Back in FEBRUARY!!! I posted a request for feedback on
complexity of upgrading from 3.0 to 3.2C in a Decsafe environment.
I'm squimish because of the sizable changes in the ASE from our
current version to the version we need to get to.
This morning Ingeborg Andreassen reminded me that I had not
posed a summary.
I'm VERY embarassed about not posting a summary. A couple of
folks went out of their way to help. Jon Buchanan actually
faxed me a copy of his pre-upgrade checklist, and Peter Flack
from Digital Systems Integration offered to look at our
fail-over scripts. THANKS TO ALL WHO RESPONDED! This list really
is teriffic. Following is a list of those responded, and the
text from each. At the very bottom is my original posting.
We still have not upgraded. We are going to pull in a temporary
system to run production while we upgrade the primary and backup
systems, allowing us to clean up any fail-over problems. Our
fail-over scripts have never worked quite right, although some of
the problems are of our own making. Here are the responses.
====================================================================
From: skoog_at_netcom.com (Jim Skoog)
Sender: Ron Barrett <barrettr_at_u2.corp.cubic.com>
From: Michael Matthews <matthewm_at_sgate.com>
From: "Gernot M. Fuchs" <gfuchs_at_golay.med.unc.edu>
From: Jon Buchanan <Jonathan.Buchanan_at_ska.com>
From: bouchard_l_at_decus.fr (Louis Bouchard - Decylog)
From: "Simon Greaves" <censjg_at_caledonia.hw.ac.uk>
From: flack_at_rtp4me.ENET.dec.com
From: Julie O'Shaughnessy <jab_at_elmo.pgh.wec.com>
Reply-To: Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com
=======================================================================
From: skoog_at_netcom.com (Jim Skoog)
Barbara,
I used to work at DEC. If DEC recommends bringing in someone, do
bring them in. Especially if DECsafe has never worked before and you
are new to system administration. The main benefit to you is they
will take responsibility to make it work properly. They have the
resources and vested interest to do it right. As a rule DEC OSF/1
upgrades are routine.
DEC service: 800 354-9000.
Jim Skoog
=======================================================================
Sender: Ron Barrett <barrettr_at_u2.corp.cubic.com>
Barbara,
An OS upgrade is fairly well documented so that the upgrade itself is
usually pretty easy. Preparation for the upgrade is the very time consuming
part which helps to minimize the chances of problems AFTER the upgrade. DEC
is fine at doing the upgrade itself, it's all the preparation which you'll
have to cover somehow.
Ron
=======================================================================
From: Michael Matthews <matthewm_at_sgate.com>
It isn't always completely smooth. If you aren't comfortable with gettin'
geeky in Unix, it's probably best to let DEC do it. Especially when minimal
downtime is a requirement. Just upgrading the firmware can be challenging.
Little things like /tmp not being a directory or some other little
inconsistency will kill the upgrade. It's usually good about not starting
something it can't finish, but ...
Add DECsafe in there and you really outta have DEC in there. We were trying
that out when it first came out and basically junked it. When it worked, it
was great. But it frequently did not work as expected for us (granted, this
was about a year and a half ago and I hope the product has improved since
then).
> Also, I don't know how to go about getting DEC's services for
> this kind of thing. Anybody know who I should contact?
DEC support should be the POC for that.
=======================================================================
From: "Gernot M. Fuchs" <gfuchs_at_golay.med.unc.edu>
Hello,
Well, I've done an upgrade here going from 2.0 to 3.2C, and it was not that
complicated. Unfortunately, you cannot use upgrade to go from 3.0 to 3.2C I
think, but you have to do a full installation. This requires a full backup of
the original harddisk. Here the downtime of a single system is not that
critical, however the upgrade of the NIS and NFS master server I did at the
weekend at night time.
For me I don't think you might need DEC for a simple system upgrade. How simple
the upgrade will be, depends on how your current file system is organized. I
had most of the local stuff (applications and user data) served by my NFS
server, so all I had to do after the upgrade of the clients, was to reestablish
the NFS links to the local applications and user filesystems.
The whole upgrade from 2.0 to 3.2C took me about 1 hour for the clients and
about 3 hours for the server, not counting in the time for backups and restore,
which strongly depend on the size of your file systems.
I hope this information helps a bit ...
--Gernot
=======================================================================
From: Jon Buchanan <Jonathan.Buchanan_at_ska.com>
Hello Barb,
For a 3000/600, the upgrade shouldn't be too difficult. Harder are
2100's with RAID controllers because of the firmware upgrades. However,
I would strongly recommend you find and read all Read-Me-Firsts, Release
Notes and Installation Guides. It never ceases to amaze me how often
system managers dive into upgrades without checking these first and then
take twice as long sorting out problems that they could have avoided.
Above all, find the Firmware CD and print off the release
notes/installation notes for the upgrades concerning you, including the
Turbochannel upgrade.
On the ASE front, you may hit a problem with the dual SCSI controller.
I seem to recall that when you upgrade the Turbochannel dual controller
firmware, the SCSI ID is reset to 7. On one of your systems you will
probably want to set this to 6. In order to be able to do this you will
probably be better off disconnecting the disks and connecting
terminators (ie, breaking the dual connection). Also check whether the
SCSI speed (fast/slow) remains set as you expect.
Bear in mind that to get to 3.2C you have to upgrade to 3.2 first, then
do all the post-installation actions for 3.2, then set about the upgrade
to 3.2C. I would allow at least a day for the whole thing.
Since I see you've provided a FAX number I'll send you the checklists
that I put together for our environment, but I'm afraid we don't have
ASE in this environment so no specific points for this.
Regards,
Jon Buchanan, Zuerich, Switzerland
========================================================================
From: bouchard_l_at_decus.fr (Louis Bouchard - Decylog)
Hello,
Since you're running DU 3.0, I suppose that your version of ASE is 1.2
I've experienced myself some worries with this version and its successor, 1.2A.
Some of the bugs seem to be fixed in ASE 1.3 which is now shipped with DU 3.2D
If you plan to upgrade your O/S, I would suggest to go to 3.2D since ASE 1.3
allows rolling upgrades which is not possible in ASE 1.2 although some DEC
technicians have told me that it is feasable.
An upgrade from 3.0 to 3.2c will probably require some firmware
upgrade, which is bound to cause problems with ASE since it is very sensible to
version of Firmware on both sides of the "cluster". And I think that you will
have to chain the upgrades. I'm not sure that you can go straight from 3.0 to
3.2c. And 3.2d is a set of patches on 3.2c. In any case, the work is not
simple and if you haven't done it before, you might need some help.
I think that you have to be very carefull in upgrading a member of your
ASE environment. This is only supported in ASE 1.3 Of course the best would
be to do the upgrade on both members together but it might not be possible.
But try to upgrade your ASE to 1.3 it might fix some of your problems.
| Louis Bouchard
=======================================================================
Reply-To: Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com
Regards,
I wouldn't say it's so complicated to upgrade from 3.0 to 3.2C but the
systems we upgraded did not use DECsafe. I would think the safest way to keep
all the vital configuration data is to perform two 'installupdates', one to
3.2 and then from 3.2 to 3.2C. If you do this be aware that scsi devices
might have their names altered (mentioned in the releasenotes or in the
Installation Guide, I don't remember which).
Good Luck :-)
* Knut Helleboe
=======================================================================
From: "Simon Greaves" <censjg_at_caledonia.hw.ac.uk>
I recently upgraded a 200 4/166 alphastation from 3.0b to 3.2C. It took approx
a morning and went without problem, however I didn't need to backup and
re-install any data, I just went for a total clean install after a firmware
upgrade. I think it was very straightforward, but then I didn't have anything
tricky to do, and I have been a unix admin for several years so I knew the
answers to the questions it asked me.
I don't consider moving from 3.0b to 3.2C complex in the slightest, but like I
say I can only speak for myself. If it's a critical system and you aren't
confident with what you're doing, I'd get DEC in to do it and sit in with them
asking lots of questions so you'll have a better idea next time.
Simon
=======================================================================
From: flack_at_rtp4me.ENET.dec.com
Peter Flack
Greetings,
If you have done OSF/1 (now Digital UNIX) upgrades before, then it should not
be too bad - keep in mind that along with upgrading the actual OS, you will
probably have to upgrade the firmware of the system and one or more options
(such as SCSI adapters being used with DECsafe, etc), you should also upgrade
DECsafe (er, ASE) at the same time (V1.2A comes with V3.2C of UNIX). I would
recommend that you actually go ahead and upgrade to V3.2D rather than C - it
is essentially V3.2C with patch kits applied. V3.2D also comes with ASE V1.3
which fixes quite a few problems and provides some nice enhancements. If you
are sqeamish about all these upgrades and changes, then by all means bring in
Digital to do it - of course the fact that I work for Digital...
The group that you would need to call for pricing, quotes, etc is Digital
Systems Integration - you should be able to call the local office in Denver
and get a contact or you should be able to get Digital SI services through your
regular distributor/partner.
What kinds of problems are you having with ASE? I work in SI and do ASE
installtions a lot... They are tricky to get going at first - mainly because
of strict hardware rev level/firmware requirements for ALL components. Close
to 90% of problems I have seen at customer sites have been caused by these
types of issues. If you will send me info on your configuration and details
of your problems, I will try to give you some quick help or at least lead
you in the right direction...
Hope some of this is helpful,
Peter Flack
Digital Systems Integration
========================================================================
From: Julie O'Shaughnessy <jab_at_elmo.pgh.wec.com>
Hi Barb !
I just wanted to point out that, since you are new to UNIX,
a lot of things can go wrong during an upgrade. If you do
hire DEC for a half a day to do it, they also are liable for
any problems which arise. I know this sounds litigious, but
it's better to have somebody else to blame if things go
really wrong.
=======================================================================
--- On Thu, 08 Feb 1996 10:21:06 MST Barb Baker <baker.barb_at_tchden.org>
wrote:
Hi, managers!
We have 2 3000/600 systems running V3.0 They share a
domain using Decsafe that is supposed to fail over in
the event of the primary system going down. (This has yet
to work successfully--we've had MAJOR problems with
Decsafe.) We need to upgrade to 3.2C.
The Alphas are passing patient-critical information
across systems; we require minimum system down time.
I am relatively new to unix system administration. DEC
support has suggested that this upgrade is complex, and we
should seriously consider hiring DEC in to do the upgrade.
(I believe the concern was sincere--I don't think
he was just tring to sell us services.)
For those of you who have been through this upgrade, what is
your opinion? Is it worth bringing DEC in? Any gotchas?
Also, I don't know how to go about getting DEC's services for
this kind of thing. Anybody know who I should contact?
Any ideas, opinions, enlightenment is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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Barbara Baker PHONE: (303) 861-6284
The Children's Hospital FAX: (303) 837-2577
Denver, Colorado Email: baker.barb_at_tchden.org
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Received on Wed Jun 26 1996 - 18:35:31 NZST