A decision to upgrade or migrate is dependent on the 11.x appliance's OS. If the 11.x appliance is running CentOS 7, it can be upgraded to 12.x directly. However, if the 11.x appliance is running CentOS 6 or Red Hat 6, it needs to be migrated to 12.x.
NOTE: Only newly deployed 11.3 appliances will be running CentOS 7. Upgraded 11.3 and other 11.x appliances will be running either CentOS 6 or RHEL 6.
How to check the appliance's current OS? From the appliance command line, run the command “cat /etc/redhat-release” to find the appliance OS.
This article will first discuss how to upgrade and will then discuss the migration steps.
1) Upgrading Discovery 11.x to Discovery 12.x
Before discussing the upgrade steps, let's understand the best practices for upgrading consolidator/scanner and cluster appliances.
1.1) Upgrade considerations for Consolidator-Scanner and Cluster appliances:
For consolidator-scanner setup, first upgrade the consolidator(s) to 12.x, and then upgrade the scanners one by one or all at once. As documented here, the recommended approach for upgrading BMC Discovery Consolidator/Scanner appliances is:
Stop discovery on scanning appliances.
Ensure that all consolidation operations are complete.
Stop discovery on consolidating appliances.
Upgrade consolidating appliances.
Restart discovery on the consolidating appliances.
Restart discovery on the scanning appliances.
Upgrade scanning appliances as required.
The Discovery upgrade is a cluster-aware activity, meaning when one member of the cluster is upgraded, the entire cluster is upgraded automatically.
1.2) Preparing for upgrade: Review the pre-upgrade checklist from the doc preparing for upgrade
1.3) Upgrading:
Download upgrade file from the BMC EPD website (to upgrade to version 22.2.01, file name is "BMC Discovery 22.2.01 CentOS 7 Upgrade" ) and follow the documented steps from the doc performing the upgrade. For more details, watch the video:
2) Migrating Discovery 11.x to Discovery 12.x
The term “migration to Discovery 12.x” means backing up the 11.x Appliance and then restoring the backup on a newly build 12.x Appliance. Migration is done in 5 phases:
2.1) Phase#1: Create new 12.x appliances
To create/deploy new 12.x appliances, download installer file from BMC EPD website (for version 22.2.01, file name is "BMC Discovery 22.2.01 Full Virtual Appliance") and follow the steps from the installation doc.
2.2) Phase#2: Configure 12.x appliances. Required/basic configurations are listed below:
Configure 12.x appliances to replicate the current 11.x consolidator/scanner and cluster setup: For example, if there are 3 standalone 11.x scanners which are scanning the infra and sending data to a two members 11.x consolidator cluster, then configure a 12.x two members consolidator cluster and 3 12.x standalone scanners in parallel to the existing 11.x setup.
Configure required hardware on the newly build 12.x appliances as per the documented recommendation.
Configure same/similar disk configurations on the newly build 12.x appliances: For example, if 11.x appliances have datastore data on a separate disk (say /dev/sdb) then the same/similar disk configuration must be configured on 12.x appliances.If this is not done, the backup restore may fail with the error “Insufficient disk space”. The same requirements pertain to any other files such as datastore transaction logs, tideway logs, and any other disk configuration changes that may have been made to the 11.x appliances.
2.3) Phase#3: If using CMDB Sync, it is important to STOP ALL SCANS on the older appliances: on all scanners and consolidators
This step is important so that the CMDB Shadow Copy in the Discovery backup will be consistent with the state of the BMC.ADDM dataset in the CMDB. If it is impossible to keep the scans stopped during the migration, then there will be discrepancies between the CMDB and the Restored 12.x appliance. In that case, a Resync will be required after the 12.x Restore.
2.5) Phase#5: Restore the 11.x backup on 12.x appliance
Restore 11.x appliances(consolidator/scanner) backup on the newly configured 12.x appliances (consolidator/scanner) by following steps from the below docs:
NOTE: In the restore options, choose the desired option for "Appliance Identity":
Take Appliance Identity from the backup: Choose this option if the new appliance is replacing the old appliance, and the new appliance should have the same appliance name (not hostname), HTTPS, Consolidation, User API token, etc... as the old appliance.
Preserve current Appliance Identity: Choose this option if the intention is to have both old and new appliances running for some time.
2.6) Phase#6 (Optional): Using 11.x appliance's IP/Hostname on 12.x Appliance
In most cases, the network ports between Discovery appliances, proxy, and target servers/devices are opened based on the appliance's IP/hostname, so it could be interesting to use the same 11.x appliance's IP/hostname on 12.x appliances. To do so, follow the steps from the below docs:
HTTPS will be auto-enabled as it is mandatory. The same certificates will be used if 11.x appliance had HTTPs enabled. If HTTPs was not enabled on 11.x Appliance, a self-signed certificate will be used to enable HTTPs on 12.x appliances.
The Windows proxies are not upgraded as part of the appliance upgrade. Proxies have to be upgraded separately. See upgrading Windows proxy doc for more details.
During migration, if the option "Take Appliance identity from the backup" was not used, it may be necessary to configure such options as HTTPS, Consolidation, etc. If the option "Take Appliance identity from the backup" was used, the old (11.3 or older) appliance should be shut down and decommissioned.
Is CMDB Resync required? If the scans were not stopped during the entire migration (see Phase#3), then a CMDB Resync should be performed at this time on the new appliance.