Network Management

I've seen the announcement about Airwave 7.7 dropping support for Cent5.5.  I need to upgrade my server and this brought me to a couple questions regarding this.  

1.  I'm currently running 7.5.7 on the Cent5.5.  Usually when there is a new software version, I get a message popup in Airwave and a link to the instructions to download.   I know we're up to 7.6.1 now and I have yet to be offered 7.6 at all by my server.  Is there an issue with upgrading from 7.5.7 to 7.6 with the auto notification?  Will there be any issues if I go in and manually kick off the upgrade with:

start_amp_upgrade -v 7.6.1

Straight from the command line?

2.  I understand the process of restoring the backup, using the nightlybackup tar files, however I have questions regarding it.  It appears that Airwave is licensed by the IP address of the server that it is installed on, or at least the IP Address is listed in the License Script you cut and past into the license screen, and listed there for future reference.  From what I've read, the restore process does not restore anything beyond AMP data used on the system.  Or Am I misunderstanding what the UserGuide referes to when it states "Nightly maintenance and amp_backup scripts back up the full AMP data and save the file as nightly_data00[1-4].tar.gz."

Is there a special command flag to add to the restore command to restore everything, including all the IP, licensing and setup information within the AMP Server?  Or will I need to do something special to migrate my license to the new server, such as switch the IP Addresses after restore and re-paste the license key.  

3. I guess question 3 relates to question 2, what information exactly restored by following the restore procedure in the guides?  

Sorry for the confusion but I want to make sure I understand the process correctly before proceeding to upgrade to the Cent6.2 version.  Thank You.

I've got a long answer, and then a short answer for each of your points.

1.  The news server has been paused pending 7.6.2 which is expected next week.  There should be no issue if you login to the command line to initialize the upgrade as the upgrade file is still on the support site (the news update was paused to save people from upgrading twice).  You have the right command for upgrading, it will lead to a prompt for username and password for your support account.

  # start_amp_upgrade -v 7.6.1

-In short, yes, you can manually upgrade with the above command.

2.  AMP restore doesn't restore IP information.  This was the solution for customers who are performing hardware migrations or cloning AMPs for a large multi-AMP deployment.  Also, AMP requires you to input the network information at the amp-install step which is needed prior to performing the restore as the network information needs to be present to get the backup file back onto the server.  Here's a list of things in the actual backup:  logs, firmware files, database, flat file (rrd), license key, ntp, and mail relay.  Though the license key is in the backup, you may need to re-apply it.  The license key backup is located in /alternative.  If you're using the same hardware, the fresh install wipes the existing data requiring input of IP address and license key.

-There's no special flag, so you will have to input the IP and licensing info.

3.  The completion of the restore process yields an AMP with the data gathered up to the point of the backup from which the restore was initialized.  This means all clients up to the backup point, all devices, all settings for groups and polling, all AMP users, all report definitions, past run reports, client historical data, etc.  It also restores the data maintained in the graphs.  One gotcha of the restore process is if you're using remote authentication for AMP access.  You may have to login as a local AMP admin user, go into AMP Setup -> Authentication -> and reinput the RADIUS / TACACS / LDAP secret password.  Once that's done, it should work as it did before.

-All data that was present on the AMP at time of backup should be restored.  May need to update IP tables or any cronjobs created.  Files in /tmp are not backed up.

Let me know if there's anything that needs further details.

Thank You!!  That covers everything.

Ours is a VMWare installation so I'll be standing up a completely new VM and then doing a restore of the backup.  Our airwave instance is a Two interface setup, one public IP one private.  My thought was to disable the Public IP and change the Private IP on the current server to something else.  Then I can give the new server all the appropriate IP information and do a restore and all should be good, save the iptables settings and likely my static routes, which are easily fixable.

Unless someone tells me my idea is crazy, I'll likely do this in the next couple weeks.

Thanks for the answers.

VM you say...

For a VM, you've got a few options.  Much like the method used for when customer migrate between servers, you're looking at either keeping the same IP address, or changing to a new IP address.

If you keep the same IP address:

1. After grabbing backups, power down the old instance (but not delete)

2. Start up the new instance

3. Provide same IP info at amp-install step

4. Follow through rest of restore process

-> This way if you need to roll back for any reason, you still have the old instance.

If you plan to change the IP address:

1a. Get either an eval or permanent license key for the 2nd server.

1b. Leave the old instance on

2. Start up the new instance

3. Provide new IP info at amp-install step

4. Follow through rest of restore process

5. Decide which IP you prefer to have your AMP on, if you like the old IP, power down the old instance, and give the new instance the old IP.

-> This way you have both running, and can power off the old instance whenever you're happy with the new instance.  Though you may need to repoint controllers to the new AMP IP (for traps).  If you have IAPs, you would have to point them to the new AMP as they can only talk to 1 AMP destination.