Upgrading and migrating

You can upgrade to PowerVC version 1.4.4 on RHEL 7.7 or later from PowerVC version 1.4.2.x or 1.4.3.x, considering the following:

Note: For release specific technical support information, see Contacting IBM Support.

Notes:

RHEL 8 is currently not supported.
Support for PowerVC installation on ppc64 architecture is being withdrawn.
PowerVC versions 1.4.2.x and 1.4.3.x on ppc64le or x86 can be directly upgraded to PowerVC version 1.4.4. For details on upgrading PowerVC versions 1.4.2.x and 1.4.3.x on ppc64 to PowerVC version 1.4.4, see Migrating PowerVC from ppc64 to pc64le or x86_64.
PowerVC SDI versions 1.4.4 and 1.4.4.1 are supported on RHEL 7.6 ALT.

Before you begin

Review the hardware and software requirements for PowerVC version 1.4.4.
The upgrade is blocked if any POWER6® systems are being managed.
If you have NovaLink based hosts, PowerVC upgrades them to 1.0.0.16. If applicable, PowerVC also updates the PowerVM® NovaLink endpoint. If the NovaLink upgrade fails, verify that your NovaLink repository is up to date or is pointing to the public NovaLink repository.
Note: No updates are needed for NovaLink because PowerVC release 1.4.4.1 supports NovaLink version 1.0.0.16.
Make sure NovaLink key is available on the system before installing or upgrading NovaLink on Ubuntu. For more information, see Updating NovaLink.
Ensure that all compute and storage hosts are up and running before you start the upgrade.
Verify your environment before you start the upgrade to ensure that the upgrade process does not fail because of environment issues.
Ensure that no tasks, such as resizing, migrating, or deploying, are running on the virtual machine when you start the upgrade. Any tasks that are running on the virtual machine during the upgrade will cause the virtual machine to enter an error state after the upgrade is complete.

To upgrade PowerVC and migrate the existing data, complete the following steps at a shell prompt as the root user:

Open a web browser and navigate to the Entitled Software Support Website.
1. Sign in with your IBM ID.
2. Select Software downloads then select the Power (AIX) brand.
3. Select the customer number you want to work with and click Continue.
4. Under 5692-A6P, select the edition of PowerVC that you purchased, and click Continue.
5. Choose to download either the ppc64le or the x86_64 tar file.
Note: If you have not yet registered your IBM ID with a customer number, select Register Customer ID number. If you are the first IBM ID to register your customer number, yours becomes the primary ID. However, if yours is not the first IBM ID with this customer number, you are forwarded to the primary contact, who needs to approve your IBM ID.
Go to the following directory, which contains the extracted install script: <local directory>/powervc-1.4.4.0/
Run the./install command to start the upgrade process. Respond to the system prompts.

Note: You will be prompted to add Cloud PowerVC Manager only if PowerVC Standard was installed originally.
Accept the license agreement.

After the migration process completes, PowerVC version 1.4.4 is installed and any existing data is preserved on the management host. See /opt/ibm/powervc/log for the log data from the process.
It is strongly recommended that you visit Fix Central to download and install any fix packs that are available. For more information, see the Getting fixes from Fix Central topic.

Note:

PowerVC stops any processes as necessary to back up the necessary product data for you. Additionally, if you upgrade your PowerVC system while the user interface is active, you are notified that PowerVC is set to maintenance mode and you cannot use it. After the upgrade has successfully completed, you can access the PowerVC user interface again.
If the upgrade process is interrupted before uninstalling the previous version, then PowerVC remains in the maintenance mode. To regain access, remove /var/www/html/powervc/.htaccess file.