Understanding supported upgrade functions with installation toolkit

Use this information to understand the setups in which upgrade can be done using the installation toolkit.

Scope of the upgrade process

The upgrade process using the installation toolkit can be summarized as follows:

  • The upgrade process acts upon all nodes specified in the cluster definition file (typically using the ./spectrumscale node add commands).
  • All installed/deployed components are upgraded.
  • Upgrades are sequential with multiple passes.

The upgrade process using the installation toolkit comprises following passes:

  1. Pass 1 of all nodes upgrades GPFS sequentially.
  2. Pass 3 of all nodes upgrades NFS sequentially.
  3. Pass 4 of all nodes upgrades SMB sequentially.
  4. A post check is done to verify a healthy cluster state after the upgrade.

As an upgrade moves sequentially across nodes, functions such as SMB, NFS, Performance Monitoring, AFM, etc. undergo failovers. This might cause outages on the nodes being upgraded.

Upgrading a subset of nodes is possible because the installation toolkit acts only on the nodes specified in the cluster definition file. If you want to upgrade a subset of cluster nodes, be aware of the node types and the functions being performed on these nodes. For example, all protocol nodes within a cluster must be upgraded by the installation toolkit in one batch.

Understanding implications of a failed upgrade

A failed upgrade might leave a cluster in a state of containing multiple code levels. It is important to analyze console output to determine which nodes or components were upgraded prior to the failure and which node or component was in the process of being upgraded when the failure occurred.

Once the problem has been isolated, a healthy cluster state must be achieved prior to continuing the upgrade. Use the mmhealth command in addition to the mmces state show -a command to verify that all services are up. It might be necessary to manually start services that were down when the upgrade failed. Starting the services manually helps achieve a state in which all components are healthy prior to continuing the upgrade.

For more information about verifying service status, see mmhealth command and mmces state show command.

If an upgrade using the installation toolkit fails, you can rerun the upgrade. For more information, see Upgrade rerun after an upgrade failure.