vRanger 7.8 - Installation/Upgrade Guide

Upgrading the vRanger virtual appliance (VA)

The version of the vRanger VA for this release is listed in Supported virtual appliance (VA) versions. Review the topics that follow for information on checking the version of your deployed VAs, and for procedures on updating them if necessary.

 

NOTE: The vRanger VA is now bundled with vRanger, and can be found in: C:\Program Files\Quest\vRanger

Checking the version of your VA

To check the version of your VA:

1	Log in to the VA.

2	At the prompt, enter the command:

cat /etc/vzvaversion

Upgrading your VA

You can upgrade the vRanger virtual appliance using the Virtual Appliance Configuration dialog box. If your existing VAs have replication scratch disks configured, they are migrated to the upgraded VA as part of this process.

1	Click Tools, and then click Options.

2	Under the Virtual Appliance node on the Configuration Options page, click Configuration.

3	In the Configure Existing Virtual Appliance section, select the VAs to upgrade, and click Upgrade.

 

IMPORTANT: Only versions 1.9.0 and later of the VA can be upgraded with this method.

4	If not automatically populated, click Browse, and browse to the location of the latest Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) file.

By default, the vRanger virtual appliance OVA files are located in the directory: C:\Program Files\Quest\vRanger.

5	Do one of the following:

▪	If you want to maintain the existing VAs, select Do not delete the old virtual appliance. Selecting this option deploys a new VA in parallel.

▪	To remove old VAs, do not select this option.

6	Click OK to begin the upgrade process.

Maintaining your scratch disk

IMPORTANT: This section is for reference only. The VA scratch disk is migrated automatically by the upgrade process.

The second disk — scratch disk — on your VA contains a hash file for each replicated VM. vRanger uses this file to identify changed data blocks during replication. When upgrading the VA, consider migrating the scratch disk from your legacy VA to the upgraded version. This migration ensures that your hash files are maintained. For more information, see Upgrading your VA.

 

IMPORTANT: If you do not migrate the scratch disk to your updated VAs, vRanger must re-create each hash file which requires a full scan of the replicated VM. While only the changed data is sent, the re-scan of the VM may take up to one minute per GB of hard disk space.

 

NOTE: If you are using a VMware® vCenter™ version earlier than 5.0, the ability to change the datastore of the VA scratch disk used for replication is not available.

For more information about the scratch disk, see the Quest vRanger User’s Guide.

Migrating your existing scratch disk

IMPORTANT: This section is for reference only. The VA scratch disk is migrated automatically by the upgrade process.

The Virtual Appliance Deployment Wizard gives you the option of deploying a VA with or without a scratch disk. When deploying a new VA to upgrade an existing VA used for replication, do not create a scratch disk during the deployment process. You can add the existing scratch disk to the new VA:

1	Power off your existing VA.

2	From the VI Client, right-click the new VA, and select Edit Settings.

3	On the Hardware tab, click Add.

4	Select Hard Disk, and click Next.

5	Select Use an existing virtual disk.

6	Browse to the location of your existing scratch disk.

7	Select the VMDK for the scratch disk, and click OK.

8	Using the console in the VI client, log in to the VA.

9	Restart the VM by typing reboot at the prompt.

10	After the reboot, use the console to log in and enter the following commands:

echo "/dev/sdb /scratch/sdb ext3 defaults 0 0">>/etc/fstab

mkdir /scratch

mkdir /scratch sdb

reboot

Upgrading a previous vReplicator installation

Due to the differences in application architecture, there is no upgrade path from vReplicator 3.x to vRanger 7.8. vRanger must be installed fresh — using the full installer — and replication jobs must be re-created.

The high-level process for migrating from vReplicator to vRanger 7.8 is as follows:

1	Request a new vRanger 7.x license.

A new license is required for vReplicator customers migrating to vRanger 7.8. Request one using the form at: https://support.quest.com/licensing-assistance.

 

NOTE: Current vReplicator 3.x customers who are also vRanger customers may want to request a combined license file that includes backup and replication licensing.

2	Download and install vRanger using the installer.

For the installation procedures, see Installing vRanger.

 

CAUTION: If you are re-creating your replication jobs, do not uninstall vReplicator 3.x. You may install and run vRanger on the same machine as vReplicator 3.x without issue.

3	Configure vRanger as appropriate.

For more information, see the topic that discusses using the Startup Wizard in the Quest vRanger User’s Guide.

4	Re-create replication jobs to match your vReplicator configuration.

vRanger replication jobs can re-use the existing target VMs created by the vReplicator jobs. This reuse eliminates the need to perform a full synchronization to start the new replication jobs. When configuring jobs, ensure that the host and datastore configuration matches the original job. vRanger recognizes the existing target VM and resume replication without sending the full VM.

 

CAUTION: Disable the vReplicator job before enabling its vRanger counterpart.

5	After validating that all replication jobs have been properly migrated and are working correctly, uninstall vReplicator.