3.2 Appliance Upgrade Readiness Analyzer question

[gcgagnon]

In the article article 100040055, https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/downloads/update.UPD299209, it discusses

"This tool also removes any unnecessary or old packages, old logs, and expands specific partitions to the necessary size as needed."

Is there any other information as far as specifics such as which old logs and which partitions this tool is going to be deleting (logs) and modifying (partitions)? Also with the partitions is there anything to be aware of if it fails?

would like to know ahead of time

[EthanH]

What appliance model are you upgrading? I'm not sure what difference there is between the 3.1.2 and 3.2 upgrades, but I've run into issues when upgrading 5230 appliances from 2.7.3 to 3.1.2 related to the /boot partition being too small. It can't be resized, but the analyzer will still fail if it is under 477 MB. We were still able to complete the upgrade, but Support had to provide assistance to work around the issue. 

Did some digging, and it looks like the /config partition needs to be at least 100 GB. If it isn't, then the AURA tool will extend the partition. 

If /inst is less than 25 GB, the AURA will fail, but it will not automatically extend the partition.

It cleans any useless kernels and initrd from /boot. I couldn't find exactly which logs are deleted, but I've never had issues with NBU or OS logs getting deleted. I'm sure there are some /tmp logs and other files that get cleaned up, but AURA has never caused me to lose logs I needed later on.

[gcgagnon]

Thanks for the reply. We have a 5240 appliance and planning to go from 3.1.2 to 3.2. 

Your info is helpful. I was wondering or hoping Veritas had these specifics in a doc somewhere. Since they recommend not to run the tool until you're ready to upgrade. I would like to do some pre-planning and verify the partitions sizes and logs to be deleted aren't neccessary and make sure we have what we need on hand.

Work in an environmewnt where people don't like to hear deleting logs.

[jnardello · Accepted solution]

For whatever it's worth, here's what the package output looks like (was upgrading from v3.1.1 to v3.2).

myappliance.Software> Install SYMC_NBAPP_update_ReadinessAnalyzer-3.2-1.noarch.rpm
- [Info] Generating aim json files for upgrade.
- [Warning] Do not reboot the appliance manually while the upgrade is in progress.

This tool determines whether a NetBackup appliance is ready for an upgrade.
This tool only performs an analysis of the current appliance configuration and has no upgrade capability.
>> This tool makes changes to the appliance to prepare it for an upgrade. These changes include, but are not limited to, deleting stale device handles, extending storage space and stopping the handlehelper process if it is using the MSDP partition. Before you run the analyzer tool, refer to the following article for complete details about all changes that take place after the analysis has completed:

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100040055.

Do you want to continue and run the analyzer tool now? [yes, no] (no) yes
Starting the upgrade readiness analysis now. Review the following results for details:
- [Warning] The SDCS IPS (intrusion prevention system) policy is currently overridden on this appliance. It is scheduled to be enabled at Wed May 30 23:45:51 2018. To increase the security of this appliance, Veritas recommends that you re-enable the IPS policy immediately after the upgrade has completed. For full details, see the NetBackup Appliance Security Guide.
- [Info] Cleaning up stale device handles........................................ [OK]
- [Info] Checking for local 'nbasecadmin' user with 'Security Administrator' role ...
User 'nbasecadmin' does not exist. The upgrade will automatically create this user with the default appliance password and set it to the 'Security Administrator' role.
When this user logs in to the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu for the first time, a prompt appears that requires this user to change the password.
- [Info] Checking Appliance restart days......................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking System clock................................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking free inode number.............................................. [OK]
- [Info] Checking Appliance software version..................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking Appliance hardware model....................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking NetBackup master server version................................ [OK]
- [Info] Checking status of the handlehelper process............................. [OK]
- [Info] Checking the result of the last backup job.............................. [OK]
- [Info] Checking System space................................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking MSDP space..................................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking NetBackup catalog space........................................ [OK]
- [Info] Checking USB driver..................................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking Open Storage plugin............................................ [OK]
- [Info] Checking NFS share mount point.......................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking Disk firmware version.......................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking Appliance storage status....................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking appliance rollback status...................................... [OK]
- [Info] Checking appliance memory status........................................ [OK]
- [Info] Checking the current appliance BIOS version............................. [OK]
- [Info] Checking for Device Certificate......................................... [WARNING]
- [Warning] Device Certificate was not found. This certificate is required to upload DataCollect logs to Veritas.
- [Warning] V-409-777-1261: Device Certificate was not found. This certificate is required to upload DataCollect logs to Veritas.
- [Info] Checking appliance EEB installed status................................. [OK]

The upgrade readiness analysis passed. This appliance can be upgraded.

- [Info] You can run the Support > Logs > Browse command to view the upgrade readiness analyzer logs that are stored in "LOGROOT/APPLIANCE/upgrade_readiness_analysis_report_01-15-2020-12-35.txt". You can also download the log file from opened NFS or CIFS shares on the appliance.
- [Info] Removing all aim json files.
myappliance.Software>

[sagrawal]

By the way, it is good practice to run AURA well before actual upgrade day as fixing some issues might take some time and you don't want your upgrade window to get affected. Fix the issues and then run it again just before the actual upgrade. I thought this is the guidance that has been provided in the AURA/Upgrade docs but I will double check and make necessary changes.