Upgrade to Version 22

The following topics explain how to upgrade to BrickStor Version 22.

Please contact support for specific upgrade instructions if you are upgrading from version 18.12 or prior.
If you have Replication enabled, upgrading to Version 22 requires additional configuration. The Replication feature in this version has been significantly improved and is referred to as Replication 2.0. An upgrade requires re-establishing the peering relationship between nodes, and additional support has been added for HA configurations. Please review the options in this guide that are specific to your use case.
For HA Clusters or BrickStors that are running Replication, it is recommended to use the latest BrickStor SP Manager rather than the legacy myRack Manager client. The latest software can be downloaded from https://support.racktopsystems.com.
If your BrickStor is in an air-gapped network or otherwise unable to download the latest version from the public internet, you can request a download link at https://support.racktopsystems.com or by emailing support@racktopsystems.com.

Upgrading a Single Node BrickStor using MyRack Manager

  1. Download the System OS Update using myRack Manager by selecting the download icon next to the available version in the System tab. Once downloaded, click the "thumbs up" icon to choose the version to run at next boot.

  2. In the Changes pane, schedule the reboot to occur at the desired time or immediately and commit.

Download and Activate the OS version

in upgrade myrack

Schedule Reboot and Commit

in upgrade myrack commit

Upgrading a Single Node BrickStor using the latest BrickStor SP Manager

The latest BrickStor SP Manager can be downloaded from https://support.racktopsystems.com

  1. Connect the latest BrickStor SP Manager to your appliance. If your version is a major version or more behind, you will be presented with a choice of upgrading or downloading the current version of the UI from your BrickStor.

  2. Choose Manage OS Version to perform the upgrade.

Manage OS Version from newer UI

up upgrade newer

  1. Choose the version to download by clicking the Download link.

  2. Once downloaded, click the "play" icon to activate at next boot.

  3. Commit the change in the Changes pane.

Downloading OS version

up upgrade download

Activating OS version

up upgrade activate

Commit OS Upgrade Change

up upgrade commit

Upgrading a BrickStor Peer Set with Replication

If you are upgrading a BrickStor that is replicating to another, it is recommended to upgrade the destination system first. The latest version of Replication is backward compatible. Once both systems are upgraded and peering relationships have been created, the improved transport and queuing features will be enabled.
For the new features of Replication 2.0 to work, an HTTP peer must be created. The HTTP peer relationship will trigger a migration process on the replication destination BrickStor containing your replicas. The replica naming and organization will be modified. From the new Replication tab in Brickstor SP Manager you can configure and monitor the service.

  1. Upgrade the destination node with myRack Manager or download the BrickStor SP Manager from https://support.racktopsystems.com. If this is a non-HA configuration, refer to the instructions for single nodes at the beginning of this guide.

  2. Upgrade the source node using the same procedure.

  3. On the System tab, under “Peers” click the “+” and add a peer using the destination’s hostname or address. Use the same IP address or host name for existing replication targets. Replication will resume with the last common snapshot using the upgraded service.

  4. Remove previous replica targets from each dataset you want to replicate.

  5. Add new Replica containers for each source dataset. Replication will resume from the last common snapshot. If you see any errors, the service will retry every 15 minutes. If after a reasonable amount of time you still have errors, please contact support.

Upgrading a BrickStor HA Cluster

To simplify the upgrade process of an HA cluster, it is recommended to use the latest version of BrickStor SP Manager. Download it first from https://support.racktopsystems.com.

  1. Using the latest BrickStor SP Manager fail over all resource groups to one node and disable the node you wish to upgrade.

  2. Upgrade the disabled node using the same instructions above.

  3. Upgrade your active node. BrickStor SP Manager will prompt you to fail over before reboot.

Establishing Replication Between HA Clusters

Replication 2.0 now supports replicating to an HA cluster through the resource group. This will allow replication to continue operating even after a fail over. You only need to peer once to the resource group; The BrickStor OS will coordinate sharing keys between the cluster nodes.

For more information on this topic, see the Replication section of this guide.