Get Ready To Upgrade

Before you begin the upgrade, consider the following:

• If you are running StorNext 5.x on your system, then use the CLI command cvlabel to convert VTOC labels to EFI labels prior to upgrading to StorNext 6 (or later). Advances in disk arrays have made the 32-bit Volume Table of Contents (VTOC) disk labels obsolete. Modern disk arrays use Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) disk labels capable of supporting physical disks that are larger than 2 TB in size. VTOC labels are not supported in StorNext 6 (or later).

• Not all StorNext releases may be upgraded to a given StorNext release. As a result, an upgrade to the current version of StorNext may require multiple, incremental upgrades, depending on the version of StorNext currently installed.

  For information about supported upgrade paths, consult the StorNext 6 Compatibility Guide. If your system is running a StorNext release prior to the supported upgrade releases for a given StorNext 6 (and later) release, consult an earlier version of the StorNext 6 Compatibility Guide that applies to your specific upgrade, and the dependencies for StorNext Clients in the environment.

• Firmware upgrade installation files must first be acquired from Quantum.

• If you attempt to perform a full backup operation (for example, by using the command snbackup) immediately after upgrading, the backup operation will fail.

  Note: The backup operation fails due to the metadata archive build process, and will not succeed until the metadata archive build is complete. The amount of time required for the metadata archive build to complete depends on the size of the file system (for example, the number of files and directories); however, other file system actions are allowed (for example, adding new files, modifying files, and so on).

  Run the following command to check the status of the metadata archive build process:

  /usr/adic/DSM/bin/cvadmin -F <file_system_name> -e "mdarchive status"

  When the status returns complete, you can perform a full backup operation.

Before upgrading StorNext review the following upgrade guidelines:

Note: This upgrade guide documents supported upgrades to StorNext 6 (and later) only. For customers with older versions of StorNext, consult the StorNext Upgrade Guide that corresponds to the version of StorNext you are upgrading to.

Note: StorNext 6 requires a minimum journal size of 4MB and a recommended size of 64MB. If you have file systems with journal sizes less than the 4MB minimum, you must resize their journals before upgrading to StorNext 6. Use the cvupdatefs utility or the GUI to resize the journal. When the journal is resized, the new size must be 16MB or greater. File systems with journals between 4MB and 16MB will run with StorNext 6, but it is recommended that these file systems have their journal resized to the recommended 64MB.

Note: For non-Windows upgrades, the snPreInstall script must be run prior to install.stornext.

Beginning with StorNext 4.3.0, StorNext uses a MySQL database for information needed internally by Storage Manager.

The MySQL database requires a minimum of 8 GB of RAM.

Before attempting to upgrade from a previous StorNext release, make sure you have free space on the file system. If the file system is nearly full when you begin the upgrade, serious errors may occur or the upgrade could fail. Best practice is to maintain an area on the file system which is not used for data or system files, but is reserved as an empty buffer to ensure that upgrades and other operations complete successfully.

• After a successful upgrade from StorNext 5, you should move the files under /usr/adic/database/metadumps off of the file system or delete the files, as they are no longer used by StorNext 6 and might consume a significant amount of disk space.

  Note: StorNext 6 uses the directory /usr/adic/database/mdarchives to hold external copies of file system metadata.

• Prior to StorNext 6, keeping an external copy of metadata for unmanaged file systems was rarely done because the use cases were very limited. However, beginning with StorNext 6, there are several features that require or benefit when you enable Metadata Archive. These include, but are not limited to the following features:

  • FlexSync

  • Stripe group management (sgmanage)

  • Auditing
  • snhistory
  • snrecover

  Note: If you enable Metadata Archive for non-managed file systems, additional space is consumed on the HA shared file system. The amount is approximately one gigabyte per million files.

StorNext 6 (and later) and later has the following additional disk space requirements:

• Make sure the MDC uses a supported operating system and platform, and if necessary update to a supported release or kernel version before installing StorNext.

  Important

  There is a potential problem with the system clock on Nehalem Intel processors that can cause the clock to jump and temporarily freeze the system. The problem affects RedHat Linux releases 6.0, 6.1, 6.2 and their CentOS counterparts on systems with Intel processor versions identified by the internal codename Nehalem. The fix involves changing the kernel parameters in the grub.conf file.

  Follow the steps below to modify the grub.conf file so that the Intel sleep state is disabled. Making this change could result in increased power consumption, but it helps prevent problems which result in system hangs due to processor power transition.

  1. For the above systems, prior to installation, add the following text to the "kernel" line in /boot/grub/grub.conf:

     grub.conf:idle=poll intel_idle.max_cstate=0 processor.max_cstate=1

     In some cases, performance can also be improved by adjusting the idle kernel parameter. However, care should be taken when using certain values. For example, idle=poll maximizes performance but is incompatible with hyperthreading (HT) and will lead to very high power consumption. For additional information, refer to the documentation for your version of Linux.

  2. Reboot the system for the change to take effect.
• Before upgrading, make sure there is no I/O activity. On the StorNext home page, the number of store candidates should be zero. For tape drives, make sure no media is mounted and no read/write operations are being performed. If there is I/O activity, wait for the I/O activity to complete before upgrading. If you attempt to perform an upgrade during a period of high activity, the upgrade may fail.
• Before upgrading, Quantum recommends reviewing system configuration settings and performing a backup procedure to back up StorNext configuration files.

• Before upgrading, Quantum recommends storing all files.

  Note: If you do not store files prior to upgrading, Quantum recommends running a rebuild policy after the upgrade.

• Before upgrading, Quantum recommends making sure all tape drives are at approved firmware levels. After upgrading, you may not be able to use drives that are not running an approved firmware version.

Caution: As the File System Manager (FSM) supports over 1000 clients (with more than 1000 file requests per client), the resource limits of your MDC may be exhausted with additional load from other processes. Exceeding the file descriptor limit will cause errors to your system. Quantum recommends you not run additional applications on the MDC.

Note: The performance of the storage holding the Storage Manager database and metadata archives has an impact on overall StorNext file system performance. Quantum recommends that the Storage Manager database and metadata archives are stored on high performance storage devices, such as a RAID array. Storing the Storage Manager database on slower storage devices, including local disks, can result in poor performance or time-outs.

Note: The install.stornext script will scan the rpms that are to be installed to ensure that all dependencies will be successfully resolved. Unresolved dependencies will result in a warning from the install.stornext script, and prompt the user to either quit or continue. Continuing without resolving the dependencies may result in system instability or StorNext not being able to operate. It is strongly recommended that the missing dependencies are resolved prior to installing StorNext.

Note: The UIDs for the quantumdb and tdlm users and the adic group must be identical on both nodes of an HA pair. If the UIDs are not identical, the MySQL database will not start (due to file permission errors), which in turn prevents storage manager from fully starting up. Quantum recommends creating the UIDs for the quantumdb and tdlm users along with the adic group on both nodes prior to running install.stornext

Separate licenses are required for different StorNext components (such as File System and Storage Manager) and features (such as Replication, HA and Distributed Data Mover).

Note: Be aware of upgrade-related licensing implications listed in Licensing and Upgrades.

For a list of all the StorNext licenses, see StorNext Licenses.

Disk licensing has been added to StorNext in order to help quantify customers’ configurations. Disk licenses are required on all StorNext Metadata Controllers (MDCs) but may be updated after upgrade. For additional information on disk licensing, see the StorNext Disk Licensing.

Be aware of the following upgrade-related implications and plan accordingly:

• A non-expired Maintenance license is required to perform a StorNext upgrade. This means you must contact Quantum Technical Support for a Maintenance license before you can upgrade StorNext.
• The Maintenance license provided by Quantum Technical Support must be put into place prior to the upgrade, or you will not be allowed to proceed with the upgrade. You can either enter licenses through the StorNext GUI or manually edit the license.dat file.
• You will still be allowed to run StorNext if the Maintenance license expires. However, no future upgrades will be allowed.
• The Maintenance license must remain in place even after expiration to allow the StorNext software to run, because it indicates which version of the software was purchased.
• When you extract client/server .bin files, you must read and accept the StorNext End User License Agreement (EULA).

If you are ready to upgrade and then notice that the Storage Manager capacity has been exceeded, you can follow the procedure below to free up capacity to bring it under the licensed value. These steps will clean up “dead space” on tape media, and do not apply to storage disks.

1. Run the fsmedcopy command with no arguments. Running command generates a report of media and wasted space. The report looks similar to this:

   % fsmedcopy
   ------------------------------------------------------------
   Media Fragmentation Report Thu Feb 4 15:18:14 2010
   Media ID Fill Level Wasted Space
   ------------------------------------------------------------
   000099 10.00 0.00
   000098 30.00 5.00
   000096 70.99 44.98
   000095 0.12 99.65

   The “Fill Level” column displays how full the media is. The “Wasted Space” column indicates how much of the used space is wasted, NOT the percentage of the entire tape.

   Media with high percentages for both values (such as media 000096 in the example) are good candidates for eliminating dead space.

2. For each media you identify as having significant dead space, run this command:

   % fsmedcopy -r <mediaid>

   Note: On a large system, the fsmedcopy report can take a long time to complete. If your site is dynamic (that is, it has a lot of file removes and updates,) you can skip step 1 and just pick media you know are full, and then run the command fsmedcopy -r against those media.

If you are upgrading to StorNext 6 (and later), and you have an existing snsm_was license:

1. Obtain a new license file for your system that includes the new object_storage license.
2. Manually create a staging area for the license update at /usr/cvfs/update/config. Do this on both the primary and secondary nodes in an HA environment.
3. Manually copy in the new license.dat file to /usr/cvfs/update/config. Do this on both the primary and secondary nodes in an HA environment.
4. Upgrade to StorNext 6 (and later) per the applicable procedure.

Upon a successful upgrade, use the StorNext GUI to verify the license object_storage is installed.

Taking into consideration the new licensing procedures, here is a summary of the steps necessary to upgrade to 6 (and later):

1. Obtain the necessary licenses from Quantum Technical Support.
2. Update the license.dat file with a current Maintenance license and any other StorNext component/feature licenses you have purchased.
3. Run the upgrade program as explained in Upgrade non-HA Linux MDCs.
4. Log in to the StorNext GUI.
5. Use the StorNext Configuration Wizard to finish configuring your system.

To upgrade to the StorNext 6 (and later) client software on Linux systems, install the new client software package. There is no need to uninstall previous versions of the client software. For more information about installing the client software on Linux, see the current StorNext Installation Guide.

The steps required to upgrade clients to StorNext 6 (and later) includes the following:

1. Unmount all StorNext file systems.
2. Stopping the cvfs services by running /etc/init.d/cvfs fullstop,
   /sbin/init.d/cvfs fullstop, or some other method.
3. Unpack the new build.
4. Unload and load or upgrade rpm/package/builds.
5. Restart services.
6. Check cvadmin/cvlabel.
7. Mount the StorNext file systems.

Installation and upgrade media is shipped on DVDs. If you plan to install from media, you must have a DVD ROM drive to perform the installation or upgrade. See DVD Directories for information on the directories used on the DVD.

Quantum recommends to clear the browser and cookie cache after upgrading to a StorNext release before logging into the GUI on the upgraded system.

The steps used to clear the cache depend on the browser:

For Google Chrome

1. Click the configuration icon and the Settings option.
2. Click the Show advanced settings option.
3. In the Privacy section, click Clear browsing data.
4. Select the beginning of time option in the Obliterate the following items from menu.
5. Select the Clear browsing history, Empty the cache, and Delete cookies and other... options.
6. Click Clear browsing data.
7. Close the Settings tab.

For Internet Explorer

1. Go to Tools > Internet Options.
2. On the General tab, look in the Browsing History section and click Delete.
3. Select the Temporary Internet Files and Cookies options.
4. Click Delete.
5. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog.

For Mozilla Firefox

1. Click Tools > Clear Recent History. (If this option is not visible, right-click the top of the browser window and select the Menu Bar option).
2. In the Time Range to Clear menu, select Everything.
3. Click Details, and select the Browsing & Download History, Cookies, and Cache options.
4. Click Clear Now.

The upgrade instructions in the following sections are for DVD upgrades. If you download your StorNext installation software from the Web, your steps will be slightly different. You will download an executable program that will require you to accept the StorNext end user license agreement and will then extract the StorNext installer.

Note: If you are performing an upgrade on a single MDC node system using RPM files, see Install a StorNext File System Only Using an RPM.

As part of the installation from a Web download, the software files are extracted into the /tmp/stornext directory by default. The software, when extracted, requires approximately 800 MB of space. Make sure there is enough free space in the default directory to extract the files. If there is not sufficient space, you may need to specify an alternative directory with the -d option.

Note: When selecting install packages to download from the web, observe that the stornext_full directory includes the Storage Manager install packages and the fs_only directory installs the StorNext File System only.

To specify an alternate location before beginning the installation, enter the following command:

where <installation file> is the name of the installation file, and <dir> is the directory into which you want to extract the installation files.