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Upgrading a v6 or v7 HA cluster to v8 ​

If you run a Syncplify Server! v6 or v7 HA cluster, you probably already know that the most significant enhancement v8 brings is its entirely new, much improved HA subsystem.

An entirely new HA subsystem also means that the old systems (v6 and v7) and the new one (v8) are not designed to work together, and their underlying database layouts are radically different, so in place upgrades of v6 or v7 HA clusters are strongly discouraged.

What follows is the correct, and the only formally sanctioned, way to perform this upgrade.

Before you begin

The procedure requires that you own valid licenses for all of your current v6 or v7 HA nodes, and that the maintenance and support plans of all those licenses are active, not expired.

Step 1: take a full backup or snapshot of every machine or VM ​

Better safe than sorry. A full system backup or a VM snapshot lets you go back in time should anything undesirable happen during the upgrade. This is only a precaution: the procedure on this page is designed not to touch your running v6 or v7 cluster at all.

Step 2: take a full backup of your v6 or v7 configuration ​

This one is simple. Sign in to the SuperAdmin UI on any one of your v6 or v7 HA nodes and export a full configuration backup from there. There is no need to do this on every node: a single backup from one node contains everything needed to migrate the whole cluster to v8.

Step 3: install your first v8 node ​

A short multi step process:

  1. Spin up a new machine or VM with a fresh operating system and nothing else installed on it.
  2. Follow the documented procedure for your operating system, Windows or Linux, to install your first Syncplify Server! v8 node as a standalone server.
  3. After the installation, restore your v6 or v7 backup onto this new v8 node, from the Backup & Restore page of the SuperAdmin UI. Leave the passphrase field empty: backups taken by v6 and v7 predate backup passphrases.

Checkpoint

Once you get here you have a fully functional standalone Syncplify Server! v8 node with all of your old v6 or v7 functionality, just not in HA yet.

Step 4: recreate the HA cluster by adding more nodes ​

Now that your new v8 runs as a standalone server, test its functionality. If it works as intended, add more nodes to it to re establish your high availability cluster.

Step 5: move your licenses ​

Your v8 cluster is ready and configured, but it is probably still running on the trial licenses you activated during the setup. If so, do not forget to move your licenses from your old v6 or v7 nodes to your new v8 nodes: deactivate each license on the old node, then activate it on a new one.

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 v6 or v7 cluster used to run.

Step 6 (optional): decommission the old v6 or v7 nodes ​

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