Dell PowerStore X model Software Upgrade Guide

Update the PowerStore internal ESXi hosts (PowerStoreOS 2.0.x and later)

1. Identify the primary appliance and the primary and secondary nodes on the primary appliance of the cluster.
   1. In PowerStore Manager, select the Settings icon, and then select Properties in the Cluster section.
   2. Record the name of the appliance in the Primary Appliance field.
   3. Record the name of the primary node in the Primary Node on Appliance field. The other node on the appliance is the secondary (peer) node by default.
2. Identify the primary and secondary nodes of the other appliances in the cluster.
   1. For the other appliances in the cluster, select the Hardware > Appliances > appliance name > Components card in PowerStore Manager.
   2. Select the Internal View tab.
      The text (primary) is displayed next to the primary node of the appliance; the secondary node is the other node. For example, if the text (primary) is displayed for Node B, the secondary node is Node A.
3. Identify the management IP addresses of all the appliances and host nodes in the cluster.
   1. Select Settings > Network IPs in PowerStore Manager.
   2. Record the Management Appliance IP address for of each appliance in the cluster.
   3. Record the Host Node IP address, Appliance name, and Node letter of each node in the cluster.
4. Use the information collected from PowerStore Manager to identify the IP addresses of the ESXi hosts on the primary and secondary nodes of the primary appliance.
5. To upgrade a single-appliance cluster, perform the following steps starting with the ESXi host on the secondary node of primary appliance. To upgrade a multi-appliance cluster, perform the following steps starting with the ESXi host on the secondary node of the non-primary appliances first and the primary appliance last.
6. Put the ESXi host on the secondary node of an appliance in the cluster into maintenance mode.
   1. Log in to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Client.
      To start the vSphere Client from PowerStore Manager, select Compute > vCenter Server Connection and select Launch vSphere.
   2. Ensure that the ESXi host on the other node of the appliance has enough system resources to run the user VMs that are migrated to it when the ESXi host on the secondary node is placed into maintenance mode. If the CPU and memory utilization on each ESXi host is greater than 75%, migrate the VMs to another ESXi host in the vCenter Server using vMotion or power off the user VMs before continuing.
   3. Place the ESXi host on the secondary node of the appliance into maintenance mode.
      User VMs automatically migrate to the other node in the appliance. After all user VMs are migrated, the controller VM automatically shuts down and the ESXi host enters maintenance mode.

      NOTE: Some user VMs may not migrate due to local dependencies or lack of resources. User intervention may be required to manually power off these user VMs to allow the ESXi host to enter maintenance mode. See ESXi and VM considerations (PowerStoreOS 1.0.x to 2.0.x) for more information.

      CAUTION: Do not manually power off the controller VMs, which are named PSTX-<service_tag>-<node_letter>. The controller VMs are automatically powered off when an ESXi host is placed into maintenance mode.

      CAUTION: Do not manually migrate or power off the vCLS VMs on the ESXi hosts. The vCLS VMs are automatically migrated when an ESXi host is placed into maintenance mode.
7. [Upgrades from 2.0.x only] Resize the VMFS datastore on the ESXi host:
   1. Open an SSH client and connect to the management IP address of the appliance that contains the ESXi host that is in maintenance mode.
      NOTE: External SSH management access must be enabled on the appliance.
   2. Enter the username and password of the service account to log in to the appliance.
   3. Run the following service command to resize the VMFS datastore on the ESXi host.

   svc_esxi_helper upgrade

   NOTE: Resizing the VMFS datastore can take over one hour to complete.
8. Reboot the ESXi host on the secondary node of an appliance to update the node firmware and install ESXi updates.
   1. In the vSphere Client, right-click the ESXi host and select Power > Reboot.
      After a few minutes, the status ESXi host should change to Not responding, which indicates that the host is rebooting.

      NOTE: The following alert is displayed in PowerStore Manager while the controller VM is shut down:

      Node has been physically removed or shut down

   2. Monitor the ESXi host reboot.
      NOTE: The ESXi update takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.
      The status changes back to Maintenance Mode after the reboot is complete.
   3. Exit maintenance mode on the ESXi host after the reboot is complete.
      The controller VM should automatically start when the ESXi host exits maintenance mode.
   4. Ensure that the ESXi host and controller VM are operating normally before continuing.
      • Monitor the Protocol Endpoint (PE) paths in vCenter to identify when the paths to the ESXi host are Active before continuing.
      • Monitor the alerts in PowerStore Manager to identify when the node is up. Then, wait 15 minutes after the alert is cleared before continuing.
9. Repeat steps 6 through 8 to update the ESXi host on the primary node of the appliance.
   NOTE: PowerStore Manager temporally stops displaying performance metrics when the primary node of the primary appliance reboots during the ESXi update.
10. Migrate the VMs back to the preferred node in the cluster using vMotion.
11. Repeat steps 6 through 10 to update the ESXi hosts on the nodes of the other appliances in the cluster.