Upgrading

The following topics explain how to upgrade the BrickStor SP for single-node and cluster configurations.

Upgrading from a version 23.4 and older will result in all TDM enabled datasets to be in an error state and inaccessible until the manual conversion is done. See Upgrading TDM Datasets section to find out if this affects you and how to perform this conversion.
Release 23.7 marks the full production release of Hub, BrickStor SP’s new web-based management and administrative interface. Hub was available as a preview in 23.6 and has since been expanded in depth to cover all major areas of functionality. The legacy BrickStor SP Manager GUI for Windows is deprecated and will no longer be available in release 23.8. For more information about Hub, see https://www.myracktop.com/docs/bsr-sp/23-7/hub-guide/index.html

Prerequisites

Export Encryption Keys

It is essential to export encryption keys before upgrading your BrickStor SP if the system has any of the following:

  • TDM datasets

  • Dataset encryption

  • Self-Encrypting Drives (SED)

Follow the steps below to export encryption keys for safekeeping should data become locked during the upgrade process.

  1. Navigate to the Encryption Tab.

  2. Click the Resync Encryption Keys with Peers Button. Click commit.

  3. Click the Export All Encryption Keys button.

  4. Enter a password used to encrypt key export file and click the Export All Keys button.

    This password must be recorded in a password manager or printed. If lost, the exported key data will be unusable.

  5. A Windows File Explorer window will open prompting to choose where to save the key export file. Choose the desired location and Click the Save button.

Upgrading (standalone system)

The following steps demonstrate the upgrade process for a single, standalone BrickStor SP system.

Be sure to plan a maintenance window accordingly for the system reboot.
Be sure the prerequisites are met before beginning the upgrade process. See Prerequisites for more information.
If at any point the upgrade process is inhibited, contact the support team.

  1. Connect to the desired system using the Windows BrickStor SP Manager.

  2. Navigate to the System Tab. Click Upgrade OS/Manage Versions.

  3. In the OS Upgrade Screen, navigate to the new version. Click the Download icon to the right of the release version of the desired upgrade.

  4. Once downloaded, click the Play icon to activate after system is rebooted.

  5. Click Reboot.

  6. A window will present on the right-side of the screen showing the active changes to the system. This will display the changes that will occur to the system when rebooting. Click the checkbox to acknowledge the warning.

  7. Commit the changes.

Once the system has rebooted, it can be managed via the Hub UI using the web browser. See Post-Upgrade Tasks.

Upgrading (High Availability)

The following steps will outline the upgrade process of the BrickStor SP High Availability (HA) cluster:

Be sure to plan a maintenance window accordingly for a possible service interruption.
Be sure prerequisites are met before beginning the upgrade process. See Prerequisites for more information.
If at any point the upgrade process is inhibited, contact the RackTop support team.

  1. Connect to the desired system using the Windows BrickStor SP Manager. If possible, begin upgrading the node without any resource groups first.

  2. Navigate to the HA Tab.

  3. Disable cluster auto-failover to prevent unwanted resource failover during the upgrade process. Click the Auto Fail-over dropdown and select Auto fail-over disabled.

  4. Navigate to the System tab. Click Upgrade OS / Manage Versions.

  5. In the OS Upgrade Screen, navigate to the new version. Click the Download icon to the right of the release version of the desired upgrade.

  6. Once downloaded, click the Play icon to activate after system is rebooted.

  7. Click Reboot.

  8. A window will present on the right-side of the screen showing the active changes to the system. This will display the changes that will occur to the system when rebooting. Click the checkbox to acknowledge the warning.

  9. Commit the changes.

  10. A prompt will ask if you want to migrate resources and disable node. Click Yes.

    Migrating resource groups can result in a brief service interruption.

  11. After rebooting, navigate to the IP address of the upgraded node using a web browser and log to Hub UI with the same administrator credentials.

  12. Navigate to System → HA and click on the newly upgraded node.

  13. Click Enable on the side panel before upgrading the next cluster node.

Repeat the steps above on the other node in the cluster. Once all cluster nodes are upgraded, follow the steps below to enable Auto fail-over.

  1. Navigate to the IP address of any cluster node using a web browser and log in to Hub UI with the same administrator credentials.

  2. Use the side menu to navigate to System → HA.

  3. Click on the Cluster object.

  4. Click on Configure Failover and Timeouts on the side panel. The Configure Cluster dialog will open.

  5. In the Auto Move Resource Groups section, select Move resources and disable node.

  6. Click Apply.

Post-Upgrade Tasks

Your system is now running the latest OS version and you’ve successfully connected to Hub. Take these important steps to ensure the optimal operation:

  1. System Health Check

    1. Verify all components are running smoothly.

    2. Confirm core functionalities are working as expected.

  2. Explore New Capabilities

    1. Discover powerful new features and learn to navigate Hub by reviewing the RackTop Hub Local Guide using the following link: https://www.myracktop.com/docs/bsr-sp/23-7/hub-guide/index.html

    2. Review the change logs to see what’s new in the latest release using the following link: https://www.myracktop.com/docs/bsr-sp/23-7/release-notes/index.html.

Witness Upgrade Procedure (Windows)

The following steps will outline the process to upgrade the HA service on the witness:

  1. Log in as administrator.

  2. Enter the IP of a BrickStor SP appliance into an internet browser search bar. This will take you to the Hub login page. Log in with administrator credentials.

  3. Click the Profile icon in the top right corner of the page. Select Downloads from the dropdown menu.

  4. Download the updated HA Witness Binaries.

  5. Navigate to Windows Services menu and locate RackTop High Availability Service.

  6. Right-click on the RackTop High Availability service and click Stop to stop the service from running.

  7. Navigate to the location of the downloaded Ha Witness Binaries .zip file using Windows File Explorer.

  8. Extract the .zip file using default system processes.

  9. Right-click and copy the new hiavd.exe file.

  10. Navigate to the location of the old hiavd.exe on the system. This can be found by right clicking on the service in the Windows Services menu and selecting Properties. The Path to executable will be the location of the service.

  11. Paste the new hiavd.exe in the path noted in the previous step.

  12. Confirm the replacement of the file.

  13. Navigate to Windows Services menu and locate RackTop High Availability Service.

  14. Right-click on the RackTop High Availability service and click Start to reenable the service.

Verify the cluster is healthy using the following steps:

  1. Navigate back and log into Hub. Select System on the side menu.

  2. Select HA on the sub menu to navigate to the HA page.

  3. Verify the cluster is healthy and in a Ready state.

Confd Upgrade Procedure (Windows)

The witness binaries mentioned below were downloaded in the Witness Upgrade Procedure (Windows). The following steps will outline the process to upgrade confd service on the witness:

  1. Using Windows Services, navigate to RackTop etcd Cluster 00 Service and click Stop to stop the service from running.

  2. Using Windows File Explorer, navigate back to the location of the downloaded witness binaries and locate the confadm.exe and confd.exe files. Right click and copy both files.

  3. Navigate to C:\Program Files\RackTop\BrickStor\confd\00 and paste the previously copied files. Confirm the replacement of the old versions of the file.

  4. Using Windows Services, navigate to RackTop etcd Cluster 00 Service and click Start to reenable the service.

  5. Open a command prompt and run cd C:\Program Files\RackTop\BrickStor\confd\00 to navigate to the running instance of confd.

  6. Run confadm member show all from all nodes and the witness to ensure they are all communicating.

Upgrading TDM Datasets

With releases 23.6 and newer, TDM now uses a new file metadata format. As a result, TDM enabled datasets in versions 23.4 and older must be manually converted after upgrading to ensure continued TDM operation.

To find out if your system contains TDM enabled datasets, jump to the List TDM Enabled Datasets section.

The upgrade/conversion process is done by using the tdmadm CLI utility. This allows users to upgrade a single or all datasets. When a dataset is not provided, it will default to all.

Throughout the upgrading process, tdmadm systematically generates periodic snapshots, enabling users to revert a dataset to its initial state should any issues arise. These checkpoint snapshots are set to expire after a duration of 24 hours, yet their validity can be prolonged by utilizing the --snap-expiry-days option.

The duration of an upgrade process is contingent solely upon the quantity of files stored within the dataset; the size of data in bytes does not impact the duration of the upgrade process. tdmadm Dry-run can be used to get an estimate how long the conversion process will take.

List TDM Enabled Datasets

To list TDM enabled datasets, type the following command into the Command Line and press Enter.

If the command does not output anything, your system does not have any TDM enabled datasets and nothing needs to be done.
Example 1. Syntax
tdmadm dataset list
System with 2 TDM enabled datasets
$ tdmadm dataset list
p00/global/data4        (1-11788394248038055233-11584324033856530000-0)
p00/global/data (1-11788394248038055233-12001546602885682788-0)

Dry-run

A dry-run simulates the upgrade process without making any changes. This provides users insight as to how long the upgrade may take.

This operation requires TDM services to be stopped. Stop TDM services using the following command: svcadm disable -t tdmd tdmfopsd
Example 2. Syntax
tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile [progress log file path] --dry-run [dataset path]
Example 3. Specific dataset p00/global/data
tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile /tmp/tdm-up-data.log --dry-run p00/global/data
Example 4. All datasets
tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile /tmp/tdm-up-data.log --dry-run
When finished, start TDM services using the following command: svcadm enable tdmd tdmfopsd

Upgrading All TDM Datasets

The following steps will upgrade All TDM enabled datasets after upgrading a system to 23.6. To upgrade dataset(s) selectively see Upgrading Specified TDM Dataset section.

Example 5. Syntax
tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile [progress log file path]

  1. Stop TDM services

    1. svcadm disable -t tdmd tdmfopsd

  2. Begin upgrade for all TDM datasets

    1. tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile /tmp/tdm-up-data.log

  3. Start TDM services

    1. svcadm enable tdmd tdmfopsd

Upgrading Specified TDM Dataset

The following steps will upgrade a specified TDM dataset after upgrading a system to 23.6.

Example 6. Syntax
tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile [progress log file path] [dataset path]

  1. Stop TDM services

    1. svcadm disable -t tdmd tdmfopsd

  2. Begin upgrade for a specified dataset

    1. tdmadm dataset upgrade --logfile /tmp/tdm-up-all.log p00/global/data

  3. Start TDM services

    1. svcadm enable tdmd tdmfopsd