6.2 Upgrading OES 2 Clusters (Rolling Cluster Upgrade)

Performing a rolling cluster upgrade on your OES 2 Linux cluster lets you keep your cluster up and running. Your users can continue to access cluster resources while the upgrade is being performed.

During a rolling cluster upgrade, one server is upgraded to the most recent version of OES 2 Linux while the other servers in the cluster continue running an older version of OES 2 Linux. Then another server can be upgraded in turn, and then another, until all servers in the cluster have been upgraded.

You can also add new OES 2 Linux servers running the most recent version of OES 2 Linux to the existing OES 2 Linux (or later) cluster, and remove the old servers from the cluster.

You should complete the upgrade as soon as possible. Don’t leave the cluster in a mixed version state for an extended period.

To perform a rolling cluster upgrade of OES 2 Linux and Novell Cluster Services:

  1. Bring down the OES 2 Linux cluster server you want to upgrade.

    Any cluster resources that were running on the server should fail over to another server in the cluster.

    You can also manually migrate the resources to another server in the cluster prior to bringing down the server. This prevents the resources from failing back to the node after you have completed the upgrade.

  2. Stop Novell Cluster Services (rcnovell-ncs stop).

  3. Upgrade the server by using the Update option on the OES 2 Linux installation.

    See Upgrading to OES 2 SP3 in the OES 2 SP3: Installation Guide.

  4. Start Novell Cluster Services (rcnovell-ncs start).

  5. If necessary, manually cluster migrate the resources that were previously loaded on this Server back to the upgraded server.

    The resources can automatically fail back if both of the following apply:

    • The failback mode for the resources was set to Auto.

    • This Linux server is the preferred node for the resources.

  6. Repeat Step 2 through Step 7 for each OES 2 Linux cluster server until your entire cluster has been upgraded.