Some questions about the procedure to upgrade PP 5.5/5.7 to 6.0 on Windows

aiyamaya - thanks for your post. Here are some initial answers to your query:

1. The Guide said: "Download the latest version of EMC Reports, available on EMC Online Support, and then run the PowerPath Configuration Checker (PPCC)."  I am understanding that this is to collect system information but don't know how the output of this PPCC will affect the upgrade?

PowerPath configuration checker (PPCC) analyzes the EMC reports (grab) output and then identifies any missing or out of rev components that could affect the upgrade. It's always a good idea to run PPCC before making any changes to your PowerPath environment.

2. The Guide told to "Uninstall any PowerPath hot fixes on the host", but didn't say to uninstall old version PP. Does this mean it is unnecessary to uninstall old version PP and new version PP can be installed directly? If yes, is it necessary to reboot the server before install new PP? If not, which means I need to uninstall old one, and install new one, is it necessary to have a reboot between the uninstall and install?

In most cases you do not need to uninstall older 5.7 or 5.5 versions to upgrade to PowerPath 6.0 See https://support.emc.com/docu56540_PowerPath-Family-for-Windows-6.0-Release-Notes.pdf?language=en_US p. 20 for more information

3. Is it necessary to have a reboot after installing new PP before verifying the upgrade?

You should reboot after upgrading PowerPath to 6.0 and then verify the upgrade.

Anybody's help will be greatly appreciated.

Bob

Hi aiyamaya

1) As Robert mentioned, PPCC checks to see if your host can have its version of PP upgraded. The command "ppcc.exe -i -V " then can be run to generate the output (simple html file). The command says "i want PPCC to analyze and check if i can upgrade PP to " Please note that is the version you want to upgrade to and PPCC wants 3 digits not just to 2 (i.e 6.0.0). Generally, if the current version of PP is running normally, the version you want to upgrade to should also work normally.

2) What the guide is referring to are actual patches. The last version of PP that had a patch released was 5.5 (P01). However, subsequent versions released (i.e. 5.5 SP1, 5.7 SP2, etc) do not have patches and they can be upgraded directly. If you do have a host that has PP 5.5 installed, please check that the patch is not installed (add/remove programs), you will see another line underneath 5.5 version saying something like "patch p01" (please do not confuse 5.5 SP1 for a patch, this is a full release and not a patch).

3) For every uninstallation/installation of PowerPath, it is required to reboot he host to complete the action. It is not a matter of "should" but rather "must" and because of that, you need to schedule downtime/maintenance.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

P.S. To generate the EMCreport go to:

ftp://ftp.emc.com/pub/emcgrab/Windows/

Andres