How to upgrade a Workload Environment on PureApplication Platform

Originally posted on IBM Developer blog “Exploring PureApplication System, Software Service and more” by Krishna Moorthy Venkataraman on 3 December 2018 (1373 visits)

Introduction

This Blog post is relevant for clients using Workload Environments on PureApplication platform. A Workload Environment is an isolated instance of PureApplication Software that runs on a Virtual Manager Cloud Group. In this blog post, we will explain how to perform an upgrade of the firmware version of a Workload Environment on the PureApplication Platform. Effectively this implies an upgrade to a newer version of PureApplication Software that is installed within that Workload Environment. In particular, upgrading Workload Environments from 2.2.3 or 2.2.4 to 2.2.5 requires a number of additional steps to be completed towards the end of the upgrade process.

Before you begin

Not every version of PureApplication Software is supported on every version of the underlying (physical) PureApplication Platform. Please refer to the table below to confirm your upgrade plans are valid.

PureApplication Platform	PureApplication Software of Workload Environment	Supported?
2.2.3.1	2.2.3.1	Yes
2.2.3.1	2.2.4.0	Yes
2.2.3.1	2.2.5.1	No
2.2.3.1	2.2.5.2	No
2.2.4.0	2.2.4.0	Yes
2.2.4.0	2.2.5.1	No
2.2.4.0	2.2.5.2	No
2.2.5.1	2.2.5.1	Yes
2.2.5.1	2.2.5.2	Yes
2.2.5.2	2.2.5.2	Yes

Download the fixpack for IBM PureApplication Software

You should be able to download the appropriate fixpack for IBM PureApplication Software from IBM FixCentral. Note that your IBMid account needs to be associated with an IBM Subscription and Support contract for IBM PureApplication Software. The links below will take you directly to a number of popular fixpacks:

Note: Each fixpack contains two files that need to be downloaded (.ifp and .chksum). You will have to make sure to make both files available to PureApplication Software in the Workload Environment you intend to upgrade!

Prerequisites

Root password of the Operating System hosting the PureApplication Software installation of the corresponding Workload Environment.
Please ensure that the underling (physical) PureApplication Platform is 2.2.5.x before you proceed with an upgrade of the Workload Environment 2.2.5!
Admin Privileges account for IBM Pureapplication Software.
There is no need to have IBM CE (ibmeng) access for the upgrade.
Enable Maintenance Mode on the Workload Environment you are about to upgrade https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSL5ES_2.2.5/intel/iwd/aat_maintenance_mode.html
Downloaded copy of the IBM PureApplication Software fixpack you need

Performing the upgrade

1. Logon with a user that has full administrative permissions within Workload Environment.

2. Add the fixpack to the PureApplication Software installation. Navigate to System > System maintenance and click Add a fix pack. Make sure the .chksum file is also present on the source with the .ifp file.

3. When completed, you should see the new fix pack appear in the list as shown below.

Note: If the Upload fails go to System > Job queue, find the failed job called “fix packs create” and review the errors.

4. It is a best practice to ensure that the PureApplication Software environment is healthy before you start the upgrade. Navigate to System > System Troubleshooting and select System Health Report. Note – This is on PureApplication Software environment.

5. After the Upload the successful and complete. Before you launch the upgrade. Verify the health status of the Pureapplication Software workload enviornment. Navigate to System > System Maintance and click Check as shown below.

6. After the Check completes it will Result if it passed or failed system health for upgrade. If the system health check “fails” Please click on the icon highlighted in yellow below to determine the cause of failure.

Here is an example of an error message:

If your check was successful, you should see the result shown below. Note the green checkmark, you are now ready to apply the fixpack to upgrade your Workload Environment.

7. You can now start the fixpack installation by clicking Update System as shown below.

A window will appear, click OK to proceed with the upgrade.

8. You will be shown the license agreement. Click Accept to start the upgrade.

9. The upgrade should take about 45 to 120 minutes to complete. You can track the progress by monitoring the logs in /var/log/pureapp_software or run the command “psm info all” to verify all the services are up after the upgrade is complete.

Additional steps when upgrading to 2.2.5.1 or higher

PureApplication Software 2.2.5 has introduced support for running multiple Workload Environments within a single Virtual Manager Cloud Group. In prior versions, every Workload Environment required its own dedicated Virtual Manager Cloud Group. To facilitate this, each data store used within a Virtual Manager Cloud Group is now mapped to one specific Workload Environment. So when upgrading from 2.2.4.0 or earlier to 2.2.5.1 or higher, you must manually configure this after the upgrade of the Workload Environment.

To map a data store of the PureApplication Platform to a particular Workload environment, each Workload Environment needs to be given a unique name first. This name must be unique across all Workload Environments on that particular (physical) PureApplication Platform. This is called the “System Unique Name”, which in turn must be mapped to each data store used by that Workload Environment on PureApplication Platform.

1. Configuring “System Unique Name” within Workload Environment.
Navigate to System > System settings and expand “Customize Name”. Here you will find the System Unique Name, change it to something that is unique as explained earlier.

2. Mapping data stores of Workload Environment within PureApplication Platform
While logged onto the PureApplication Platform interface, navigate to Cloud > Volumes and identify each of the the volumes associated with the particular Workload Environment you upgraded. For each volume, select it and look for the field Associate System. Change that to match the System Unique Name you configured for this Workload Environment earlier.

Select a Volume and scroll down and you will a field Associate System and enter the hostname.

3. Run Discovery within Workload Environment.
Go to Hardware –>Storage Resources and click the “discover” icon shown below.

4. Repeat steps 1,2 and 3 for each Workload Environment that you upgraded.