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How I Migrated From Orion 2017.3 to 2020.2.1 With No Issues and Minimal Downtime

Let's get to the point, you need to upgrade to Orion 2020.2.1 and I want to help.

I'm sure you've read all the articles in the Success Center and even contemplated that one method you read about doing this with "Zero Downtime". Well instead, I'm just going to tell you what I did and hope it at least helps a couple people who might be currently pressured into upgrading. *cough*

This method will even give you the ability to fall back should you have any issues.

My previous environment:

  • (1) Windows 2012 R2 Server running Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1
  • (1) SolarWinds Orion Server running NPM version 12.2 on Windows Server 2012 R2
  • (1) SolarWinds NTA Server running on Windows Server 2012 R2

Let's begin by prepping:

Since I am on Windows Server 2012R2 for everything, I will need to upgrade and migrate both my SQL server and OS.

Start by powering down that NTA server of yours. You wont need it. Orion version 2020.2.1 now creates a new NTA database on the same SQL server that the Orion database gets placed on. This will happen during the configuration wizard for the 2020.2.1 install.

The next thing I did was create (2) brand new Windows 2019 servers.

  • 1 - Windows Server 2019 running Microsoft SQL 2019
  • 1 - Windows Server 2019 that will be my main Orion server

Allocate resources to your new servers based on the Orion platform requirements (my environment was classified as "Large SLX")

At this point, you should now have (2) Windows 2019 Servers. The one with SQL 2019 is setup and ready to go and another that will be your new SolarWinds Orion server, which is just sitting there waiting in anticipation.

Download SolarWinds Orion Platform v.2020.2.1 from your customer portal and place it on the desktop of your new 2019 Orion Server. 

Log in as the Local Administrator on the new Orion server and run the installer. DO NOT PROCEED WITH THE CONFIGURATION WIZARD. We will do this when it's time to cut over. Just cancel when you get to this step.

Your environment is now prepped and we can start the migration.

Let's Migrate:

Start by logging into vCenter or HyperV and create a snapshot of your current Orion server. Just for fun.

Now, log into your current Orion web portal and deactivate your licenses

Migrate any legacy reports you have over to the new server:

  • (Optional) If you have legacy reports, back up the reports folder to save your custom reports:
  • 64 bit OS: C:\Program Files x86\Solarwinds\Orion\Reports
    32 bit OS: C:\Program Files\Solarwinds\Orion
    For NCM, you may need to back up the following folders (found in C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\NCM or C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\NCM):
  • Reports
    Config Archive
    Scripts
    Device Command Templates

Once your licenses have been deactivated; reports have been moved, go ahead and power down your old Orion server. 

Now, log into the SQL server holding your current Orion database and create a FULL backup. Don't wait on your DBA, you can do it yourself. I believe in you. 

Once the backup is done, go ahead and copy it to your new SQL 2019 SQL Server and restore it using the same link in the last step. You will no longer need that old SQL Server of yours. (For SolarWinds at least...)

Once the database has been restored, you will need to select the newly restored database on your new SQL 2019 server an execute the following query, replacing 'Server 1' with the NetBIOS name of your OLD Orion server and 'Server 2' with the NetBIOS name of your NEW Orion server:

DECLARE @oldHostname nvarchar(max)
SET @oldHostname = 'Server1'
DECLARE @newHostname nvarchar(max)
SET @newHostname = 'Server2'

UPDATE Engines SET ServerName = @newHostname WHERE ServerName = @oldHostname
UPDATE WebSettings SET SettingValue = @newHostname WHERE SettingName = 'JobSchedulerHost'
UPDATE Websites SET ServerName = @newHostname WHERE ServerName = @oldHostname
UPDATE OrionServers SET HostName = @newHostname WHERE HostName = @oldHostname

Just to recap, we've deactivated our licenses, backed up our database on the old server, restored it on the new server, updated the databased to reflect the NetBIOS name of our new server, and powered down the old Orion server.

Now on your new Orion server, go ahead and start the configuration wizard I told you to skip earlier. Follow the steps on the configuration wizard and select the option to use an existing database. Point it to your new SQL 2019 Server and use the SA account to create the initial connection. The configuration wizard will then ask if you want to create a new account for SolarWinds to use instead. Please do this and do not actually use your SQL SA account. 

The configuration wizard will now prompt for the same thing, but now for the new NTA database. Choose to create a new database for it on the new 2019 SQL server. Use that new account you created in the last step for accessing the Orion database.

Once the configuration wizard is finished you should now be able to access your new Orion server via the web portal to reactivate the licenses. 

When I went to reactivate my licenses, I experienced an error about my license store being corrupted. You can fix that here.

At this point you should be good to go, but I will include a few bonus steps I did once I confirmed it was able to log in on the new portal and my data was showing:

  • Changed the IP on my new server to the IP that was on the old server. This will require you to re-run the configuration wizard. You can just "next > next" through it. This is needed for any nodes only allowing SNMP via a specific IP.
  • Deleted the DNS A record of my old Orion server and created a CNAME record for the old Orion server pointing to the new Orion server. This was for getting my servers with the Orion agent installed back to being monitored quickly. If you decide to change the name of your Orion server later on, you will just need to re-run the configuration wizard again. 

While I can't guarantee the same process goes as smoothly for everyone else, especially if you have multiple polling engines (please see  comment below for help with APE's) this process only took me (1.5) hours to complete after I had already pre-staged everything along side my old environment. 

Should for whatever reason you need to fall back, all you will have to do is power on the old Orion server and reactivate your licenses. (Assuming you haven't changed the hostname and IP of your new Orion server to match. This is why I created a CNAME and tested my access to the portal first.)

Hope this helps!

References:

EDIT: Updated the article to include the step of updating the restored database with the name of your new Orion server. Kudos to  for pointing this out as this was step I had to do as well. 

  • This is a question better asked to Solarwinds reps themselves. We were already pretty close to 2020.2.1 HF1 so we felt comfortable with the imgration.

  • Oh, hello there misconfigured firewall rules!

    For some reason, completely beyond any of us, the "Solarwinds Agent Management" windows firewall rule,  port 17778 inbound was set to only allow "public" traffic, not "Domain" or "private."

    As soon as we opened that up, we were able to get our agents check in and now we're about 95% recovered.

    So that's another important troubleshooting note: Check your firewall rules! Ideally document them before you start.

  • thanks for chiming in with additional tips!
  • I would recommend checking out the Upgrade Resource Center: https://support.solarwinds.com/upgrade-resource-center

    More specifically, the Product Upgrade Advisor: https://customerportal.solarwinds.com/support/product-upgrade-advisor

    Let us know if you have any questions. We'll be here to assist where we can.
  • Hi llemieux,

      Thanks for the update. We are also planning for the same approach. We have prepared design document and Hardware & Software requirements for the solarwinds latest version upgrade.

      Totally 11 servers we are using like below

      2 Main Polling Engine - 2 Servers

      15 APE                       - 5 Servers (3 APE each stack-able one)

       1 AWS                       - 1 Servers

       2 SQL Always one    - 2 servers

       NTA (FSDB)             - 1 Server (Prepared different SQL server for NTA) - Installing SQL application on existing NTA server.

      So we are planning

      * to build a new 11 servers setup for latest version with required capacity

      * Database and report writer backup

      * IP Cut-over from existing to New step

      * Then, application installation

      * backup storage

     This is what our plan for new step. Will it be fine? or anything else need to focus?

    Regards

    Prem

  • THIS!!!! I am so thankful for this post as I have been dreading and putting off my migration/update. I still have my large SLX NPM install to do, but I have at least gotten NTA moved over and it was as smooth as could be.

    For reference I had NPM 12.1/Orion 2017.1.3 SP3 and NTA 4.2.2 on 2012 servers and I'm on the latest and greatest on 2016 servers and SQL 2019. I wrote my process up based on this post, but I am more then happy to share my step by step MOP plus back outs if someone would like to see more examples of doing an upgrade.