Coincidentally, just this last weekend I upgraded an FAS940 from 6.5.5 to 7.2.2, as well as two FAS3020s from 7.0.5 to 7.2.3. (There wasn't a specific reason for doing 7.2.2 on one and 7.2.3 on the other, it just worked out that way because I talked to two different Netapp support staff about the different servers.)
All the updates went completely painlessly and smoothly. I was a little concerned about the big jump from 6.5 but have not as yet discovered any problems or interruptions in service from the update.
One thing that I think helped the update go smoothly is this time I contacted Netapp support and requested Upgrade Plans for each server, which I'd never done before. (I've just historically done the upgrades myself without help.) I was especially concerned with the 3020s because there were several firmware updates to apply and I wasn't entirely sure what the correct order should be.
Netapp provided me PDFs of fairly detailed instructions for the upgrades. You can also have them provide a Downgrade Plan in the event of problems. I highly recommend taking advantage of that very helpful service, even if you're fairly familiar with he process. (It's also nice to have an official plan already drawn up to file with the Change Control teams.)
Though the UGAs are a good start, they are far from great. In our experience they have been canned output that doesn't confirm specifics for your environment or situation. If you do request a UGA, read it carefully and look for holes so you can fill them before you are in the middle of an outage window only to find something missing. C-
Sphar, Mike wrote:
Coincidentally, just this last weekend I upgraded an FAS940 from 6.5.5 to 7.2.2, as well as two FAS3020s from 7.0.5 to 7.2.3. (There wasn’t a specific reason for doing 7.2.2 on one and 7.2.3 on the other, it just worked out that way because I talked to two different Netapp support staff about the different servers.)
All the updates went completely painlessly and smoothly. I was a little concerned about the big jump from 6.5 but have not as yet discovered any problems or interruptions in service from the update.
One thing that I think helped the update go smoothly is this time I contacted Netapp support and requested Upgrade Plans for each server, which I’d never done before. (I’ve just historically done the upgrades myself without help.) I was especially concerned with the 3020s because there were several firmware updates to apply and I wasn’t entirely sure what the correct order should be.
Netapp provided me PDFs of fairly detailed instructions for the upgrades. You can also have them provide a Downgrade Plan in the event of problems. I highly recommend taking advantage of that very helpful service, even if you’re fairly familiar with he process. (It’s also nice to have an official plan already drawn up to file with the Change Control teams.)
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Michael W. Sphar - IS&T - Lead Systems Administrator
SMBU Engineering Support Services, BMC Software
*From:* owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] *On Behalf Of *Philip Boyle *Sent:* Monday, September 24, 2007 10:19 AM *To:* toasters@mathworks.com *Subject:* ONTAP UPGRADE - FEEDBACK REQUEST
Hi guys,
I’m currently running a number of FAS940 clusters with DATA ONTAP Version 7.0.4 (Sun Feb 5 00:52:53 PST 2006 )
Primarily NFS with some ISCSI.
I’d like to hear back from you re your experiences upgrading to the current s/w releases available on the NOW Site for the FAS940
series system.
http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/software?product=Data+ONTAP&platform=F... http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/software?product=Data+ONTAP&platform=FAS940.
Our immediate options are to take a small step to 7.0.6, move up a little further to 7.1.2.1 or go for the latest and greatest, 7.2.3.
Have you guys seen any issues along the upgrade path to any of the above releases?
Looking at the stats there are a decent number of systems running 7.2.3, however the average run-time days per system
is quite low.
Feedback appreciated.
Thanks,
Philip
Yes, it's definitely good advice to look over them. In my case they seemed pretty thorough, recommending firmware updates based on my specific installed hardware, etc. This was the first time I'd taken advantage of this assistance though.
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Chris Blackmor -
Sphar, Mike