How to Migrate Orion to a New Server With Zero Downtime

If you've been using the SolarWindsRegistered OrionRegistered unified IT monitoring platform for more than a few years, it's likely that you've at least once migrated it to a new server. You may have migrated from a physical server to a virtual one, or perhaps you simply needed to migrate to a server running a more modern operating system. Regardless of the reason, you're likely aware that there's a litany of documentation and training videos on the subject. Below are just a few, in case you’re curious.

Index

Deprecation

Now, as many of you have likely discovered during your last upgrade to SolarWindsRegistered Network Performance Monitor (NPM) 12.3, SolarWindsRegistered Server & Application Monitor (SAM) 6.7, or any other product modules released in 2018, support for Windows Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, and SQL Server 2012 were officially deprecated in those releases. You may have stumbled upon that when reviewing the release notes, or during the pre-flight checklist when running the installer.

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Deprecation does not mean that those versions aren’t supported with Network Performance Monitor 12.3, Server & Application Monitor 6.7, etc. Deprecation simply means that new versions released in the future are unlikely to support those older operating systems. These deprecation notices were added at the request of customers like yourself, who asked to be provided with advance notice when future versions of Orion product modules would no longer run on older operating systems or SQL database versions. Those deprecation notices serve to allow customers an opportunity to budget and plan for these changes accordingly, rather than find out during a 3 a.m. change window that the upgrade you planned doesn't support your current OS or database version.

While future product module versions may no longer support Windows Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, or SQL Server 2012, that doesn't mean all previous versions are no longer supported at all. In fact, the latest, currently shipping versions of NPM, SAM, and other SolarWinds products are planned to continue to support running on Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 for many more years to come. So, if you're happy with the versions of product modules you're running today, take your time and don't rush your OS upgrade or server migration. Plan it appropriately. We'll still be here, waiting with a boatload of awesome new features whenever you're ready to upgrade.

Preface

But I digress. Since many of you have planned, or will eventually be planning, to migrate your Orion Platform to Server 2016 or perhaps even Server 2019, this inevitably stirs up painful memories of migrations you have undoubtedly done in the past—whether that was the Orion Platform specifically or some other mission-critical system in your environment. Let's face it, these migrations are typically neither fun or easy. Luckily, we’ll discuss how you can help change that.

Now, over the years, I have performed countless Orion Platform upgrades and migrations. And I, like many of you, have amassed a tremendous treasure trove of tips and tricks for streamlining the process down to an art form. The name of the game here is called downtime, and the less of it you can incur during your migration the sooner you get to go home, and the more you look like a rock star to your boss. What I'm about to show you here is how you can migrate your Orion Platform server with zero downtime!

As I stated above, there is a wealth of information on the subject of migrating the Orion Platform to a new server, and perhaps I overstated it a bit when I suggested that you're doing it wrong. There are multiple different (yet still correct) ways of migrating the Orion Platform from one server to another, and some ways may be faster, easier, or less error prone than others. These migrations typically vary depending upon the type of Orion server role the machine is hosting. This blog post focuses on the main Orion server, but the strategy can apply equally to Additional Polling Engines.

Orion Server Migration Made Easy

Going forward I'll assume you have at least one Orion server running NPM 12.2 or later—that one server being the main Orion server itself. If you're still running NPM 11.5.x, then chances are good you're not planning to migrate directly to Server 2016 or Server 2019 anyway, since 11.5.x isn't supported on either of those operating systems. I'm also going to assume that your Orion Platform server is currently running on Server 2012 or 2012 R2, though this process is equally applicable to those still rocking Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2. I'm also going to assume you have another freshly installed server ready for your Orion Platform migration. Lastly, this document won't be covering database server migrations. If that's what you were hoping for, there's an excellent document on the subject here.

First Things First

As with any good do-it-yourself project, the first order of business is to throw out, or otherwise lose, the instructions. I'm going to be walking you through what I’ve found to be the simplest, fastest, least error-prone manner of migrating the Orion Platform to a new server with absolutely zero downtime. None of those other documents or videos referenced above are going to show you how to do that, so let's just pretend they never existed.

Schedule Your Maintenance Window

While the Orion server should not be going down during the migration, it's always best to plan for the worst and hope for the best. I don't want anyone telling their boss that they decided to migrate their Orion server in the middle of the day because some guy on THWACKRegistered named aLTeReGo told them to do it.

Backup Your Orion Server

Conventional wisdom would tell you that if it can go wrong, it probably will—so be prepared. If your Orion server is running on a virtual machine, take a snapshot prior to the migration just in case. While we won't be messing with that server at all during the migration, it's always good to have a safety net just in case.

Backup Your Orion Database

I can't emphasize this enough. BACKUP YOUR DATABASE! Seriously, just do it. Not sure if the backup from last night completed successfully? Do another one. Everything important is in the database, and with a backup, you can restore from virtually any disaster. If the database is corrupted though and you don't have a good backup to restore from, you may be rebuilding your Orion Platform again from scratch. You don't need to shut down the Orion Platform to take a backup, so go ahead and take another just to be on the safe side. We'll wait.

Need a little extra insurance? Why not give SolarWinds cloud-based server backup a try?

Do Not Upgrade (Yet)

If you’re migrating as part of an upgrade, don't upgrade yet unless you’ll be migrating to Windows Server 2019. It's best to leave the original server fully intact/as-is in the event something goes wrong and you need to roll back. There will be plenty of time to upgrade and play with all the cool new features later. For now, just focus.

Have Faith and Take a Deep Breath

This is going to start off a bit odd, but stick with me and we'll all come out of this together. Start by going to [Settings > All Settings > High Availability Deployment Summary] in the Orion web interface from a web browser on the new machine where you plan to migrate the Orion Platform. Next, click [Setup a New HA Server > Get Started Settings Up a Server > Download Installer Now].

Download the High Availability Secondary Server Installer
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That's right, we'll be using the power of Orion High Availability (HA) to perform this Orion server migration. If at this point you're worried that you can't take advantage of this awesome migration method because you don't own an Orion High Availability license, fret not. Every Orion Platform installation comes with a full 30-day evaluation of High Availability for use on an unlimited number of servers. That's more than enough time for us to complete this migration! If you have no need for Orion High Availability, don't worry. The final steps in this migration process include disabling High Availability, so there's no requirement to purchase anything. However, you might find yourself so smitten with Orion High Availability by the end of the migration that you may wonder how you ever managed to live without it. You've been warned!

Begin Installation On Your New Orion Server

Once downloaded, double-click on the Scalability Engines Installer. Depending on which version of the Orion Platform you're running, the Scalability Engines Installer may look significantly different, so I've included screenshots below from both versions. On the top row, you’ll see screenshots from the Scalability Engines Installer version 1.x and version 2.x below that. Regardless of which version you're running through, the end result should be identical.

Connect to Existing Orion Server on Original Server

Select Server Role to Install

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Once the installation is complete, the installer will walk you through the Configuration Wizard process. Ensure that all settings entered in the Configuration Wizard are identical to those used by your existing Orion server.

Let The Fun Begin

Now that we've installed a secondary Orion server, it's time to join them together into a pool (aka cluster). To do this, we begin by logging into the Orion web interface on your original Orion server. From there go to [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary]. There, you should find listed your original Orion server that you're logged into now, as well as your new Orion server that you just installed in the steps above. Click the “Set up High Availability Pool” button next to the name of your new Orion server.

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Now, if both your existing Orion server and the new server you'll be migrating to are located on the same subnet, you might be prompted to enter different information within the HA Pool creation wizard. It's also important to note that if you're currently running Orion Platform 2017.1 or earlier, it will not be possible to perform this zero-downtime server migration, unless both your existing and new Orion servers are located on the same subnet.

Same Subnet Migration

If both your existing and new Orion servers reside on the same subnet, you’ll be prompted to provide a new, unused IP address on the same subnet as your existing Orion server. This virtual IP (VIP) will be shared between these two Orion servers, as long as they remain in the same HA Pool. The purpose of the VIP is to route traffic to whichever member in the pool is active. If you don't have intentions of keeping HA running after the migration, this IP address will be used only briefly and can be reclaimed at the conclusion of the migration. When you're done entering the IP address, click “Next”.

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Migrating to Server in Different Subnet

If you're migrating to an Orion server on a different subnet than your existing one, then the HA Pool creation wizard will prompt you to provide a virtual hostname rather than a virtual IP address. This name helps ensure users are directed to the “active” member in an HA pool when accessing the Orion web interface whenever failovers occur. If you don't have intentions of keeping HA running after the migration, you can enter anything you like into this field. Once you've populated the “Virtual Host Name” field, click “Next.”

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On the “DNS Settings” step of the HA Pool creation wizard, select your DNS server type or choose “other” from the “DNS Type” drop-down menu if you don't intend on keeping HA running after the migration. If you choose “other,” you can populate any IP address and any DNS zone (even one that doesn't exist) into the fields provided—these values will not be used unless you plan to integrate Orion High Availability with a non-Microsoft and non-BIND DNS server in the future.

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When complete, click “Next” to proceed, review the “Summary,” and click the “Create Pool” button to complete the HA Pool creation process.

Ready, Set, Cut-over!

From the Orion Deployment Summary [Settings > All Settings > High Availability Deployment Summary], select the HA pool you just created. On the right side, click the “Commands” drop-down menu and select “Force Failover.” This should initiate an immediate failover from your old Orion server to your new one. Note that while the cutover time for polling and alerting is typically just a couple of seconds, it may take the Orion web interface a minute or so before it's fully accessible. Unless you were accessing the Orion Web Console using the VIP you assigned earlier, you’ll need to change the URL in your browser to point to the IP address of the new Orion server or the VIP to regain access to the Orion web interface once you've initiated the failover.

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Verify you're cut over to the new server by looking at the pool members listed on the Orion Deployment Summary, specifically their state or roll showed just below their names. Your old Orion server should be listed as “Standby,” and your new Orion server should display as “Active.” Congratulations! You've just completed a successful Orion server migration with zero downtime!

Clean-up

The following steps should be completed within 30 days if you don't currently own or have plans to purchase Orion High Availability to provide continuous monitoring, redundancy, and near-instantaneous failover of your Orion server in the event of a failure. Don't forget that Orion High Availability also helps you maintain that your Orion Platform’s 100% uptime every month when Patch Tuesday rolls around. (Patch Tuesday… or, you know, when Microsoft releases its latest round of operating system hotfixes, all of which inevitably require a reboot.)

Shutdown Old Server

You should start the cleanup process by shutting down your original Orion server. It served you well, and we all know how hard it is to bid a final farewell to such a loyal friend, but its time has come. If you're not immediately planning to destroy the virtual machine or de-rack your old Orion server, you may first want to consider changing its IP address if you plan to use it on your new Orion server. This will ensure that if the old Orion server is started back up, it won't cause an IP address conflict and wreak havoc on your network monitoring. Once you've changed the IP address, resume with shutting down the server before proceeding with the next steps.

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Remove The Pool

From within the Orion web interface, navigate back to the High Availability Deployment Summary by going to [Settings > All Settings > High Availability Deployment Summary]. Click on the name of the Pool you created earlier in the steps above. From the “Commands” drop-down menu on the right select “Remove Pool.”

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Reclaim The Original Orion Server's IP Address

Last, but certainly not least, you may want to reclaim the IP address of your original Orion server by assigning it to your new Orion server. This is simply a matter of logging into the Windows server via RDP (or etc.) and opening the Network Control Panel. I prefer to go to the “Run” command and typing “ncpa.cpl” and <Enter> to open the Network Control Panel without needing to navigate around Windows. Once you've opened the Network Control Panel, right-click on your network interface and select “Properties.” Within the interface properties, select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and click “Properties.”

Network Control PanelInterface Properties
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Update the “IP Address” field by entering the IP of your original Orion server, then click “Advanced.” In the “Advanced TCP/IP Settings,” you’ll find the Virtual IP Address you configured earlier in the steps above—you should be able to safely remove this now. To do so, simply select it by clicking on the IP address with your mouse and then click the “Remove” button. Then, click “OK” on each of the three windows to save your changes.

TCP/IP PropertiesAdvanced TCP/IP Settings
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Update DNS/Machine Name

Do not rename the server itself in Windows. If you have users who are accessing the Orion Web Console via the original server’s name, the best and easiest method of ensuring those users can now access the new server is to create a DNS C-Name that points to the new server. It's always a good idea to have a layer of abstraction between what name end users type into their browser and the name of the server itself. This can help ensure that you can easily redirect those users later, should you want to add an Additional Web Server or re-enable High Availability. To accomplish this, we are going to create a DNS CNAME record for your original Orion server's name that points to the new Orion server. In this example, I'm using Windows DNS, but the same principle applies for really any type of DNS server.

From the DNS Control Panel on your DNS Server, expand “Forward Lookup Zones” and right-click on your domain name and select “New Alias (CNAME).” In my example below, my previous server's FQDN (Fully qualified domain name) was “solarwinds.sw.local” and my new Orion's server name is “pm-aus-jmor-04.sw.local.” In the “Alias name” enter “solarwinds.” The “Fully qualified domain name” field will automatically populate with the alias and domain name. In the “Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for target host” field, enter the FQDN of your new Orion server and click “OK” to save your changes. Lastly, find and delete the ANAME “Host (A)” record for your old Orion server.

DNS Control PanelAdd New Alias (CNAME)
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While this undoubtedly looks like a lot of steps, the process is actually fairly straightforward and I completed it in less than an hour. Now, obviously your mileage may vary, but regardless of how long it may take, there's no simpler way—for which I'm aware—that will allow you to migrate your Orion Platform to a new server with anywhere close to zero downtime. Hopefully, this process will save you a fair bit of time and frustration over the previous methods referenced above. If you have any tips and tricks of your own that have simplified your Orion server migrations, feel free to post them in the comments sections below—we'd love to hear them!

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