HOW TO: Upgrade EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance

EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance:

• is installed separately from the EMC PowerPath/VE for VMware vSphere multipathing product
• provides a simplified RTOOLS deployment
• provides enhanced license management
• provides REST API to retrieve content from PowerPath

EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 has been released:

• PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 Release Notes
• PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide

The high-level upgrade procedure is as the following:

1. Export EMC PP VA 1.2 configuration to a file using the script;
2. Deploy new EMC PP VA 2.0
3. Import the configuration file

Here are the detailed steps:

1. Download PowerPath_Virtual_Appliance_2.0_Package.zip package from EMC Support Portal;
2. Unzip the export_vApp1.x_Config script from and then copy it to the EMC PowerPath VirtualAppliance 1.2 VM;
3. SSH into the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2 VM and then run the script to export the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2 configuration.

   login as: root
   Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
   Password:
   Last login: Wed May 13 10:55:02 2015
   epp001:~ # cd /tmp
   epp001:/tmp # chmod +x export_vApp1.x_Config
   epp001:/tmp # ./export_vApp1.x_Config
   [2015-05-13 11:59:01,390] Copying vCenter servers in vcenterserver.xml file.
   
   [2015-05-13 11:59:01,466] Moving vcenterserver.xml file in current folder.
   mv: `/tmp/vcenterserver.xml' and `./vcenterserver.xml' are the same file
   
   [2015-05-13 11:59:01,471] Creating zip archive.
   zip warning: name not matched: /etc/emc/*.lic
   adding: SERVED_142261213XXXX.lic (deflated 25%)
   adding: vcenterserver.xml (deflated 24%)
   adding: deployment_params.properties (deflated 28%)
   
   Virtual Appliance Deployment Parameters
   =======================================
   Host name      : epp001.vstrong.local
   Search Domain  : vstrong.local
   NTP Server     : 10.100.1.1,10.200.1.1
   IP             : 10.100.168.88
   Gateway        : 10.100.168.254
   Subnet mask    : 255.255.255.0
   DNS Server     : 10.100.100.1,10.200.100.1

4. Copy the resulting vApp1.x_Config.zip file to the local desktop or a remote location.
5. Take note of the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance deployment parameter details.
   The parameters are not copied from EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2 for security reasons and therefore requires manual re-entry in EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0.

   Virtual Appliance Deployment Parameters
   =======================================
   Host name      : epp001.vstrong.local
   Search Domain  : vstrong.local
   NTP Server     : 10.100.1.1,10.200.1.1
   IP             : 10.100.168.88
   Gateway        : 10.100.168.254
   Subnet mask    : 255.255.255.0
   DNS Server     : 10.100.100.1,10.200.100.1

6. Power down the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2 VM.
   NOTE: Do not delete the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2 VM until after successful EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 import.
7. Deploy EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 with the same EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance Deployment Parameters (see step 5) as EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2.
8. Power up the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 VM.
9. Configure EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 2.0 VM:
   • Enable VMware Tools
     Run /opt/ADG/etc/init.d/check-vmware-tools
     This script configures VMware Tools and starts it.

     epp001:~ # /opt/ADG/etc/init.d/check-vmware-tools
     Vmware Tools Version - 9.4.0 build-1280544
     Configuring VMware Tools for Linux Kernel - 3.0.101-0.46-default...
     Initializing...
     
     Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.
     
     Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
     Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
     Unmounting HGFS shares:                                             done
     Guest filesystem driver:                                            done
     
     {skipped}
     
     You can now run VMware Tools by invoking "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd" from the command line.
     
     {skipped}
     
     VMware Tools configuration successful.

10. Open EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance web console, observe nice new interface and login
    
11. In the 2.0 PowerPath Virtual Appliance web console, navigate to System > Settings > Import Backup File and then import the vApp1.x_Config.zip file.
    BTW, you may need to refresh the web console window to be able to click on System
    
    Click OK to confirm you are sure to import the file.
12. Backup successfully restored
    
    When I re-deployed the EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance, I changed the host name and therefore I got a warning:
    
13. Navigate back to PowerPath Licenses and confirm the license assignment
    In one of my environments, the license assignment got lost and all hosts were reported as unlicensed. Navigate to Inventory > VCenter Servers, highlight the vCenter and click on Repoll ESX Hosts button.
14. After you finish
    • After successful import, EMC PowerPath Virtual Appliance 1.2 can be deleted.
    • Reboot is not required after upgrades using the upgrade script.

Hope this will help.