Novell Network Management: NetWare 6

Chapter 14: Plan for a NetWare 6 Upgrade or Migration

Objectives:

This chapter concerns performing a network upgrade or migration to NetWare 6, and discusses the differences between methods. The objectives important to this chapter are found on page 14-1:

  1. Review NetWare 6 Operating System Requirements
  2. Upgrade Network and Server Hardware
  3. Prepare the Network for the Migration or Upgrade
  4. Create an Upgrade or Migration Plan
Concepts:

Review NetWare 6 Operating System Requirements

Before beginning the material from the chapter, it would be a good idea to recall the difference between an upgrade and a migration. An upgrade is done when you replace the network operating system on a server, leaving its data intact. A migration is done by moving the data from a server to another server, usually one that has been installed to replace the first server.

Upgrades and migrations each have specific requirements of the existing equipment.

Software requirements for an upgrade to NetWare 6: the server to be upgraded must be running one of the following operating systems.

  • NetWare 5.1, with Support Pack 2 or later
  • NetWare 5, with Support Pack 6 or later
  • NetWare 4.2, with Support Pack 8 or later
  • NetWare 4.11, with Support Pack 8 or later

Hardware requirements for an upgrade to NetWare 6:

Hardware: Minimum required:
CPU Intel Pentium Pro, or later; or AMD Athlon (K7), or later
RAM 256 MB (512 MB is recommended)
Disk space 200 MB DOS partition, with 35 MB free space; and 2 GB of free space for the SYS: volume
Video system SVGA-compatible card and display
Network card One NIC required
Media drive One CD drive required
Mouse

Recommended (although not required, you will not like running the GUI without a mouse):

  • USB
  • PS/2
  • Serial mouse

Three rights are needed to perform an upgrade:

  • Supervisor right to the Root of your eDirectory tree
  • Supervisor right to the container that holds the server object
  • Read right to the Security container object in your tree
Upgrade Network and Server Hardware

The first section of the chapter was about minimum requirements. In this section of the chapter, Novell makes recommendations above the minimums for improved performance.

You can improve the performance of a network that runs at 10 Mbps by upgrading all the NICs, hubs, switches, and cables to support 100 Mbps. This recommendation is accurate, but you should check the costs of such a change before proposing it. In general, you will not have to change all your network hardware at once, as long as you buy device that are compatible with multiple bandwidths.

Some higher performance components for the servers will also help the network run better:

Hardware: Recommendation:
CPU
  • Multiple processors
  • Pentium III or higher
  • 750 MHz (or faster) processors
RAM
  • Use RDRAM or DDR RAM
  • 1 GB or more of RAM
Disk space
  • Storage Area Network
  • RAID 5
Network cards
  • 64-bit PCI cards
  • 100 Mbps or faster for servers
  • Multiple NICs for servers
Prepare the Network for the Migration or Upgrade

This is the first section of what Novell refers to as a project. Project management is important to all technical professionals. Network administrators are no exception.

Novell recommends that you make two full backups of eDirectory and of you file system before performing an upgrade or a migration. Migrations are generally considered safer, and less likely to lose data, but the recommendation stands. Backups should be verified as being accurate. If anything goes wrong with the upgrade or migration process, you will need a verified backup to restore your system to its previous condition.

After making and verifying backups, you should run Deployment Manager to determine if your network is ready to upgrade. First, you may need to upgrade the version of eDirectory in your tree. Not all versions will work with NetWare 6.

After that, you will prepare to upgrade to eDirectory 8.6, which installs with NetWare 6. (Yes, this bothered me at first, too. Why did we have to perform the previous step? You must accept that you can't go directly to the current version of eDirectory from some earlier versions.) You will update the schema of your tree to be compatible with the default schema in eDirectory 8.6.

Last, you may need to upgrade the version of Certificate Authority on your system, if you are running a NetWare 5 server. This does not need to be done if you are running NetWare 4.11 or 5.1.

Create an Upgrade or Migration Plan

The last, and longest, section of the chapter involves making a plan for your upgrade or migration.

The chapter introduces an older terminology that may help you understand the difference between the two options for servers: in-place upgrade or across-the-wire migration. In an upgrade, the data on a server remains in place on that server. In a migration, a server's data will migrate across network wires to another server. Some features of each option are presented to help make the choice of which to perform.

Upgrade Migration
Faster than a migration, usually about 30 to 45 minutes. No data copied to a second machine. Slower than an upgrade, limited by network speed. The amount of data to be copied will extend the time needed.
Less hardware needed: one server. That server may need new components to run NetWare 6. Needs the original server, the new server, and a workstation to run the migration from.
Process is simple, similar to an initial installation. Process is more complex, more things can go wrong.
Since one machine is involved, more danger of data loss exists. Since the original data remains on the original server until deleted, risk of data loss is minimal.

In general, you should be able to read a story problem and choose what must be done to move your network to NetWare 6. If speed of upgrade is essential, and all hardware is adequate, an in-place upgrade would be best. If potential loss of data is a concern, the best choice is a migration.

This concludes the topic of server upgrade/migration strategy.

eDirectory Strategy

Two strategies are presented for eDirectory. The text cautions that neither is inherently better than the other, but one may be better in your specific environment.

  • Top-Down Upgrade - This means that you still choose to migrate or upgrade, but you start at the top of the tree with the server that holds the master replica of the Root partition. After that server, you continue down the tree, migrating or upgrading the other servers. This plan is simple, but has the potential to propagate problems throughout the network if a problem occurs early in the plan.
  • Bottom-Up Upgrade - This is the opposite of the plan above. You begin with servers at the bottom of tree, and move up toward the server that holds the master replica of the Root partition. This strategy presents less probability of errors being propagated through the tree.
Create a Flow of Events

This means that you should create a script for every task in your plan. Include how long it will take to do each action, and when it must be done. In the sense of project management, you should include steps to record tasks as being done on time, ahead of schedule, or behind schedule. Watch for dependencies: the entire project can be delayed by a delay in a step that other steps depend upon.

Assign Roles and Responsibilities

This adds more project management aspects. Roles such as specialists for backups, eDirectory, hardware, and NetWare may need to be assigned, so that specific people are given the responsibility of carrying out the tasks you have identified. Your flow of events should guide you to keep you from assigning people to tasks that take too much time for one person to perform. Also, avoid assigning tasks to be done concurrently that need to be done sequentially.