PowerScale OneFS Upgrade Planning and Process Guide

Plan an upgrade schedule

An upgrade schedule can help ensure that the upgrade goes smoothly. The schedule should consider all the factors that go into an upgrade and estimate how long each stage of the upgrade process might take.

The upgrade process begins with ensuring that your OneFS cluster is ready to be upgraded. It is recommended that you set aside two weeks to check the cluster health and resolve software and hardware issues before performing the upgrade itself.

Upgrade maintenance window

The maintenance window should encompass the pre-upgrade, upgrade, and post-upgrade phases. Estimate the time that it takes to run the upgrade considering cluster size and upgrade type (parallel, rolling, or simultaneous). Schedule time to inform users when the upgrade will take place and that client connections might be slow, file access might be affected, and clients might be disconnected. A best practice is to upgrade the cluster during an off-hours maintenance window.

Schedule time for node and drive health checks and replacement of bad hardware. Include time to update configurations and settings that are not supported in the new version.

Estimate the time that it takes to back up your data, considering cluster size, number of files, types of files, and file size. Also include time to collect information about the cluster such as status, logs, and settings.

If performing a parallel or rolling upgrade, consider whether you will configure client connection drain times, which will extend the required maintenance window, but lower the impact on client connections.

Build in time to let the upgrade jobs run to completion and to reestablish permissions and connections. Schedule time or extend the maintenance window to accommodate post-upgrade tasks such as reconfiguring custom settings, updating scripts to reflect command and functionality changes in the upgrade version, and potential troubleshooting.

(Optional) Upgrade a test cluster

If available, upgrading a test cluster with the same current version of OneFS before you upgrade your production cluster can expose issues that could slow down or prevent the upgrade of your production system.

After you upgrade a test cluster, verify that the cluster is operational and validate key workflows on the test cluster by simulating how administrators, users, and applications interact with the system.