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How to upgrade the NPM 12.1 to 12.4 in solarwinds

Hi Team,

we are going to upgrade the solarwinds NPM 12.1 to 12.4. could you please provide steps and suggestions.

meanwhile we are going to upgrade the NTA 4.2 to 4.4 any separate flow storage required or include we can store in SQL.

could you provide solutions.

Thanks and Regards,

Krish. 

  • There is plenty of articles on the support knowledge base, if you have a active support contract, best to raise a ticket for help if you are unsure.

    I recently upgraded our install from 12.1 to 12.4 without issues.

    I'd suggest give  SolarWinds NPM installation preflight checklist a read.

    than completed Install a licensed copy of a legacy NPM version

    the installer takes care of everything really.

    make sure your hardware and software is spec'ed correctly.

    Going to 12.4 we needed to upgrade the OS and hardware specs.

    Here is what i worked out my install.

    We have an Orion and dedicated SQL server

    Orion+NPM+NTA

    • OS: Windows 2019 (64bit)
    • CPU: 3.0Ghz
    • Cores: 12
    • RAM: 32GB
    • Disk Space : 150 GB (OS+APP Data)

    SQL Server

    • OS: Windows 2019 (64bit)
    • Database: SQL 2019
    • CPU: 3.0Ghz
    • Cores: 12
    • RAM: 64
    • Disk Space : 600 GB (OS+APP Data+SQL DB)

    With NTA the Flow Storage Database is no-longer required, so we got rid of the data and started fresh again.

    Our NTA data is stored on the SQL server that Orion is hosted on expect its in a different database instance.

  • Hi Krish,

    I would recommend using the SolarWinds upgrade adviser, you can punch in all of your platform details and it will generate you a fairly good path to follow.

    Product Upgrade Advisor | SolarWinds Customer Portal

  • Hi Ashley,

    Thanks for sharing those information.  We have already taken per hardware documents and database is SQL 2016 sp1 we are using presently.

    in the module upgrade time. do you have face any issues ?if yes ,could you please let us know . we will take precaution our end.

    Thanks and Regards,

    Krish.

  • hello,

    Do we really require 3.x CPU, without 3.x cpu we can not upgrade it.

    thanks

  • Adding one more point

    which ports are required. from additional polling engine to main polling engine.

    I believe below ports are sufficient. if anything required, please let us know.

    17777- APE to MP

    80 -for console opening

    17778

    445

    5671

    1801

    443

    if anything please please let us know.

    thanks and Regards,

    kishore.

  • My organization is planning on making the same jump. Because of new requirements, we are going to have to use new servers, although I'm still undecided on whether or not I want to use the same IP's or not. I would love to hear how your upgrade goes.

    I reached out to support and this was the response:

    Here are the steps for Solarwinds upgrade and migration.

    Kindly migrate the SQL database to SQL server 2017. Please click here (for complete guidelines)

    To migrate your SQL server:
    To move the Database, you will need to back it up on your current server, then restore it on the new Server.
    - Shutdown all of your Orion Services using the Orion Service Manager (you will find this under Advanced Features).
    - Back up the database using the Orion Database Manager tool. (Right click the database and choose "Back Up"
    - Move the backup file to the new server
    - Restore the database to the new SQL server. This can also be done using the Orion Database Manager - simply connect to your new SQL server. When restoring the backup file you will have the option to choose where to store the database and log files. You will need to provide the full path, and all directories on that path must already exist.

    Next is to migrate the application server - There are two options in Solarwinds migration.
    •    Migrating Solarwinds Orion Products to a new server with a new IP and hostname: Click here
    •    Migrating Solarwinds with same IP and hostname: Click here

    How to Migrate Orion Server
    Backup Reports
    - Open Program Files\Solarwinds\Orion
    - Make a backup of the \Reports Folder
    - Move to your new Server
    - These will contain any reports you have created.
    - All other settings will be stored in the database.

    Personalized Logo
    - If you use a personalized logo on your Orion web console, you will need to locate the image file and move this to your new server also.

    Licenses
    - Download the License Manager Tool from your Customer Portal
    - Deactivate your current Orion License
    - ** Note ** If your server connects to the internet via proxy, this tool may not work.
    - In the event that your Orion License does not deactivate please contact Solarwinds Customer Service Team for a license reset.

    Migrate
    - Ensure that both servers will be running the same version of Orion.
    - If the new server is running a newer version, please upgrade the current server before continuing with the migration.
    - Install Orion on the new server, using the replacement license.
    - Run the configuration wizard, and connect to the SQL Server Database again.


    Additional Steps for Servers with a Different IP Address and Hostname
    1) You will need to change all nodes in the database over to your new polling engine.
    - Open the "Monitor Polling Engines" tool. (you will find this under Advanced Features, in Orion in the Start menu)
    - Go to Servers -> Poller Load Balancing
    - Click on the first entry, hold down Shift, and keep pressing the down arrow until every node has been selected.
    - Go to Polling Engines -> Move Selected Nodes to -> (the name of your new server)


    2) You may also need to change your alerts over to the new engine. Any new alerts will be assigned to the new engine automatically; however, some old alerts may still be assigned to the old engine.
    - Open the database in either Database Manager, or SQL Management Studio.
    - Open the Engines table. Take note of the Engine ID next to your new server.
    - Open the Alerts table as Read Write.
    - Change the Engine ID for each Alert to the Engine ID of your new server.

    After the migration, you may now upgrade the NPM 12.1 to NPM 12.4
    The NPM 12.4 installer will also upgrade the other modules to their latest versions.
    Kindly go to customer portal > downloads > You may use offline/online installer. https://customerportal.solarwinds.com/

    Here's the complete guidelines for Solarwinds upgrade: Click here

  • Have you noticed a performance hit because of the shared Orion+NPM+NTA DB server? I was planning on maintaining a separate server for the NTA DB.

  • You second step under "to migrate your SQL server" is not quite correct. There is no option to back up using the Orion Database Manager utility. You must use SQL Server management Studio to do this, then restore to the new SQL server.

  • no we didn't face any issues with upgrading.

    the process was fairly good compared to previous upgrades.

    For the ports you need open, read the SolarWinds Port Requirements​. You need to give this article a really good look over as the list you shared is incomplete, and you going to run into major problems.

    It might look overwhelming but if you get a spreadsheet put the following columns in port number, port type (tcp,udp) source, destination, service, application and fill it out accordingly

  • no i haven't seen a performance hit with the Orion and nta databases being hosted on the same sql server.

    our new sql server 2019 install is on ssd storage.

    compared to our old install its night and day.

    our flow rate is about 7,000/sec

    which the team and myself is very happy about.