Upgrading a v6/v7 high-availability (HA) cluster to v8

If you are running a Syncplify Server! v6/v7 HA cluster, then you probably already know that the most significant enhancement v8 bring to the game is its 100% new, much improved, and completely revolutionized HA subsystem.

A 100% new HA subsystem, though, also implies that old systems (v6/v7) and new systems (v8) are not designed to work together, and their underlying database layout is radically different, so in-place upgrades of v6/v7 HA clusters are strongly discouraged.

This here below is the correct (and the only formally sanctioned) way to perform such upgrade.

Before you begin: the procedure outlined here below requires that you own valid licenses for all of your current v6/v7 HA nodes, and that the maintenance/support plans for all such licenses are active and not expired.

Step #1: take a full backup or snapshot of your entire machine or VM

Better safe than sorry. A full system backup or a VM snapshot allows you to magically go back in time should anything undesirable happen during the upgrade process. This is only a precaution, though, as the procedure explained in this article is designed not to affect your running v6/v7 cluster at all.

Step #2: take a full backup of your v6/v7 configuration

This one is simple. Log into the SuperAdmin UI on any one of your v6/v7 HA cluster nodes, and export a full configuration backup from there. No need to do this on every node, a single backup exported from just one of your HA nodes already contains all you need to migrate the whole cluster to v8.

Step #3: install your first v8 node

This is a simple multi-step process:

• Spin up a new machine or VM, fresh operating system, nothing installed on it
• Follow the documented procedure, depending on your operating (Windows or Linux) to install your first Syncplify Server! v8 node as a stand-alone server
• After installation, import your v6/v7 backup into this newly deployed v8 node

Check point: once you get here you have a fully functional single-node (stand-alone) Syncplify Server! v8 node that has all of your old v6/v7 functionality... just not in HA (yet).

Step #4: recreate your HA cluster by adding more nodes

Now that your new v8 is up and running as a stand-alone server, test its functionality, and if it works as intended, you can follow the documented procedure to add additional nodes to it and re-establish your high-availability (HA) cluster.

Step #6: move your licenses

Your v8 cluster is ready and configured, but it's likely still running on the TRIAL licenses you activated as part of the setup process. If so, please do not forget to enact the documented procedure to move your licenses from your old v6/v7 nodes over to your new v8 nodes.

Success: if everything was executed correctly, you now have a fully functional Syncplify Server! v8 HA cluster running all the virtual sites, subsystems, and users that your previous v6/v7 cluster used to run.

Step #6 (optional): decommission your old v6/v7 nodes

Once you have verified that your new v8 cluster works perfectly, you may (under your sole and complete responsibility) want to decommission your old v6/v7 nodes to reclaim those resources or recondition them for different use.