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Dell PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 3.x Administration Guide

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Upgrading PowerFlex

Use this procedure to upgrade PowerFlex (including the PowerFlex gateway) with PowerFlex Manager. This procedure is supported on PowerFlex versions 3.0.0 to 3.x.

About this task

Upgrading PowerFlex is a two-step process. First, you upgrade a deployed service's PowerFlex gateway from the Resources page. This allows PowerFlex Manager to upgrade the PowerFlex gateway version. Then it automatically upgrades all the SDSs for all the services that are tied to the Gateway.

The upgrade process performs some health prechecks to confirm that the service is healthy before the upgrade. If the service is not healthy, the PowerFlex gateway upgrade is not successful.

Any nodes that require reconfiguration prior to an upgrade to PowerFlex 3.x are shown in the Needs Attention section of the wizard. If you choose to reconfigure all the nodes, you can proceed with the upgrade process. If you select only a few of the nodes, PowerFlex Manager reconfigures these nodes, but not proceed with the upgrade process until you have reconfigured the remaining nodes. You need to reconfigure all the nodes before you can complete the upgrade process.

After the PowerFlex upgrade completes successfully, the storage-only services are in compliance with the new version. However, the nodes in the services may require additional maintenance. In this case, you must update any services that are non-compliant from the Services page. For more information (including SDC upgrades), see Update PowerFlex appliance nodes.

NOTE:The PowerFlex gateway root file system may over-fill, due to large Localhost_access.log files. To prevent this, refer to https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/541865.

In PowerFlex Manager 3.7, the PowerFlex gateway upgrade includes the OS patch and java patches for the PowerFlex gateway VM.

The compatibility management file facilitates the valid upgrade path. Check the recommended upgrade path:
  • Click Service, and click View Compliance Report.
    • From the Node Compliance Report page, from the Compliance Status, click Change.
    • From the Change Compliance File page, from Preferred Compliance, select the Intelligent Catalog file from the drop-down menu.
    • If the upgrade path is valid, compatibility is displayed as Recommended. The Compatibility would alert you in case the Intelligent Catalog selected is not the valid path with Compatibility status as Not allowed. It gives the details on the recommended and Support version of Intelligent Catalog that is allowed for the upgrade.
    • Click Cancel > Close. Do not change the Intelligent Catalog Compliance on the Service page.
  • Go to Settings Compliance and OS Repositories. Change the Default version to the Intelligent Catalog recommended in the service.

Prerequisites

  • Your system must be at version 3.0.x.x.
  • Ensure all nodes and VMs have working NTP with time synchronized.
  • Ensure that there are no rebuilds and rebalances.
  • Verify that there are no high severity alerts.
  • Ensure that SVMs have sufficient memory and CPU.

  • PowerFlex Gateway requires a minimum of 8 GB memory and 2 vCPUs for upgrading to and running PowerFlex versions 3.0.x.x and later. Verify the PowerFlex gateway memory and update it if required before performing this task.

  • To upgrade the PowerFlex gateway using PowerFlex Manager, manually uninstall any xcache packages currently on the SDS nodes by entering rpm -e EMC-ScaleIO-xcache-3.xxxx.
  • A minimum of 16 GB SVM disk space is required for Intelligent Catalog 35.xx.xxxx.
  • In PowerFlex Manager 3.7, the compatibility management file facilitates the valid upgrade path. Ensure that the valid Intelligent Catalog file is selected in the Default version on Compliance and OS Repositories before initiating the upgrade.
NOTE: PowerFlex Manager expects the LIA password to be the same as the MDM admin and PowerFlex gateway administrator password. PowerFlex Manager will automatically change the LIA password to match the defined MDM/PowerFlex gateway administrator password during future Intelligent Catalog upgrade operations.

Steps

  1. Log in to PowerFlex Manager.
  2. From the menu, click Resources.
  3. On the Resources page, select PowerFlex Gateway resource and click Update Resources.
  4. On the Update Details page, check the Needs Attention section to see whether any of the nodes need to be reconfigured before upgrade. Select any nodes that you want to reconfigure. To select all nodes, click the box to the left of SDS Name.
  5. Click Next.
  6. On the Summary page, choose Allow PowerFlex Manager to perform non-disruptive updates now or Schedule non-disruptive updates to run later.

    Specify the type of update that you want to perform by selecting one of the following options:

    • Instant Maintenance Mode enables you to perform updates quickly. PowerFlex Manager does not migrate the data.
    • Protected Maintenance Mode (PowerFlex 3.5 or later) enables you to perform updates that require longer than 30 minutes in a safe and protected manner.
  7. On the Summary page, choose Allow PowerFlex Manager to perform non-disruptive updates now or Schedule non-disruptive updates to run later.
    NOTE:To verify that the appliance node is ready for a PowerFlex upgrade, check the Needs attention tab. If a node appears in this tab, select the node and click Finish. This ensures that the SVM has the required CPU and RAM capacity.
  8. If you only selected a subset of the nodes for reconfiguration, confirm the reconfiguration by typing RECONFIGURE NODES. Otherwise, confirm the update action by typing UPDATE POWERFLEX.

    If you reconfigured only a subset of the nodes, you need to restart the wizard later to reconfigure the remaining nodes before you can complete the upgrade process.

  9. Click Finish.
  10. Click Yes to confirm. Monitor the job progress. When the upgrade is completed, PowerFlex gateway appears as Compliant with IC.
    If you did not uninstall the xcache packages before beginning the upgrade process, the PowerFlex upgrade fails with this error: Command failed: An installation package of type xcache for rhel7 was not found.
  11. From the Resources page, click Compliant with Default Catalog Report and verify the version.
  12. Go to the Services page to update any nodes that are not in compliance with the new version of PowerFlex. Update nodes in a service from the Service page instead of the Resources page.

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