Tidal Enterprise Scheduler Upgrade Paths

[sentiblue]

Hi guys....

We currently run Tidal Masters v5.3.1 and Linux Agents 3.0.x. We've been running in an environment so strict to changes that I didn't look at upgrade options for years. But now that EOL already kicks in... I have no choice but to look at upgrades.

From my understanding ... the highest available upgrade for this version is Masters 6.0 using the same licensing methods.

To upgrade to latest version (6.2?) ... the licensing model will change to per physical machine.

Did I understand things correctly?

I've been trying to understand the technical changes too... but it seems a little vague... can a Cisco professional help me understand the major differences between

- 5.3.1 and 6.0

- 6.0 and 6.2

[Lisa Latour]

hello - I have just moved your post to the Topic forums - you had posted your question in an obscure, non-visible, promotional community.  Hopefully our community users will see your question now.

[Derrick Au]

Hi seniblue,

Welcome to TES @ Support Forums. Have you reviewed your MLA to see what it covers - and how long support is for? And did you know that Cisco has pushed the EOL & EOS date further into January 31, 2016. So you still have time, but planning should start now.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/tidal-enterprise-scheduler/eol_c51-697468.html

Tidal 6.0 is pretty buggy from what I've been told, and to perform an upgrade -- it would be better to jump from 5.3 to 6.2 directly. There are a lot of people in a similar situation, please check out

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12348951/tidal-621-client-manager-and-fault-monitor

BR,

Derrick Au

[Joe Fletcher]

Hi,

Yes the licensing model has changed. The biggest changes will hit you if you are transitioning from a discreet server model to a VM type setup. Do read the small print.

You can go from 5.3.1 to 6.2. I suggest in advance you do as much maintenance on your database as possible. Some of the 3rd party integrators offer "sanitization" tools to do the job for you and its well worth engaging one of them. Having bad data in the database can lead to all sorts of issues with the upgrade.

Make sure you have your infrastructure up to spec well in advance. Some parts of 6.2, particularly the Client Manager are resource hogs so get friendly with your local memory supplier.

Cheers

[Connie Tang]

Hi Joe Fletcher,

I have been looking for a document that has all the fine prints describing how the new licensing model works. But so far I have no luck. I have logged a ticket with the Cisco Global Licensing team but even them seems to be not so sure where to find that document. The only info I got back from my newest SR ticket (which I actually already had the same before I event submitted the ticket), was a power point with 5 slides. If you have the document with all the legalese and examples can you please share? Thanks.

Cheers.

[Derrick Au]

Hi Connie,

Based on those ppt slides, the new licensing support model now requires that you license per physical server. And on each server, you can run as many Tidal agents as you want at no additional costs. If you have a virtual environment then this would be a collection of physical servers (blades server or rack servers) that would have to be licensed.

BR,

Derrick Au

[Connie Tang]

Thanks Derrick; however, my question remains, is there actual document that tell us how things are licensed ...

In our Windows environment we have some VMs that are always migrating between hosts, the hosts are not "blades" they are HP DL580 Servers.

In our AIX / Linux environments, we have some physical servers that contains multiple lpars inside (which each LPAR may represent a different logical server). I am not a technical expert in this matter but my tech team has specifically ask for something more detailed. I need to be able to share that info so that they can help to determine how many license we need to buy from Cisco.

A PowerPoint with a few drawings is so open to interpretation. I would like to see some more concrete example. Thanks.

[Derrick Au]

Hi Connie,

I don't believe there is a detailed documentation, unless it is in the works. We felt the same way, and set up a meeting with Cisco Sales Rep and invited our key players. We ended up renewing our licensing "support" contract. Remember, you are already licensed for the Tidal Enterprise Scheduler product, but in order to receive Cisco Tech Support, you will need to renew your licensing "support" contract and ensure that you have enough licenses to cover for support of your Tidal environment.

BR,

Derrick Au

[Joe Fletcher]

The new licensing model is great if you are a complete VMware shop. Otherwise it's far from favourable. If, for example you have a whole bunch of discreet servers and you wish to license two VMs on a cluster of say 20 physical servers then you are obliged to license the entire farm. Similarly of you only need a relatively small number of agents for VMs in a large farm you get penalized by having to license the entire farm. I believe it gets even more confused when we're talking about IBM LPARS and solaris zones.

[Derrick Au]

It's the same principle, only physical servers need to be licensed -- so on a single AIX server with multiple logical partitions, then only 1 license is needed to cover the physical server. And on that single AIX server, you can have an unlimited number of Tidal agents :-)
 

[Connie Tang]

Thanks Derrick for your info so far definitely will let my team know and taken into account for our next discussion with our rep!

[Connie Tang]

Thanks Joe for your info so far definitely will let my team know and taken into account for our next discussion with our rep!