Planning for the procedure

Background knowledge

This procedure assumes that:

  • you are installing into an existing VMware vSphere deployment which has pre-configured networks and VLANs; this procedure does not cover setting up a VMware vSphere deployment from scratch

  • you are upgrading an existing downlevel deployment for REM.

  • you have deployed a SIMPL VM, and have followed all the pre-upgrade steps.

Reserve maintenance period

This procedure requires a maintenance period. When integrating into a live network, we recommend that you implement measures to mitigate any unforeseen events.

Plan for service impact

Misconfiguration could disrupt services for existing network elements.

People

You must be a system operator to perform the MOP steps.

Tools and access

You must have access to the SIMPL VM, and the SIMPL VM must have the right permissions on the VMware vSphere deployment.

Method of procedure

Note Refer to the SIMPL VM Documentation for details on the commands mentioned in the procedure.

See CSAR EFIX patches to learn more on the CSAR EFIX patching process.

Deployments using SIMPL 6.7.3

Step 1 - Upgrade the downlevel REM VMs

Run csar update --vnf rem --sdf <path to SDF>.

Note To perform a canary upgrade, run csar update --vnf rem --sites <site> --service-group <service_group> --index-range <range> --sdf <path to SDF>. The indexes start from 0, therefore 0 is the first VM. The range accepts ranges as well as comma separated indexes (e.g. 1-3,7,9). Only the nodes specified in the index will be upgraded.

This will validate the uplevel SDF, generate the uplevel Terraform template, upload the uplevel image, and then it will start the upgrade.

The following will occur one REM node at a time:

  • The downlevel node will be quiesced.

  • The uplevel node will be created and boot up.

  • The VM will automatically start applying configuration from the files you uploaded to CDS in the above steps. During this phase, the status of the VM in MDM will be Orange.

  • Once configuration is complete, the status will change to Green, and the node will be ready for service. At this point the csar update command will move on to the next REM VM, or report that the upgrade of the REM was successful if all nodes have now been upgraded.

  • Once the upgrade is complete, place calls and run any additional validation tests to verify the uplevel VMs are working as expected.

Backout procedure

If the upgrade has brought up uplevel VMs to replace the downlevel VMs, then the uplevel VMs can be rolled back to the downlevel VMs. To rollback, repeat the steps above with the downlevel REM CSAR and downlevel SDF.

You may need to use the --skip pre-update-checks flag as part of the csar update command. The --skip pre-update-checks flag allows rollbacks when a node is unhealthy.

If the upgrade has failed to bring up the uplevel VMs or the rollback has failed to bring up the downlevel VMs, then you must redeploy the downlevel VMs. run csar redeploy --vnf rem --sites <site> --sdf <path to SDF>.

Diagnostics during the quiesce stage

When the downlevel VMs are quiesced, they upload some diagnostics to the CDS. These may be useful if the upgrade or rollback fails.

To get these diagnostics, follow instructions from Retrieving deployment TAS audit logs with export-audit-history and Retrieving Initconf and Rhino logs with export-log-history.

Deployments using SIMPL 6.6.x

Step 1 - Validate the SDF

Run csar validate-vsphere --sdf <path to SDF>.

This will validate the uplevel SDF.

Step 2 - Generate the Terraform Template

Run csar generate --vnf rem --sdf <path to SDF>.

This will generate the terraform template.

Step 3 - Upgrade the downlevel REM VMs

Run csar update --vnf rem.

Note To perform a canary upgrade, run csar update --vnf rem --sites <site> --service-group <service_group> --index-range <range>. The indexes start from 0, therefore 0 is the first VM. The range accepts ranges as well as comma separated indexes (e.g. 1-3,7,9). Only the nodes specified in the index will be upgraded.

This will upload the uplevel image, then it will start the upgrade.

The following will occur one REM node at a time:

  • The downlevel node will be quiesced.

  • The uplevel node will be created and boot up.

  • The VM will automatically start applying configuration from the files you uploaded to CDS in the above steps. During this phase, the status of the VM in MDM will be Orange.

  • Once configuration is complete, the status will change to Green, and the node will be ready for service. At this point the csar update command will move on to the next REM VM, or report that the upgrade of the REM was successful if all nodes have now been upgraded.

  • Once the upgrade is complete, place calls and run any additional validation tests to verify the uplevel VMs are working as expected.

Backout procedure

If the upgrade has brought up uplevel VMs to replace the downlevel VMs, then the uplevel VMs can be rolled back to the downlevel VMs. To rollback, repeat the steps above with the downlevel REM CSAR and downlevel SDF.

You may need to use the --skip-pre-update-checks flag as part of the csar update command. The --skip-pre-update-checks flag allows rollbacks when a node is unhealthy.

If the upgrade has failed to bring up the uplevel VMs or the rollback has failed to bring up the downlevel VMs, then you must redeploy the downlevel VMs. run csar deploy --redeploy --vnf rem --sites <site>.

Diagnostics during the quiesce stage

When the downlevel VMs are quiesced, they upload some diagnostics to the CDS. These may be useful if the upgrade or rollback fails.

To get these diagnostics, follow instructions from Retrieving deployment TAS audit logs with export-audit-history and Retrieving Initconf and Rhino logs with export-log-history.

Next Step

Follow the post upgrade instructions here: Post rolling upgrade using CSAR EFIX patch steps

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