Upgrade Small (All-In-OneFilr) 3.0 Deployment to Filr 4.0

This guide reflects upgrading a small Filr deployment.

This guide reflects VMware ESXi virtualization, using the browser-based management tool; similar steps are used when using the vSphere Client. For other platforms, refer to the documentation.

https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/filr/filr-4/filr-inst/t43dt63eor74.html

The official documentation (https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/filr/filr-4/filr-inst/t43dt993zq1c.html) has good steps for accomplishing the upgrade. However, the process described there assumes a VM with no snapshots, or the deletion of all snapshots before beginning. This can be avoided if desired by using following procedure. Note that this procedure has the added advantages of allowing you to change the size of the disk, rename the disk, and change the format of the disk (e.g., from thin to thick).

On the Filr 3.4.3 appliance, download the pre-upgrade script from the port 9443 Online Update page. This script creates a backup of the MySQL database in /vastorage/MySQLbackup.

Note that additional disk space is required, as the pre-upgrade script copies the MySQL database so that it can be imported into a new, PostgreSQL database. Ensure that the /vastorage of the Filr appliance has enough free disk space (equal to or greater than the Filr appliance database). Also, the script requires the password of the Filr user in the MySQL database.

1. Open an SSH session to the Filr appliance (first, enable SSH: port 9443 > System Services > SSH > Action > Start)

2. Verify the size of appliance database with this command:

du -sh /vastorage/mysql

3. Execute the pre-upgrade script from /opt/novell/filr_upgrade/ using this command:

sh pre-upgrade.sh. The script will stop the Filr service; do not restart the Filr service. If the script does not run successfully, the upgrade will fail.

4. Deploy Filr 4 VM. (OVF and VMDK files):

a. Extract .zip file with .ovf

b. Select ovf, and drag to the new virtual machine setup window

c. Select the datastore where you want to store the new VM

d. Choose “Thick”disk provisioning

e. De-select “Power on automatically” (if this option is available. If not, power off the machine before continuing).

When the process finishes, you have an unconfigured Filr 4 VM ready for the upgrade

For Small deployment, we recommend a minimum of 16 GB ram.

Next, clone the existing VASTORAGE disk for use in the Filr 4 VM. Note: VMware requires shutting down an appliance before copying/cloning a disk.

Normally, (with no snapshots, using the steps in the official documentation), this is accomplished in the ESXI console datastore browser: > Storage > Datastore > VM> Right-click the VASTORAGE vmdk > Copy > choose destination datastore > Copy.

But, if you have snapshots, or simply want more control over the process do the following:

At command line of the ESXi server (note that SSH needs to be enabled on the ESXi machine), use the “df –h” command to view the file systems and where they are mounted.

CD to the location where the Filr 3 appliance file resides. E.g. /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/TechConnect/Filr-3

Ls-l will display the files that make up the virtual machine.

If you have an existing snapshot(s), determine which hard disk the VM is using.

In the ESXi console, edit the settings of the Filr 3 VM. Look at the “Disk File” setting under hard disk 3. e.g. [datastore1]TechConnect/Filr-3-VASTORAGE-000002.vmdk

Back at the command line, run the “vmkfstools –i” to get a listing of the available .vmdk files

Run vmkfstools again to clone the existing VASTORAGE .vmdk file to a new .vmdk file for use in the Filr 4 VM. The syntax is:

vmkfstools –i (or—importfile) <path to old disk> <path to new disk> -d (or –diskformat) eagerzeroedthick

e.g.

vmkfstools –i ./Filr-3-VASTORAGE-000002.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/Filr-4/Filr-4-VASTORAGE.vmdk –d –eagerzeroedthick

Note that you should choose a name that makes sense to humans, such as “Filr-4-VASTORAGE” in this example

This step builds up a new virtual disk with the contents of the current Filr 3 snapshot.

At this point, verify the configuration by using the ls –l command to view the available disks. You should see the disk you just created by cloning the Filr 3 disk. Using the example above, you should see:

-rw------- Filr-4-VASTORAGE-flat-vmdk

-rw------- Filr-4-VASTORAGE.vmdk

-rw------- Filr-4-flat.vmdk

-rw------- Filr-4.vmdk

-rw-r—r-- Filr-4.vmsd

-rwxr-xr-x Filr-4-vmx

Next, edit the Filr 4 VM in the ESXi Navigator. Edit settings

Add two SCSi Controllers for the new disks. This step ensures that the correct SCSi controllers are assigned to the disks for /VASTORAGE and /VAR. (Similar steps will be true for Hyper-V and XEN, using IDE.)

Add a hard disk. Navigate to the disk you just created from cloning the Filr 3 system. E.g. Filr-4-VASTORAGE.vmdk

Assign the hard disk to the second SCSi controller (SCSi controller 1)

Add a new standard hard disk, for the /VAR disk. We recommend 50 GB. Choose “Thick provisioned, eagerly zeroed” as before. (Or, optionally, use the vmkfstools utility to generate a new empty disk for /var using a name that makes sense to humans. (e.g. vmkfstools -c 100g -d eagerzeroedthick /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/Filr-4-NODE01/Filr-4-NODE01-VAR.vmdk)

Assign this new disk to the third SCSi controller (SCSi controller 2)

You can adjust the assigned RAM at this point. Your configuration should equal or exceed those set on the Filr 3 VM you are upgrading.

When you’ve finished these steps, exit the edit configuration window and view the Hardware Configuration pane for the Filr 4 VM. It will show, for example:

CPU 4vCPUs

Memory 16 GB

Hard Disk 1 24 GB

Hard disk 2 200 GB

Hard disk 3 50 GB

USB controller USB 2.0

Network adapter 1 VM Network (Connected)

Etc.

Power on the Filr 4 VM

Next, you will see the “Initializing Appliance Configuration” screen. Here, you should see a prompt “Upgrading Filr Appliance from version 3.4.x to version 4.0.x”. If you don’t see this prompt, the upgrade was not successful, and you’ll need to power off and start over.

Enter the new passwords you want to use for Filr 4. These passwords do not need to be the same as on the Filr 3 appliance.

The configuration will continue and, when complete, the VM will proceed to load.

Transferring the database requires at least ½ the size of the database in free disk space. The command “du /vastorage/mysql/filr” (all-in-one appliance only) will show the size of the folder holding the database. Having this amount of space will ensure the database has enough room for the migration.

Optional: You can remove the mysql-backup file after the database transfer is complete. It is located in the /vastorage/mysql subdirectory.

After the process is complete, open the port 9443 admin console as the vaadmin user and install the license. Then, open the port 8443 admin console and and re-index everything. Also, check the port 9443 > JVM settings and set the Min and the Max JVM memory to ¾ of the total memory installed on the machine. (For a large deployment, the settings are the same for Max and Min. on the Filr server, but on the Search (Lucene) server, the Max should be ½ the total memory, and the Min should be 1/3 of the total memory.

Large deployment:

Deploy all the same appliances, in the same number, as was on your Filr 3 setup. e.g. If you had 1 Filr, 2 Search and 1 Database VMs, you would deploy the same for Filr 4.

The IP addresses can be the same, except for the database server, which needs to have a different IP address because the Filr appliance needs to migrate the MySQL database to PostgreSQL.

The steps are essentially the same as on a small deployment, except that the process must be repeated for every VM. Generally, after the appliances are deployed and configured:

1. Stop the Filr service on all Filr appliances

2. Reindex

3. Open the port 9443 administration > Database page. Check the “Migrate File MySQL Database option”, and set the Database Type to “MySQL”. Enter the username and password for the Filr 3.0 MySQL database, and then migrate the database. Note that both MySQL and PostgreSQL database VMs must be up and running to accomplish a migration in a large deployment.

Upgrade Large Filr 3.0 Deployment to Filr 4.0

This guide reflects upgrading a large Filr deployment.

This guide reflects VMware ESXi virtualization, using the browser-based management tool; similar steps are used when using the vSphere Client. For other platforms, refer to the documentation.

https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/filr/filr-4/filr-inst/t43dt63eor74.html

The process of upgrading Filr from 3.0 to 4.0 consists of these general steps:

1. Scope the upgrade

Record the essentials about the existing Filr 3.0 setup. For each appliance write down:

Size of each disk

RAM

CPUs

Check the Virtualization platform to ensure you have enough resources to accomplish the upgrade:

A) Disk space - size needed equals the total size of all disks to be copied.

/ (System Disk)

20 GB

/vastorage

Fixed, based upon the Filr 3.0 appliances.

/var

3x RAM+ 4G + logs

B) RAM

16 GB minimum.

C) CPUs

4 CPUs is standard.

2. Download the Filr 4 software

· - Filr appliance Filr.x86_64-version.ovf.zip

· - Search appliance Filrsearch.x86_64-version.ovf.zip

· - PostgreSQL appliance PostgreSQL-version.ovf.zip

3. Extract each .ovf.zip file on your management workstation. Directory structure should be similar to:
C:\Users\ewells\Downloads\Filr 4.0\Filr.x86_64-4.0.0.155.ovf\Filr.x86_64-4.0.0.155
C:\Users\ewells\Downloads\Filr 4.0\Filrsearch.x86_64-4.0.0.51.ovf\Filrsearch.x86_64-4.0.0.51
C:\Users\ewells\Downloads\Filr 4.0\PostgreSQL_1.1.1.235.ovf\PostgreSQL-1.1.1.235

4. Obtain the appropriate Filr 4 license

5. Shut down the Filr 3.0 Filr and Search appliances. Note that you don’t deploy the MySQL appliance at this time; the Filr 3.0 MySQL appliance should remain running.

6. Deploy the OVF template for the Filr 4.0 Filr and Search appliances.

· You must first remove any snapshots which exist for the virtual machine.
NOTE: In the event that you do not want to remove snapshots, see this CoolSolutuion: https://www.novell.com/communities/coolsolutions/upgrading-filr-4-vm-snapshots/

· The deployment creates a new VM with a system disk (/) (Disk1).

· Do NOT select the “Power on after deployment” option. In the following steps, you will manually create the /vastorage and /var disks.

· (Optional, but recommended) Add additional SCSI controllers, so each disk has its own SCSI controller. This will prevent the possibility of the order of the disks being changed. The result is that / is SCSI (0:0), /vastorage is SCSI (1:0) and /var is SCSI (2:0)

7. For each Filr and Search appliance, create the /vastorage disk by copying the corresponding Filr 3.0 /vastorage disk.

a. In the ESXi console, click on “Storage” in the left navigation panel.

b. Click on the datastore where the Filr 3.0 disks are located.

c. Click on “Datastore browser”.

d. Browse to the folder for the Filr 3.0 Filr appliance.

e. Identify the .vmdk file representing the /vastorage (disk 2) disk. Hint: You can click on each .vmdk to see the size of the disk, which corresponds to the sizes you recorded in Step 1. Typically, you’ll see something like:

Filr 3.0 Filr_1.vmdk

Filr 3.0 Filr_2.vmdk

Filr 3.0 Filr.vmdk

representing Disk 2 (/vastorage), Disk 3 (/var) and Disk 1 (/), respectively.

f. Right-click on the .vmdk file representing the /vastorage disk, and choose the “Copy” option

g. For the destination, choose the folder representing the Filr 4.0 appliance you deployed in Step 6.x

h. Type in the name of the file for the /vastorage disk. Suggestion: Use a descriptive name, such as “Filr 4.0 Filr_1.vmdk. Then, press the “Copy” button.

i. Repeat for each of the Filr and Search appliances in your deployment.

8. For each Filr and Search appliance, add the /vastorage disk you copied in Step 10.

a. In the ESXi console, click on a Filr 4.0 virtual machine in the left navigation panel.

b. Click on the “Edit” menu item. The “Edit Settings” dialog will open.

c. Click on “Add hard disk” and choose “Existing hard disk”

d. Navigate to the .vmdk you added in Step 7.

9. Select the .vmdk file. Notice that Hard disk 2 is added, and the size is grayed out, since it’s an existing disk.

10. For each Filr and Search appliance, create the /var disk.

a. In the ESXi console, click on a Filr 4.0 virtual machine in the left navigation panel.

b. Click on the “Edit” menu item. The “Edit Settings” dialog will open.

c. Click on “Add hard disk” and choose “New standard hard disk”.

d. Click the down arrow next to the New Hard Disk.

i. Adjust the size of the disk as needed (Step 1, 3x RAM+ 4G + logs

ii. Under “Disk Provisioning” select “Thick provisioned, eagerly zeroed”

iii. Click “Save”

11. Start the appliances, one at a time, beginning with the Search appliance(s)

a. Access the appliance’s console. E.g. In the EXSi management tool, click the “Console” button.

b. Enter the passwords as prompted. These passwords can be the same as you used on Filr 3.0, or new passwords can be entered.
NOTE: You should see a prompt stating “Upgrading from Filr 3.4.3 to Filr 4.0.0.155” or similar. If you do not see this prompt, the upgrade has failed, as the /dev/sdb was not identified as the /vastorage disk.

c. Once the appliance is completely up, open the Port 9443 interface in a browser.

d. Click the configuration icon and ensure that everything looks right.

e. Repeat these steps for each Filr and Search appliance

12. (Assuming you are using the Filr 3.0 MySQL appliance; see documentation for other applications) Migrate the Filr 3.0 MySQL database appliance to a new Filr 4.0 PostgreSQL database appliance.

a. Deploy the Filr 4.0 PostgreSQL appliance OVF template. Create new disks for /vastorage and /var. Ensure these are at least as large as you had in the Filr 3.0 MySQL appliance, though you won’t be copying the /vastorage, as you did for the Filr and Search appliances.
NOTE: The PostgreSQL appliance requires a new IP and DNS name (in a large or expandable setup) because the MySQL and PostGreSQL must be running at the same time during the database migration.

b. Open a browser and login to the PostgreSQL appliance on port 9443 as vaadmin.

c. Under PostgreSQL Appliance Tools, click Configure PostgreSQL.

d. Specify a password for the “postgres” user, then click Submit.

e. Under PostgreSQL Appliance Tools, click phpPgAdmin.

f. Click PostgreSQL, then specify the Username as “postgres” and password that you specified in Step d. Click “Login”.

g. Click Roles > Create role.

h. Create a new role (user) for “postgres”, enter the same password used in step d, and confirm it. Select all the options (Superuser, Create DB, Can create role, Inherits privileges, Can login). You MUST select, at a minimum,: “Create DB?” and “Can login?”. Then, click Create.

i. Stop the Filr Service On All Filr appliance nodes

j. Open a browser and log in to one of the Filr appliance node on port 9443 as the vaadmin user.

k. Under Filr Appliance Tools, click Configuration.

l. Click Database.

m. On the Database Connection page,

n. In the Database Type, select MySQL.

o. Select the option Migrate Filr MySQL Database. (This option is enabled only if it’s a large deployment or if you have configured Filr 3.x with Filr MySQL. This displays fields to specify the PostgreSQL appliance details.

p. Specify the PosgreSQL appliance address and port.

q. Specify the username (role) and password that you created in steps (f) and (d).

r. Click Ok.

s. This starts the migration process.

t. Upon successful migration, click Reconfigure Filr Server.

u. The Filr appliance is reconfigured and restarted.

13. Apply the Filr 4.0 license to the Filr appliance(s)

a. Download the appropriate Filr 4.0 license from Micro Focus Customer Center (customer) or Subscriber Portal (employee only).

b. Open the port 9443 interface to the Filr 4.0 Filr appliance and login as vaadmin.

c. Click on “Configuration” under “Filr Appliance Tools”

d. Open the “License” item in the left navigation panel

e. Install the license you downloaded in Step A.

f. Click Reconfigure Filr Server in the Configuration column.

g. Repeat steps b-f for each Filr appliance (PostgreSQL and Filrsearch appliances do not require licenses.)

14. Re-index the search index

a. Open the port 8443 interface to the Filr 4.0 Filr appliance and login as admin.

b. Open the Administration Console

c. Open the “Search Index” item in the left navigation panel

d. Check the “Re-Index Everything” box, and click OK

15. Shutdown the Filr 3.0 MySQL database ViM.