Upgrading Veritas Access Appliances to version 8.0.100.1

Description

Use these instructions to download and upgrade the Veritas Access 3340 and 3350 Appliances. This patch can be installed on Veritas Access 3340 Appliance version 8.0.100 and on Veritas Access 3350 Appliance version 8.0.100.  Veritas recommends that you install this update to make sure that you have the latest product fixes.

For details about the issues that are fixed in this release, see the Release Update  (https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/Release_Update_8.0.100.1).

About the Veritas Access Appliance upgrade

Veritas Access 3340 and 3350 Appliances support the following upgrade methods:

• Rolling upgrade: Use this method if the Veritas Access Appliance is configured and the appliance nodes are part of the Veritas Access cluster. During a rolling upgrade, each node in the Access cluster is upgraded successively without stopping the Access cluster. Rolling upgrade minimizes the service downtime.
• Full upgrade: Use this method if the Veritas Access Appliance is configured and the appliance nodes are part of the Veritas Access cluster. During a full upgrade, both nodes in the cluster are upgraded and restarted simultaneously. The cluster services are down while the nodes are restarting.
• Node-by-node upgrade: Use this method if the appliance nodes are in factory state.

Downloading the appliance software release updates

Appliance software updates can be downloaded by using the Access Appliance shell menu or manually through a share. Updates must be downloaded to the appliance before you start the upgrade.

• For a rolling or a full upgrade, download the software upgrade package to one of the nodes in the cluster and upgrade the node where the upgrade package is downloaded. The upgrade process
  copies and installs the upgrade package to other nodes in the cluster.
• For a node-by-node upgrade, download the software upgrade package to each node that you want to upgrade.

Downloading software updates directly to an Access Appliance node using the Access Appliance shell menu

Use the following procedure to download the VRTSaccess-app-update-8.0.100.1-1.x86_64.rpm to the appliance node:

1. If not already done so, open an SSH session and log on to the appliance as an administrator using the Access Appliance shell menu.

2. To determine if a software update is available from the Veritas Support website, enter the following command:
   system software available-patch
   The software release update that is available for installation is displayed. Note the name of the software release update package. For example, VRTSaccess-app-update-8.0.100.1-1.x86_64.rpm  

3. To download the available software update, enter the following command:
   system software download-update update-name=update-name 
   where update-name is the name of the software release update package.
   For example:
   system software download-update  update-name=VRTSaccess-app-update-8.0.100.1-1.x86_64.rpm

4. To verify that the software update has downloaded successfully, enter the following command:
   system software downloaded
   The downloaded software update is validated and details such as the patch name, size, and version are displayed.

Downloading software updates to an Access Appliance node using a client share 

Use this procedure to download the software release update to an appliance node using a CIFS or an NFS share. You can download the software update from the Veritas Support website (https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US). On the Veritas Support website click Downloads, which redirects you to the Download Center. You must sign in with your Veritas account credentials to download the release update. See "Download link for Access Appliance software updates".

1. If not already done so, open an SSH session and log on to the appliance as an administrator using the Access Appliance Shell Menu.
    
2. To open an NFS or a CIFS share, enter the following command:
   system software share open
   Note: If you experience a 'time-out' or 'denied' error when mounting the NFS share on your client computer, refer to the Veritas Access 7.3.2 Release Notes (SORT website) for details about how to bring the NFS server online.
    
3. Mount the appliance share directory as follows.
   For a Linux NFS share:

   mkdir -p /mount/Node_management_IP
mount Node_management_IP:/inst/patch/incoming /mount/Node_management_IP
   where Node_management_IP is the IP address that is assigned to eth1 of each node.

   For a Windows CIFS share:
   \\Node_management_IP\incoming_patches
   where Node_management_IP is the IP address that is assigned to eth1 of each node.
   Note: Use the appliance admin user credentials to map a share directory for CIFS.
    
4. Download the upgrade package and the SHA256 checksum.
   •    Release update: Refer to the link in the "Download link for Access Appliance software updates" section to download the release update (VRTSaccess-app-update-8.0.100.1-1.x86_64.rpm) from the Veritas Support website).
   •    SHA256 checksum: Copy the text file that contains the SHA256 checksum. The checksum is displayed when you click the VRTSaccess-app-update-8.0.100.1-1.x86_64.rpm release update.
    
5. Run the following command to compute the checksum of the rpm file:
   sha256sum VRTSaccess-app-update-8.0.100.1-1.x86_64.rpm
   Verify that the SHA256 checksum matches the checksum that you downloaded from the Veritas Support website.
    
6. Copy this release update to the mounted share.
   Note: To avoid any issues, ensure that you do not run commands on the appliance nodes when you copy the update.
    
7. Unmount the shared directory after copying the update.
    
8. Close the NFS and the CIFS shares by using the command:
   system software share close
    
9. List the downloaded files by using the command:
   system software downloaded
   The downloaded update is validated and details such as the patch name, size, and version are displayed.

Upgrading the Access Appliance to 8.0.100.1

• For a rolling upgrade, install the software update on the node where you downloaded the upgrade package.
• For a node-by-node upgrade, install the software update on each node that you want to upgrade.

If you have exported an NFS share, ensure that the NFS server is started before you perform the upgrade.

To install the downloaded software release update, complete the following steps:

1. Use any one of the following options to log in the appliance:
   • Open an SSH session and log on to the appliance as an administrator.
   • Connect to the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) console of the node where you downloaded the software update package.
   Note: The IPMI console is also known as the Veritas Remote Management Console. For details about how to access and use the Veritas Remote Management Console, refer to the Veritas Access Appliance Initial Configuration Guide.
    
2. Log in to the Access  Appliance Shell Menu.
    

3. To install the software release update, run the following command:
   system software install-update update-name=update-name 
   where update-name is the name of the software release update that you want to install.
   A summary of the upgrade changes is displayed and you are prompted for confirmation. Review the details and type yes to continue.

4. Monitor the preupgrade check and check if any Check failed messages are displayed. After the preupgrade check completes, you have the following options:
   • If Check failed messages are not displayed and the preflight check completes successfully, the Pre-flight check finished successfully message is displayed and you are prompted to continue to the next step.
   • If a Check failed message is displayed, the upgrade cannot continue. You must resolve the reported failures, and then install the update again (see step 3) so that the preflight check can verify that the failures have been resolved. For information about how to resolve the reported issues, refer to the technical articles corresponding to the displayed UMI codes (V-409-xxx-xxxx)
    
5. When the following message is displayed and you are promoted for confirmation, type yes to continue:
   This software update requires a reboot of the appliance after the installation process completes. Do you want to continue? (yes/no)
    

6. Specify the type of upgrade when the following message is displayed:
   You can upgrade the cluster by performing a rolling upgrade or a full upgrade. In a rolling upgrade, each node in the cluster is upgraded successively and restarted without shutting down the
cluster. In a full upgrade, both the nodes in the cluster are upgraded and restarted simultaneously.
Enter the upgrade method to use when installing the software update [rolling, full](rolling)

7. To check the upgrade status, run the following command:
   system software upgrade-status
   The details about the completed tasks and the completion status are displayed.
   
   If the upgrade fails at any point in time, error messages and the details about possible solutions are displayed and a rollback operation is initiated automatically. After the rollback is completed successfully, the Completed the rollback operation message is displayed.
   
   If the software update is installed successfully, the following message is displayed:
   Upgrade completed successfully.
   
   To ensure that the appliance is upgraded successfully, run the show appliance status command and verify the Access version and the appliance version.

Viewing logs

The upgrade-related logs are listed below:

• Upgrade logs: /log/upgrade/upgrade_8.0.100.1.log
• Preflight checks: /log/upgrade_log_runtime_data_yyyy_mm_dd
• Software management: /log/app_vxul/409-8-*.log

To collect logs: 

You can collect and upload the logs to an SCP or an FTP server by using the Support> debuginfo command from the Access command-line interface. 

Download link for Access Appliance software updates

Click the following link to download the Access Appliance software version 8.0.100.1 update:

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/downloads/update.UPD232188