Newbie question - Upgrade Procedure when you have multiple servers

The upgrade advisor is nice as it tell me in which order to upgrade the software modules( SAM, IPAM, etc ) , but what about the procedures shutting down services, installing the upgrades, and starting services back up again?

In my prod setup I have

Primary Orion Server

Several APE's servers

NTA Flow Db server

MS SQL Server

Say I am upgrading IPAM. Technically, that affects all on the primary server the SQL Server ( assuming database changes ). Do I run the upgrade installer on the Primary Orion Server, and don't touch anything else? Or, because the SQL Server is a shared resource, should I shut down services on the APE servers so that there is no conflict between the IPAM database changes and what the APE's are writing to the database?

This is where understanding how each component works and what resources it accesses would come in handy. Any takers?

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jkuvlesk

Have you taken a look at the multi-product upgrade guide? This should provide you more guidance. @thedoclady, any recommendations? https://support.solarwinds.com/Success_Center/Network_Performance_Monitor_(NPM)/Upgrade_Multiple_SolarWinds_Products

thedoclady

Hi ikomrad! The upgrade guide JK posted can help!

If you are upgrading only 1 product, you can use the single produce upgrade guide. It has all the steps to follow. If only upgrading IPAM, you'll need to:

Make sure the version you are upgrading to is compatible with your environment. The Product Upgrade Advisor can help. With the upgrade path, time to prep and upgrade.
Backup the DB.
Shut down services on the main poller and run the upgrade per the upgrade path. Run the configuration wizard.
Upgrade each additional polling engine. Run the configuration wizard.
Bring up services and test.

For very detailed instructions:

Upgrade a Single SolarWinds Product - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support - Works for upgrading any single Orion product!
Upgrade Multiple SolarWinds Products - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support - Works for upgrading multiple Orion products!

Also check the release notes. Go here and search product name, version number, and release notes. Here is a list of all release notes to search against on the Success Center (our knowledge base). You can also search for the latest system requirements.

Feel free to ask more questions, and we can provide more info!