start fresh with VSOM 7

[dean-lamb]

Hello,

as you have seen in some of my past questions, I have some weird issues with our VSOM servers version 6.3.2

We are looking to move to VSOM version 7 and I am wondering what some of you think about starting over with fresh installs of 7.  I am just afriad that if we upgrade, any underlying issues will remain and cause more problems in the future.

Thanks for the help.                  

[skanwal]

If you are thinking to do a fresh install of VSM 7, then all you need to do is use the recovery disk and then remove the VSM 6.3.2 rpms and install the VSM 7 rpms.

[Jason Rossi]

I "started fresh" with one of my MSP-4RU's, and yeah all weird issues went away, except for hardware probs like an occasional HD fail but that's software independant.

But if you are migrating a SUSE Linux 4RU box, the procedure is not so clean as the flash recovery. It's not difficult, but it is a different procedure. Best bet would be to get the procedure and files from TAC (though I can post the procedure we used if/when the times comes).

Btw, VSM 7 is worth going to just on general principle. Wonderful platform, you will never look back at 6.x!

[skanwal]

Hi Jason

Could you please share the procedure used to migrate the Suse Linux 4RU server.

I would like to know how different it is.

Thank You!

[Jason Rossi]

Certainly. I would say "night and day", I also have a 2RU box running Red hat which works with the flash recovery.

This is the complete disaster recovery procedure. If just upgrading then just do steps 28 through 44.

NOTE: These instructions are ONLY for the 4RU MSP running SUSE Linux

• •1.     Delete the Media server from VSOM
• •2.     After the motherboard BIOS loads the 'MegaRAID SAS-MFG BIOS' will load and display a long list of the controller configuration - controller, list of disks, list of volumes; at the bottom of this display the message to press CTRL-H to enter the MegaRAID? configuration.
  • •3.     When the configuration program starts you will first be presented with a brief menu to select the MegaRAID?controller - only one controller is possible so press SPACEBAR to continue or click the 'Start' button.
  • •4.     To configure the RAID for VSMS server select ‘Configuration Wizard’ -> ‘New Configuration’ -> ‘Custom Configuration’
  • •5.     Create a Disk Group (DG) by selecting each of the Physical Disks and clicking the 'AddtoArray' button. You can select each disk one at a time, or select multiple disks with the SHIFT key depressed. Each of the disks will appear in the righthand DiskGroups? window. Once all of the disks are in the DiskGroup? , click Accept DG to create DG0. Click Next to continue.
  • •6.     Configure a Span by selecting DG0 from the Array With Free Space window and clicking the Add to SPAN button. Click Next to continue.
  • •7.     Create two Virtual Disks, starting with VD0. In the VD Definition form, set the following values:
    RAID Level RAID 5
    Strip Size 64 KB
    Access Policy RW
    Read Policy Normal
    Write Policy WThru
    Wrthru for BAD BBU Checked
    IO Policy Direct
    Disk Cache NoChange?
    Disable BGI No
    Select Size 12 GB
  • •8.     Click Accept to create VD0.
  • •9.     Click Back
  • •9.     Select DG0 from the Array With Free Space window again and click the Add to SPAN button.
  • •10.  Click Next to continue.
  • •11.  Create VD1. In the VD Definition form, set the following values:
    RAID Level RAID 5
    Strip Size 64 KB
    Access Policy RW
    Read Policy Normal
    Write Policy Wthru
    Wrthru for BAD BBU Checked
    IO Policy Direct
    Disk Cache NoChange?
    Disable BGI No
  • •12.  In the Select Size box enter 9TB
  • •13.  Click Accept to create VD1
  • •14.  Click Back
  • •15.  Select DG0 from the Array With Free Space window again and click the Add to SPAN button.
  • •16.  Click Next to continue.
  • •17.  Create VD2. In the VD Definition form, set the following values:
    RAID Level RAID 5
    Strip Size 64 KB
    Access Policy RW
    Read Policy Normal
    Write Policy Wthru
    Wrthru for BAD BBU Checked
    IO Policy Direct
    Disk Cache NoChange?
    Disable BGI No
  • •18.  The Select Size box will auto-fill with the correct value.
  • •19.  Click Accept to create VD2
  • •20.  Click Next to continue.
  • •21.  The Disk Group and Virtual Disk configuration will be displayed as follows:
    -+ DG 0
    |- VD 0
    |- VD 1
    |- VD 2
  • •22.  Click Accept to accept the configuration.
  • •23.  Click Yes to save the configuration.
  • •24.  Click Yes to initialize the created Virtual Disks.
  • •25.  The Virtual Disk details page will appear and display the new Virtual Disks with progress as they are initialized. It should only take a minute or less to initialize a 10TB VD.
  • •26.  Once the process is complete, press Home.
  • •27.  To exit the WebBIOS? click the Exit option from the main menu. When prompted, reboot the server by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.
  • •28.  Insert the 6.3.1 recovery CD into the CD Drive on top of the machine. Reboot the server.
  • •29.  At the first window that comes up press F11, then wait for RAID to load.
  • •30.  It will eventually prompt you to boot from root or boot from USB disk. Chooose boot from Disk
  • •31.  Type FACTORY when prompted. It will reboot again and you type FACTORY again. It will reboot when it is done and it will spit out the CD
  • •32.  Enter Linux 10 regular not fail safe
  • •33.  When the server comes back up open YAST from the desktop. Go to network devices and configure the NIC for , SNM /24, gateway (under routing) . Make sure you can ping it from the network.
  • •34.  Next SSH to the server. Use Win SCP to copy the two zip files on to the server into usr/BWhttpd
  • •35.  Unzip the first one by typing unzip Cisco_VSM-7.0.1-012_sles10.zip –d /usr/BWhttpd
  • •36.  Unzip the first one by typing unzip VSM.zip –d /usr/BWhttpd
  • •37.  Type rpm –qa | grep –I cisco | xargs rpm –e to remove old image
  • •38.  Type sh SLES10_migrate_dirs.sh to start install
  • •39.  Type rpm –ivh Cisco*.rpm to continue install
  • •40.  Type sh remove_6.3 to finish the remove
  • •41.  Type /etc/init.d/cisco restart
  • •42.  In Internet explorer, go to /vsmc/ and follow the wizard through
  • •43.  After it reboots log into VSOM and pull it in as a Primary target
  • 44 Use the backup CSV file to import all the cameras that were assigned to it

[dean-lamb]

Wow!  Thanks a lot for the info!  I am running SUSE on all 4 of my servers.  Is Cisco going with RedHat on new equipment or is st still a choice?  I have been trying to get through all the info but I work for a School system in VA so we have been running SOL testing and I haven't had any time to read more.  Also, I thought I heard that the client for 7 would be even more resource needy but our reseller say our old systems with 4 GB memory will be fine.  Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for all the info.  I really appreciate it.

[John Gillich]

There is an image available to upgrade to 7.0.1 for SUSE 10 on CCO. You will need to contact your account team to upgrade. New servers being shipped use Redhat.