Upgrading the Edge appliance
This section describes how to upgrade your software. It includes these sections:
These instructions assume that you are upgrading an Edge appliance running 4.0 or later.
Upgrading RiOS Edge software
Follow these steps to upgrade your software. These instructions assume you are familiar with the Edge appliance and the Management Console.
Software versions for SteelFusion Core and SteelFusion Edge cannot be more than two major releases apart. For example, 4.0 and 4.2 are compatible, but 4.0 and 4.3 are not compatible.
To upgrade the RiOS Edge software
1. Download the software image from the Riverbed Support site to a location such as your desktop. Optionally, you can download a delta image directly from the Riverbed Support site to the SteelHead. The delta downloaded image includes only the incremental changes. The smaller file size means a faster download and less load on the network.
2. Log in to the Edge Management Console using the Administrator account (admin).
3. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Software Upgrade and click Add Image to expand the page.
4. Complete the configuration as described in this table.
Control | Description |
From URL | Select this option and specify the URL. Use one of these formats: http://host/path/to/file
https://host/path/to/file
ftp://user:password@host/path/to/file
scp://user:password@host/path/to/file |
From Riverbed Support Site | Select this option and select the target release number from the Version drop-down list. The system uploads the new image from the Riverbed Support site immediately after you click Add Image. If you receive an “entitlement error” warning, you may not have the correct credentials for the Riverbed Support site. Contact Riverbed Support at https://support.riverbed.com. |
From Local File | Select this option and specify the path, or click Browse to go to the local file directory. If you specify a file to upload in the Local File text box, the image is uploaded immediately; however, the image is installed and the system is rebooted at the time you specify. |
Filename | Specify a new name for the added image. The default name is hyp_image.img.iso. |
Add Image | Click to add the new image to the Hypervisor Images list. |
5. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Reboot/Shut Down and click Reboot.
The appliance can take a few minutes to reboot because the software is configuring the recovery flash device. Do not press Ctrl+C, unplug, or otherwise shut down the system during this first boot. There is no indication displayed during the system boot that the recovery flash device is being configured.
After the reboot, the Home page, Software Upgrade, and Help pages of the Management Console display the software version upgrade.
Upgrading the ESXi 6.0 Patch 6 hypervisor
SteelFusion Edge 5.5 includes the ESXi 6.0 Patch 6 software image—it does not require a separate download.
For detailed information about upgrading and reinstalling the hypervisor image, see the SteelFusion Edge Management Console User Guide.
Upgrading to optional hypervisor versions
Optionally, in SteelFusion Edge 5.5 you can install the ESXi 6.5 Patch 2 hypervisor. These images are not preloaded in the SteelFusion Edge software image—you must download them from Riverbed Support at https://support.riverbed.com.
After you download and save the image(s) locally, you add them using the Management Console. For detailed information about adding an image, see the SteelFusion Edge Management Console User Guide.
Upgrading to ESXi 6.5 Patch 2 is optional.
Known issues
Upgrading the hypervisor includes these known issues or limitations:
• If you use vCenter to manage your Edge virtual machines, the vCenter version must be equal to or higher than the version of ESXi running on the Edge. For ESXi 6.0, you need vCenter 6.0 or later. For ESXi 6.5, you need vCenter 6.5 or later. If you want to upgrade ESXi from 6.0 to 6.5, you must upgrade vCenter to version 6.5 or later before upgrading ESXi on the Edge.
• VMware vSphere provides the account lockout feature to secure the hypervisor from unauthorized access. By default, ESXi 6.0 allows a maximum of ten incorrect login attempts before the account is locked. The account is unlocked after two minutes. By default, ESXi 6.5 allows a maximum of five incorrect login attempts before the account is locked. The account is unlocked after 15 minutes.
• ESXi 6.5 supports VM encryption. However, SteelFusion Edge 5.5 does not support encrypted VMs for VMAware backup workflow. Encrypted VMs are excluded from backup policy.
• The password complexity checker of ESXi can vary from version to version. The installer attempts to prevent you from using an invalid initial installation password. However, if installation fails, check the logs for messages indicating an invalid or weak password. If an error message displays, reattempt the installation with a password compatible with the version of ESXi you are installing.
Note: This issue only affects initial installations or reinstallations, and does not affect upgrades.
• iSCSI connections fail and datastores become inaccessible when IQN changes.
This problem can occur if you change the IQN of an iSCSI adapter while iSCSI sessions on the adapter are still active.
Workaround: When you change the IQN of an iSCSI adapter, no session should be active on that adapter. Remove all iSCSI sessions and all targets on the adapter before changing the IQN.
• Active Directory settings are not retained.
The Active Directory settings configured in the vSphere host before upgrade are not retained when the host is upgraded to vSphere 6.0 or later.
Workaround: Add the host to the Active Directory Domain after the upgrade if the pre-upgrade vSphere version is 5.1 or later. Do not add the host to the Active Directory Domain after upgrade if the pre-upgrade vSphere version is vSphere 5.0.x.
• Hosts that were previously added to the domain are no longer joined to the domain.
When upgrading from vSphere 5.5 or later to 6.0 or later for the first time, the Active Directory configuration is not retained. After the upgrade, rejoin the hosts to the vCenter Server domain.
• vCenter licenses need to be reinstalled. The upgrade to ESXi 6.5 applies a new embedded license to the hypervisor. If ESXi is not managed by vCenter, there is no need to upgrade the default license. However, if you added a custom license in 6.0 that supported vCenter, you will lose that functionality. After the upgrade, you need to add a new 6.5 license that supports vCenter. You can add a new custom license from vCenter or vSphere.
Migrating data from the SteelHead EX appliance
Note: iSCSI/block mode only.
There is no upgrade path from SteelHead EX appliance to the Edge appliance as they are different products that run on different hardware platforms.
If your SteelFusion deployment previously consisted of a BlockStream-enabled SteelHead EX appliance and a SteelFusion Core appliance, and if your data is backed by a SteelFusion Core, you can migrate your data to the SteelFusion Edge appliance.
To migrate the data, you unmap the LUN from the SteelHead EX appliance and rejoin that LUN to the new Edge appliance.
Downgrading the software
Note: iSCSI/block mode only. In NFS/file mode, downgrading from version 5.0 and later to a previous version is not supported.
If you want to downgrade to a previous version of the SteelFusion Edge software, you must downgrade to a version of the software that has previously run on your machine.
When you downgrade the software, RiOS reverts the ESXi version to the version supported in the installation image. If you upgraded the ESXi using vCenter (separate from the EX installation), the system cannot restore the state and ESXi starts with the initial configuration.
RiOS appliances cannot use an encrypted RiOS data store with an earlier RiOS version, unless the release is an update (9.0.x). For example, an encrypted RiOS data store created in 9.0.1 would work with 9.0.3, but not with 9.1.
Before downgrading to an earlier software version, you must select none as the encryption type, clear the RiOS data store, and restart the service in the Management Console Data Store page. After you clear the RiOS data store, the data is removed from persistent storage and cannot be recovered. For detailed information, see the SteelFusion Edge Management Console User Guide.