[Info-vax] Upgrade to 8.4

[Kerry Main]

Here are some best practices which can apply to any platform upgrade:

OpenVMS V8.4 has had a number of maint fix updates since its release back in 2010. I would make sure to apply the latest Update kit + post update fixes as applicable to your environment. Ensure you have these fixes downloaded and locally accessible before starting the upgrade. Since HP changed its support policy, you need a contract to get these patches.

One should always (ok, within reason) follow the release notes, so if they recommend copying common files back, then I would do so.

With respect to Integrity servers, the licensing of the OS changed in V8.4 (per core to socket for some newer servers). Reference:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/ovmslicensing/openvms_licensing_information.html 

Since this is prod, in addition to doing the normal full backup of everything beforehand (and ensuring backups are moved off-site), you may also consider doing an image backup of the system disk for each system and upgrading the new system disk. In this way, you not only have a fully defragged system disk (which may not have been done for a long while), but you also have a hot local backup if something goes badly and you need to get the old system environment back up quickly. Just remember the console default boot file/pointer may have to be updated if you change the system disk location. Also be aware to check if there are any start-up or app references to a physical system disk (these physical references should always be changed to a logical btw)

You likely are already planning this, but typically you would also have the app teams ready to do prelim testing of the important app's (including testing external interfaces, printing, remote access etc.) after your own post-upgrade testing is complete, but before releasing the system back to end users.

Remember to review beforehand any potential compatibility and/or support issues with LP's and/or third party software packages - especially if using a third party backup package or TCPIP package like Multinet or TCPware.

Remember to check licenses of third party packages to ensure they are not tied to a specific system version.

Remember to check support utilities e.g. Availability Manager, WEBES etc. These may need upgrades as well.

Remember to check firmware compatibility - it might be good time to upgrade the server firmware as well. If under contract, check with Cust Service.

If under contract, check with the HP support center to see if there is anything they might recommend. They usually have a good idea of your system/app environment if they have been supporting the system for a while. In any event, it is a good practice to give them a heads up as to when you are planning to do the upgrade. If you only have a 5x8 contract, you might consider looking into getting a 7x24 or 7x8 contract extension for a few weeks following the upgrade.

Remember to do a full back-up of the system disk AFTER the system upgrade as well. You want to ensure you have a clean backup of the new system disk before releasing it to the end users.

Remember to ensure there are no disk defragging utilities running while upgrade is in progress (batch or otherwise).

Suggest ensure that no Apps or databases are started up (disable in start-up file) until after the upgrade looks ok. I remember supporting one Customer a few years back and the date inadvertently got changed to a previous month. When the system came back up, all sorts of batch jobs kicked off which caused havoc in the Cust environment. It was a big deal.

May not be applicable, but here is example of checking for third party upgrade considerations:
http://knowledgebase.tditechnologies.com/bulletins/TB0212Warning_OVMS84.pdf 
http://www.process.com/techsupport/multinet_vms_compat.html 

Btw, the V8.4 doc's are at:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/os84_index.html 
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/spd.html#OVMS_84
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/84final/ba322_90087/ba322_90087.pdf 


Regards,

Kerry Main
Back to the Future IT Inc.
 .. Learning from the past to plan the future

Kerry dot main at backtothefutureit dot com

-----Original Message-----
From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at info-vax.com] On Behalf Of issinoho
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2013 6:56 AM
To: info-vax at info-vax.com
Subject: [New Info-vax] Upgrade to 8.4

Hi all,

I am planning the upgrade of 2 production clustered Integrity servers from 8.3 to 8.4 and would like to run a few things by you for any comments you may wish to offer.

The servers boot from their own local copies of VMS and use a SAN disk as a quorum disk.

SYLOGICALS has been modified so that the cluster logical names point to an area on the SAN disk, thereby unifying UAF, etc.

>From reading the upgrade notes it would seem that this is an area of risk and recommends that I copy the files to their original locations before attempting the upgrade. Can anyone confirm if this is indeed a requirement? Also, do I need to alter SYLOGICALS to reflect this change? Presumably following the upgrade, I would then copy the 'updated' versions of the files back to the SAN drive?

Order of upgrade. What is recommended here? Power both down, upgrade both then boot both? Or, power down one, upgrade and reboot then repeat for the second server?

Any other gotchas to be aware of?

Any and all thoughts and experiences are welcome. Thanks in advance.
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