How to use Install Bundles to simplify Storage Foundation (SF) and Storage Foundation HA (SFHA) installations and upgrades for 6.2.x

Article: 100038516
Last Published: 2015-07-09
Ratings: 3 0
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation

Description

Using Install Bundles to Simplify Storage Foundation HA Install and Upgrade for 6.2.x

The Install Bundles feature was originally introduced with the 6.0.5 and 6.1 Storage Foundation High Availability (SFHA) releases on Unix/Linux.  This feature makes it possible to install combinations of SFHA Base, Maintenance and Patch releases in one operation. 

This article describes multiple scenarios in which Install Bundles can be used to simplify the SFHA installation and upgrade process:

  • Installing or upgrading SFHA directly to a Maintenance Release (MR) level
  • Installing or upgrading SFHA with one or more Patch releases
  • Expanding OS Minor version support for existing SFHA releases
  • Using the Deployment Server to manage release images and define Install Bundles

 

Installing or upgrading SFHA directly to a Maintenance Release level

Many Storage Foundation (SF) users prefer to have Maintenance Release (MR) levels running on their production systems for added stability. However, nobody wants the burden of having to perform two separate operations (Base release, then the MR release) to install or upgrade systems to their desired level. 

Now, using the Install Bundles feature, SF/SFHA can be installed, or upgraded, directly to MR level release versions in a single operation. Installing, or upgrading, directly to an MR level is performed by executing the installmr script of the Maintenance Release (MR) with an argument that points to the path of the Base Release software.  The following 6.0.5 example demonstrates the use of the –base_path argument to install or upgrade systems directly to SFHA version 6.0.5 in one step:

#./installmr system1 system2 -base_path /<path_to_6.0.1_release_image>


If the designated systems do not have the base Storage Foundation HA software installed, the installmr script will allow the user to specify the required product, package set, and configuration options for the base SFHA 6.0.1 release and the subsequent 6.0.5 software repositories locations in a single operation.

If the designated systems have the base version of Storage Foundation HA software installed (i.e. 6.0.1 in this instance), the product will be upgraded to 6.0.5 and the Storage Foundation software stack is stopped and started only once.

The same procedure can be used to install or upgrade the SFHA 6.1 and 6.1.1 releases together. The feature can also be used for SFHA 6.2 and higher.

 

Installing or upgrading SFHA with one or more Patch releases

Users may wish to qualify SFHA in their environment at a release level which includes one or more Patch releases.  Once this software level is qualified for production, these users are burdened with multiple install operations to deploy the software.

Using the –patch_path arguments (previously named –hotfix_path in versions prior to 6.2), enables the Install Bundles feature to be used to install one or more Patch releases along with a Base or Maintenance release (MR):

#./installer system1 system2 -patch_path /<path_to_patch_image#1>  -patch2_path /<path_to_patch_image#2>  -patch3_path /<path_to_patch_image#3>



In the above example, the 6.2 release will be installed or upgraded along with the three designated Patch releases.  Up to five patches can be included in a single Install Bundles operation.  All bundled Patch releases must be applicable to the same Base or Maintenance release (MR) version and same platform. 

The –base_path argument and –patch_path arguments can be used in combination to install or upgrade to a patched Maintenance Release (MR) level.

 

Expanding OS Minor version support for existing SFHA releases

Storage Foundation HA can only be tested and supported on operating system levels distributed before the time of its release.  New OS minor versions will inevitably be released shortly after. 
The SFHA installer would block installation on this version assuming the software is not supported.

For example, when SFHA 6.1 was released, the most current RHEL version was 6.4. When RHEL 6.5 was later released, it was discovered that patches were required in order for SFHA 6.1 to be supported on RHEL 6.5.  The sfha-rhel6.5_x86_64-6.1.0.200 patch was created for this purpose. 

Install Bundles can be used to install the initial release and the required patch in one operation in order to deploy SFHA on new OS minor versions.
 

In the following example, the SFHA 6.1 installer is executed with a pointer to the expanded sfha-rhel6.5_x86_64-6.1.0.200 Patch release image.  When executed using Install Bundles, the block on RHEL 6.5 does not occur:

#./installer system1 system2 -hotfix_path /<path_to_platform_support_patch>

 

Using Install Bundles with Patch Releases allows Veritas to enable new OS minor version support much more quickly and easily than creating and delivering a full Platform Release. The CPI installer -hotfix_path argument has been replaced with the -patch_path argument with product releases 6.2 and above.

Note: Private hot-fixes are not made "CPI ready" as standard practice, however, can be adapted to work with the CPI interface depending on the specific use case and demand.


 

Sample syntax with adapted private hot-fix patches:

During the life of a product release, the CPI installer may require changes to its original design and hence the creating of CPI installer fixes. Visit the SORT website to obtain updated CPI installer fixes.

https://sort.veritas.com/patch/patch_lookup

The user can then specify "cpi" in the Patch Lookup box, or alternatively check for specific fixes related to a specific release train

https://sort.veritas.com/patch/finder

The following example, specifies the requirement to specify a CPI installer patch, along with the directory for the base software repository and related paths to a series of private hot-fixes:

# ./installmr viper -require /CPI-patch/patches/CPI_6.2.1_P10.pl -base_path /6.2/dvd1-sol_sparc/sol10_sparc -hotfix_path /tmp/fs621_103/ -hotfix2_path /tmp/vm_621008/

 

A "CPI ready" (enabled) patch will contain a scripts directory. The scripts directory does not exist, the patch cannot be installed using the CPI interface.

Example:

# cd /vm_621008/scripts
 
# ls -al
total 368
drwxr-xr-x   6 125      119          437 Jun 29 10:46 .
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root         488 Jun 29 10:56 ..
drwxr-xr-x   3 125      119          753 Jun 29 10:46 CPIC
drwxr-xr-x   6 125      119          425 Jun 29 10:46 CPIP
drwxr-xr-x   2 125      119          183 Jun 29 10:46 Deploy
drwxr-xr-x   6 125      119         1332 Jun 29 10:46 EDR
-rw-r--r--   1 125      119       131626 Jun 29 10:46 VRTSvxvm621P008.pm

In this instance, the Solaris 10 SPARC private hot-fix for Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) 6.2.1.008 was released as a special "CPI ready" patch, so the hot-fix could be installed along with the 6.2 base release and related MR patches.

 

Using the Deployment Server to manage release images and define Install Bundles

Beginning with the SFHA 6.2 release, the Deployment Server performs the following tasks to make Install Bundles deployment much easier to manage:

  1. MR and Patch release images can be automatically downloaded and stored in a repository.  Base release image files can be loaded into the repository
  2. The repository can be used to manage and organize a large number of releases that span platforms, versions, and release type
  3. The set of releases installed together in an Install Bundle can be defined and named
  4. Installation of a pre-defined Install Bundle can be executed from a simple menu option instead of many lengthy command line options

 
 

Install Bundles Support Summary 

To summarize, the benefits of using Install Bundles to install or upgrade SFHA software include:

  1. A combination of Base Release, Maintenance Release, and Patch Release levels can be installed in a single operation
  2. The SFHA software stack is stopped and started only once during an upgrade
  3. Expanded  support for new OS Minor Versions
  4. The combination of Base, Maintenance, and Patch releases installed together can easily be defined, stored, and deployed using the Deployment Server

 

Install Bundles can be used to install the 6.0.1 and 6.0.5 releases together, however incorporating Patch releases with Install Bundles is not supported with version 6.0.5.  From SFHA version 6.1 forward, Install Bundles are supported with the following release level combinations:

  1. Base + MR
  2. Base + Patch
  3. MR + Patch
  4. Base + MR + Patch
  5. Multiple Patches
     

Other Install Bundles support items include:

  • Up to five patches can be included in a single Install Bundle operation 
  • Install Bundles also can be executed in an automated manner using the -responsefile option
  • Install Bundles is supported with Rolling Upgrade functionality
  • Install Bundles functionality is supported with the SFHA Web Installer

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