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Upgrade Path from SolarWinds Product Advisor and Need Suggestions

Hello Experts,

Question 1:

We need suggestions:

We are planning for an upgrade, following are the current status and results from SolarWinds Upgrade Advisor,

Current Environment:

Orion Server MPE, MS Windows Server 2016, .NET 4.8
DB
Server, MS Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2016 SP2

APE Server, MS Windows Server 2016, .NET 4.8

Product Upgrade Advisor results:

Selected Current Product Versions:

Orion Platform 2018.4 SP3

APE’s 2018.4 SP3
N
PM 12.4
N
TA 4.5.0
S
AM 6.8.0

VMAN 8.4.0

NCM 7.9

DPAIM 11.11

VNQM 4.5.1

Toolset 11.0.7

Target Product Version:

Orion Platform 2019.4

APE’s 2019.4
N
PM 2019.4
N
TA 2019.4
S
AM 2019.4.1

VMAN 2019.4

NCM 2019.4

DPAIM 11.11

VNQM 2019.4

Toolset 2019.4

Status: Success

Kindly suggest, Can we proceed with Database: MS SQL Server 2016 SP2, and

Operating System: MS Windows Server 2012 R2 in our environment and leave as it, or should we need to upgrade Database OS Windows Server 2012 R2 to 2016 or later before performing an upgrade.

And if we really need to upgrade DB,s OS, then what is the best way, in-place up-gradation or migration?

Question 2:

If we want a DB server in a virtual environment, then what will be the requirements for this case (Hardware, CPU, Memory, Disk or I/O requirements, etc) according to our environment. Or if anyone has a link for documentation or requirements from SolarWinds.

Question 3:

Are there any other factors that should be taken care of regarding DB optimization done prior to the upgrade/migrations.

 

Thank you.

  • Q1:
    As long as the Database is SQL2016 you are good to go for now. SQL Server OS is not that big of a concern.

    keep in mind, that you eventually need to upgrade that as well. But moving the Database is no big deal. I am personally not a fan of in place upgrades, but I have done those as well.

    Q2:

    there are some documents on virtual environments, I need to dig a little

    Q3:

    have your database maintenance running, have a DBA take a look at the server from time to time

    hope that helps

  • Windows Server 2012 and MSSQL 2012 are not supported with 2019.4. Windows Server 2016 and MSSQL 2014 are the earliest versions supported. If you have to upgrade your OS and Database server anyway, I would recommend upgrading to Windows Server 2019 and MSSQL 2019.

  • Is the installer now able to read the OS of the Database Server? The Orion Machines are Server 2016. would the DB OS really make the difference?

    while I wholeheartedly agree that the 2012 R2 Server should be upgraded to a newer version, the now scheduled upgrade should run through.

    I am not a big fan of doing multiple steps at the same time, so the DB Server Upgrade could be done separately.

  • Thanks HerrDoktor​ for your very well explained answers of my questions, and yes database maintenance are running and also DBA look at the server from time to time.

    What i wonder, we have also an option to migrate our current DB instance to a new physical machine running server 2016. So if we migrate to the new one, what are the sizing requirements for this process.and do you know with this enviroment, roughly how much is the down time would be required?

    And last option, it also could be Physical 2 Virtual (P2V) migration of our DB server, currently understood this is not advised due to the high IO workload of SolarWinds. If possible, if you could send me any documentation about this option as well.

    Thanks

  • That's what I am wondering if all Orion machines are on Server 2016 and DB OS is running at 2012 R2, what could be impacted if we just upgrade our Orion products only.

  • Llike mentioned earlier, I would do this in a separate task. When migrating Databases I usually do a Backup/Restore procedure.

    in your case:

    - stop all Orion related services on MPE/APE

    - back up your Orion Database(s) and make a snapshot of your current MPE/APE

    - take those DBs offline, so you know when something with the redirects is not going as expected.

    - copy the DB BAK files to your new SQL Box and restore the Databases

    - check if you have any tasks/Maintenace Plans running on your Old SQL that you need to copy over

    - start the Config wizard on your MPE and point to the new SQL Server in the Conf-Wiz menu.
    - Let the config wizard create your SWDB users for you, those will have the correct permissions then.- start config wizard on your APE, point to the new SQL Server like on your MPE, letting the wizard create the SWDB users

    - test your system


    that should be it

  • Downtime really depends how fast you can copy over the BAK files and restore them. Config wizard should be done in 10 Minutes depending on the Database size.

    sizing requirements also depend on multiple factors.

    - polling intervals

    - retention time

    - number of systems/nodes

    - number of monitors (application etc.)

    as for CPU/Memory for the SQL ... the more the merrier

  • Thanks a lot, Dear HerrDoktor​. Your feedback and expert review will help me, and just for curiosity, if later you will find something relevant to P2V migration documentation then please forward me.

    Thanks

  • Here are the basic SQL guidelines SQL Server Configuration Best Practices

    if you really want to virtualize the database, have a blazing fast storage system for it, otherwise this will most likely be your bottleneck.

    When tuning SQL keep the following in mind:

    - each alert you set up is a SQL Query, use custom properties wisely.

    - building complex Grouping structures can be heavy on the database, use Custom properties for this, many things can be done without groups, so don’t overdo it on groups

    - polling intervals write the results to the database in that given interval.... do you need to check a disk every 10 seconds if it surpasses a warning threshold? Do. Ou need to check your unimportant servers in the same frequency as your important ones?

  • ift_mcg  wrote:

    That's what I am wondering if all Orion machines are on Server 2016 and DB OS is running at 2012 R2, what could be impacted if we just upgrade our Orion products only.

    The database server operating system is irrelevant. If you are running SQL 2016 on Windows Server 2012 R2, that is perfectly fine. Orion only cares about the OS version of the machine where the application itself is installed on, as well as the MSSQL database version.