Upgrade Solarwinds servers and SQL from 2008 to 2016

Glory,

Are you trying to simulate the 4 physical boxes you have to make sure your configuration works?  If so, you have a few option: VMWare Player, Oracle Virtualbox, or Windows Hyper-V.  The only issue you may face with VMWare player is there may be some inter-VM connectivity issues, however, take that with a grain of salt, as I haven't used VMWare player in some time.  You could also go the path of configuring an ESXi server on the one physical box you have to test, but that's a bit more in-depth.  You could find the configurations for that on Youtube, as some folks have done guides on how to install/configure ESXi.

I hope that helps,

Bryan

Hi gidema few questions:

What software versions are your existing modules?

What version of SQL are you running now, and what will you be migrating to on the new machine (or will you stay the same)

Do you want to test everything in lab first, or are you looking for a production upgrade using the spare machine as a rolling redundancy?

Thanks Bryan for your response. I want to demo 3 of the boxes. I am concern about "there may be some inter-VM connectivity issues" cause all our 4 boxes are in the same IP domain. I've never use ESXI but will look into it.

Hi David,

Thanks for your response. See my answers below:

What software versions are your existing modules?: NPM 12.1, NCM7.6, IPAM 4.3.2, SAM 6.4.0, NTA 4.2.2

What version of SQL are you running now: SQL 2008 R2 Enterprise which will also be upgraded to SQL 2016 Std.

and what will you be migrating to on the new machine (or will you stay the same): I will be staying in the same machine, so it will be an in-place upgrade

Do you want to test everything in lab first, or are you looking for a production upgrade using the spare machine as a rolling redundancy?: I want to lab first using the spare machine before upgrading PROD. The spare machine will not be used as redundant one.

HI

A link from another thread regarding the upgrade experience NPM 12.2 Upgrade Experience Feedback?

There is also reference to an upgrade document from the success centre if that helps Migrate SolarWinds products to a new server using the same IP and hostname - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

Is the test environment about the whole upgrade experience from your perspective?

We are about to have a new main poller which I will prepare beforehand and then just change the IP and install the software afresh

for the Addition Poller the software can be 'sucked' from the main poller once installed in your case.

Hope that helps you once you are ready to install.

Thanks, Lynchnigel for the links. The NPM 12.2 Upgrade Experience Feedback was helpful though my case isn't about the experience as I was able to reach out to someone that upgraded from 2008 to 2016 - waiting for his response. I am doing an in-place upgrade, not side-side which is easier and better. We don't have a separate hardware for this upgrade - same box instead. The test environment is about what to expect during the OS and SQL plus products upgrades. It is to address possible unforeseen issues that might impact upgrade in PROD thereby minimizing downtime.

I am nervous cause I have zero knowledge of SQL and don't know what to expect. Been watching tons of youtube videos on it and gaining some confidence a bit.

Plus, I don't know if I can move directly or straight from 2008 to 2016 without issues - again I've read I cannot, but also have read success stories of people that did. So, my greatest challenge is the OS/SQL upgrades. Products upgrade is usually easy and very successful for me in the past.

SolarWinds sent someone over to set up our environment for us 5 years ago.

KMSigma​ put together some excellent Powershell Scripts on his blog at Building My Orion Server Step 3 [Updated] – Kevin's Ramblings

check it out and have your test Servers up an running in minutes.

There are some excellent SolarWinds Consultants around, who will be able to help. If you want send me a messa. However I am located in Europe so travelling might be a bit over the top

Hi gidem thanks for the reply.

I can't help with the In-Place Upgrade as I've never had to do that particular scenario, but I could potentially try and lab it out for you with some time. Depends on how much of a rush you are in.

Personally, I would do the following (depending on the allotted amount of downtime your allowed):

Use Server 5 to install Server 2016 - Migrate your Main Poller to this machine.

Rebuild Server 1 to Server 2016 - Use this to replace your APE

Rebuild Server 2 to Server 2016 - Use this to replace your NTA FlowStore (Although watch this space is the new version of NTA might be coming back to SQL)

Rebuild Server 3 to Server 2016 - Use this to replace your SQL Server

I appreciate this isn't as straightforward as it reads, but it will leave you with a much cleaner environment that you can then upgrade to 12.2 and beyond. In-Place upgrades will leave your machines a mess. Sorry if that's not the answer you wanted, but always good to get a few different perspectives.

If I get some time to lab test the in-place upgrade option I will, but can't promise any timescales I'm afraid.

Thanks a lot David. I will sure try out your suggested ideas. I have until the end of June to complete upgrade in PROD. Now, I'm gathering as much info and suggestions as possible. Next Thursday, I will begin test upgrade.