[TUTORIAL] Successful upgrade from 3.4 to 5.3

rayk_sland

Active Member
Jul 30, 2009
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scenario:
  • 4 proxmox 3.4 nodes with AOE shared lvm storage backend. No containers, just KVM vms.
objective:
  • upgrade cluster to 5.3
method:
  • migrate all vms off of one node
  • install new 5.3 from iso on unoccupied node. (boot off of iso. I used a burned dvd)
  • reconnect (now) 5.3 node to all shared storage. use same name for storage as before. (I've got one aoe shared storage and two nfs)
  • shutdown some vms running on a remaining 3.4 node for manual migration
  • copy vm XXX.conf files of the downed vms from /etc/pve/nodes/<3.4 NODENAME>/qemu-server/ to /etc/pve/nodes/<5.3 NODENAME>/qemu-server/ (I 'cat'ed the file on one terminal and copy/pasted into an editor on the other)
  • start the vms on the new server.
  • boot the 5.3 install iso on the next unoccupied node
  • reconnect it to all shared storage
  • create cluster (use the first node. clusters object to joining nodes with vms already on them. I didn't. I had to shutdown vms, backup the XXX.conf files on the first node and copy them back after joining the cluster)
  • manually migrate more vms off the next node to be upgraded.
  • proceed till whole cluster is upgraded
comments:
  • I found this way easier than upgrading the OS with apt-get. I was able to jump two major versions ahead without much fuss
  • Obviously containers would have made this much more complicated
  • Maybe lvm storage was a factor in how easy this was. Maybe not.
  • obviously there is risk that some bozo will restart vms on the un-upgraded nodes. Thankfully we are a very small shop and nobody will do that.
 
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