter the commands at the console, as shown:

   $ Ctrl/P 
   >>> D SIRR C
   >>> C
   IPC> Q
   IPC> Ctrl/Z 
From an OpenVMS I64 cluster member, pressing Ctrl/P puts the system directly into the IPC facility, which displays help information about IPC commands. To adjust quorum, enter the commands shown in the following example. Note that if systems are booted with XDELTA, pressing Ctrl/P brings the OpenVMS I64 system into XDELTA. The IPC facility is not available in this case.
   $ Ctrl/P 
   Interrupt Priority C
 
   Commands:
 
     C device    Cancel Mount Verification
     Q           Adjust Quorum
     CTRL-Z      Exit IPC
     CTRL-P      Prompt for Crash
   
   IPC> Q
   IPC> Ctrl/Z 

After the shutdown procedure is finished on all nodes, go to Upgrading the OpenVMS Operating System to begin the upgrade procedure.


CautionDuring the upgrade it is very important that the system disk being upgraded is accessed only by the node on which the upgrade is being performed. If the disk can be accessed from other nodes in the cluster, for example, through an HSC or HSJ device, you must ensure that this does not happen. Even if the disk is only mounted and no file access is performed, the disk can still become corrupted.

Ensure that any users who might mount disks know that they must not access the system disk being upgraded. Also make sure that any procedures that might mount the disk do not run during the upgrade. If you have automatic procedures that periodically check and remount disks, it would be wise to disable them during the upgrade.



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