Migrating Netreo from CentOS 6 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8

Some previous Netreo virtual appliances use CentOS 6 for their operating system. CentOS 6 has reached its end-of-life stage, and Netreo appliances using it are no longer supported. Affected appliances must be upgraded to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.

This document will take a Netreo administrator through the process required to upgrade their Netreo appliance operating system (OS) from CentOS 6 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.

This document applies only to Netreo appliances that are using CentOS 6. Use the procedure below to determine if this upgrade applies to any of your deployed Netreo appliances.

You should check all Netreo appliances you have deployed, including high-availability deployment cluster members, service engines, and Netreo Overview servers, to see if they need to be upgraded.

Determine Netreo appliance OS

Follow the procedure below to determine the current OS of your Netreo appliance.

1. Log in to Netreo as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.

2. From the main menu, select Administration » System » Diagnostics to open the System Diagnostics page.

3. Locate the Software Version panel.

4. Locate the SYSTEM OS value.

If the SYSTEM OS value indicates any version of CentOS 6, you must upgrade your Netreo appliance following the steps below.

Pre-upgrade preparation

There are a few steps to be performed before the upgrade.

Creating backups

This step allows you to restore your deployment to a pre-upgrade state if a problem occurs during the upgrade process.

The following Netreo appliance types store historical data in their internal databases and are good candidates for backups:

• Primary appliances (including Netreo Overview servers)

• Replica appliances (in high availability (HA) deployments)

• Traffic collector service engine appliances

• Log collector service engine appliances

It is recommended to clone the VM of the appliance you wish to back up. Customers are solely responsible for backups.

It is not recommended to make use of snapshots, as snapshots in hypervisors do not allow swapping out the virtual disks.

See the Virtual Machine Backups section of Netreo Backups for more information.

Virtual disk preparation

Netreo will provide the customer with a new OS virtual disk that is used for the upgrade process. Contact Netreo support to request an upgrade disk file.

A copy of this disk must be moved into the local file system of the server running the hypervisor managing the VM to be upgraded.

Netreo appliance actions

If you are upgrading a Netreo high-availability (HA) deployment, you must disable the HA cluster and remove the configuration (follow the procedure below) before beginning the upgrade procedure.

1. Log in to Netreo as a user with the SuperAdmin access level.

2. From the main menu, select Administration » System » High Availability to open the High Availability Configuration page.

3. Click the Delete and Clear High Availability button.

After HA has been disabled, you must perform the upgrade process separately for each individual appliance in the HA cluster. It is recommended to first upgrade the arbitrator, then the replica, then the primary.

All node appliances must be upgraded before reconfiguring and restarting the HA cluster.

To restart, return to the High Availability Configuration page, add your arbitrator and replica IP addresses, and when Netreo shows that the cluster is ready, click the Initialize HA button.

Upgrade procedure

Once you have completed the preparations above for each appliance, you are ready to perform the upgrade(s). Follow the procedure below.

(Remember to schedule maintenance windows for any service engine appliances you plan to upgrade.)

1. In your hypervisor, activate the console for your Netreo VM.

   1. Log in to the Netreo VM using the following credentials:

      • Username: config

      • Password: omniconf

   2. Enter 3 to select Admin Options.

   3. In Administration Options, enter 6 to select CentOS to RHEL Migration.

   4. In Migration Options, enter 1 to select Begin Migration Process.

   5. Allow the migration process to complete.

   6. Once the process is complete, enter Y to shut down the VM.

2. In your hypervisor, edit the settings for your VM:

   1. Detach the existing OS virtual disk (it should be the smaller of the two, at approximately 20 GB).

      • Note the disk name (it should be something like “vm-102-disk-0.vmdk”) so as not to confuse it with the new one when they are both associated with the VM but in a detached state.

   2. Attach the new OS virtual disk supplied by Netreo (“Netreo_VA_disk0.vmdk”).

      • Note: The supplied .vmdk hard drive file cannot be loaded until it is converted to a thick provisioned disk. This must be done before attaching the disk. Consult your hypervisor documentation for specific instructions on how to perform this task.

3. In your hypervisor, restart the Netreo VM.

   • Note: If the VM fails to boot, it may be trying to boot from the wrong disk. Consult your hypervisor documentation on how to adjust the disk boot order.

4. In your hypervisor, activate the console for your Netreo VM:

   1. Enter 2 to select Networking Options.

   2. Provide the IP address, default gateway, and DNS server address to be used.

   3. Go back to the main menu.

   4. Enter 3 to select Admin Options.

   5. In Administration Options, enter 6 to select CentOS to RHEL Migration.

   6. In Migration Options, enter 1 to select Continue Migration Process.

   7. Allow the migration process to complete.

   8. Once the process is complete, enter Y to shut down the VM.

5. In your hypervisor, restart the Netreo VM.

   • Note: If you experience networking issues after the upgrade, you may need to remove the old network interface in your VM settings and replace it with one that is compatible with the newer software, such as a “VMXNET 3” adapter type.

6. Log in to the Netreo UI at the assigned IP address:

   1. Confirm the Netreo appliance OS using the procedure in "Determine Netreo appliance OS" at the top of this page.

   2. Update the license for the appliance:

      1. From the main menu, select Administration » System » License to open the Netreo License Information page.

      2. In the license info panel, select Update or Request License. (The fields should populate automatically with the correct values.)

      3. Select Auto License to automatically update the license for this appliance (requires an internet connection).

   3. Rediscover all devices:

      1. Select Administration » Change Devices » Rediscover Devices from the main menu to open the Repoll Devices page.

      2. In the SELECT A FUNCTION GROUP field, select Everything.

      3. Click the select-all checkbox in the table to select all devices.

      4. Click Rediscover Selected Devices to begin the discovery process. (This process can take some time and may be left to complete on its own.)

7. If you have other Netreo appliances to upgrade, move on to the next until all upgrades are complete.

Once all upgrades are complete, you may reconfigure and restart any HA clusters involved in the upgrade process.

Monitor the upgraded systems to make sure that they are polling their assigned devices (device data should begin updating after approximately 15 minutes), appropriately creating incidents, and sending alert notifications.

Recovery from backup

If the upgrade did not go as expected, redeploy from your backup and begin again.

If you continue to experience issues, reach out to Netreo support for assistance.