How to upgrade to 10.4 Tiger and Xsan 1.3

Question

I am running Xsan 1.1 on and Xserve G5/RAID running OS X 10.3.9. I need to get everything up to date so that client machines can be running 10.4.x Tiger. What is the best upgrade path? ie...
- do I upgrade server to Tiger first, still running Xsan 1.1 (for 10.3.9)?
- do I upgrade to Xsan 1.3 on 10.3.9 first, and then upgrade to 10.4?
Also.. I still have to upgrade the RAID firmware to 1.5 because after downloading and installing RAID 1.5, it won't launch. Anybody have ideas on that? It just bounces in the doc twice and then quits. So.. I can't update the firmware.

Answer 1

Thanks for everyone's guidance on this process. I completed my upgrade yesterday. All is running smoothly. I thought I would post a brief description of my experience which may help others.
Background:
I have a very basic Xsan setup: 1ea Xserve G5 controller, 2ea G5/Dual 2.5GHz clients, a Sanbox fibre switch, and 2ea Linksys gigabit switches. All three machines were running Xsan 1.1 on OS X 10.3.9 Panther. I needed to get one of my two client machines running Tiger. So... due to Xsan compatibility issues, I had to upgrade everything to OS X 10.4.6 Tiger and Xsan 1.3. I also needed to upgrade my Xserve RAID to the latest firmware (v1.5).
Upgrade Process:
I began this process with all three machines running. Although the Xsan volume was 'running', it was not mounted on any of the machines. My Xserve is designated as the primary controller (High priority); both clients are backup controllers (Med and Low priority).
Here's what I did to get to 10.4.6 and Xsan 1.3:
1) Upgraded the XServe to OS X Server 10.4 using install DVD. This required a server restart which caused Xsan to switch to my 'Med' client machine as the controller. I verified this by running Xsan Admin 1.1 on the client machine; it saw only the two clients (just as it should).
2) After restart, used Software Update on the Xserve to bring it up to OS X Server 10.4.6. This included the 'Xsan 1.2 Update for 10.4' and 'Xsan Admin 1.2 Update' along with a bunch of other misc updates (Java, WebObjects, Security..). Restarted.
3) Ran Xsan Admin 1.2 on the server. It was controlling the Xsan volume (which was still running). Both clients were still visible as backup controllers. I did not attempt to mount the Xsan volume
4) Installed OS X 10.4.3 Tiger Upgrade from DVD on Client1. Restarted.
5) After restart, used Software Update to bring Client1 up to OS X 10.4.6. This included the 'Xsan 1.2 Update for 10.4' and 'Xsan Admin 1.2 Update' along with a bunch of other misc updates (Java, Garageband, QuickTime). Restarted.
6) Used Software Update to bring Client2 up to OS X 10.4.6. This included the 'Xsan 1.2 Update for 10.4' and 'Xsan Admin 1.2 Update' along with a bunch of other misc updates (Java, Garageband, QuickTime). Restarted.
7) So.. at this point everything is running OS X 10.4.6 (the latest OS) and Xsan 1.2. And.. Xsan Admin 1.2 still running on the server. But... for some unknown reason, the 'Clients' tab no longer shows the Server as an available client. It only shows my two G5's as clients. Wierd and scary!! I quit and relaunched Xsan Admin 1.2, did a 'Refresh, but it made no difference. The '1. Computers' tab for the SAN itself does show all three computers (as controllers), but the 'Clients' list for this volume only shows my two client workstations (both 'Not mounted'). I decided to hold my nose and continue (such is life with Xsan...).
8) Used Xsan Admin 1.2 on the Server to 'Stop' the Xsan volume.
9) Launched Terminal on the Server and ran the 'cvfsck' disk utility on my Xsan volume. Here is what I typed into terminal:
sudo cvfsck Napoleon
(my volume is named 'Napoleon') I did have to authenticate with an Admin-level password. The utility took 5-10 min to run on my 5TB raid. Most of the time is just showed a static cursor in the Terminal window, but then the errors appeared. It reported 50+ errors, all of the same type. Here is a sample of what each error was like:
Error: Inode 0x804caa865e6e nsubnirs count is 34 - should be 18. Fixed.
The utility completed with all errors 'fixed.' Quit out of Terminal.
10) Used Xsan Admin 1.2 on the Server to 'Start' the Xsan volume back up.
11) Used Software Update on the Xserve to install the 'Xsan 1.3 Update for 10.4' and 'Xsan Admin 1.3 Update'. Restarted.
12) Ran Xsan Admin 1.3 on the Server. Now.. the Server does show in both the Computers list (as the primary controller) and in the Clients list (still not mounted, of course).
13) On Client1, used Software Update to install the 'Xsan 1.3 Update for 10.4' and 'Xsan Admin 1.3 Update' along with a bunch of other misc updates (iCal, iDVD, etc). Restarted.
14) On Client2, used Software Update to install the 'Xsan 1.3 Update for 10.4' and 'Xsan Admin 1.3 Update' along with a bunch of other misc updates (iCal, iDVD, etc). Restarted.
15) So.. now everything is running OS X 10.4.6 Tiger and Xsan 1.3. Xsan Admin 1.3 on the Server shows all three machines as both Controllers and Clients. The Xsan volume is 'running' but not mounted on any of the machines.
16) Used Xsan Admin 1.3 on the Server to 'Stop' the Xsan volume.
17) Launched Terminal on the Server and ran the 'cvfsck' disk utility on the Xsan volume. Here is what I typed into terminal:
sudo cvfsck Napoleon
This time no errors were reported, although terminal did produce a very nice report detailing what was going on as the Xsan volume was checked (thank you Apple!). Quit Terminal.
18) Used Xsan Admin 1.3 on the Server to 'Start' the Xsan volume back up.
19) And now for the big moment... Used Xsan Admin 1.3 on the Server to mount the Xsan volume on Client1. It took a little longer than nomal, but it did mount. I immediately browsed through the volume and copied a large folder to the Client1 desktop. Worked great. Copied the same folder back to the Xsan volume. Worked great. Deleted the folder in both places and emptied Trash. Worked great. I repeated this same mount/copy/delete process with Client2. Everything was working great!!
Now it was time to upgrade the RAID firmware to v1.5:
20) Used Xsan Admin 1.3 to unmount the Xsan volume on both clients. I then 'stopped' the volume and quit out of Xsan Admin.
21) Downloaded the RAID Admin 1.5 update and installed it.
22) Ran RAID Admin 1.5 and connected to my Xserve RAID. Used the menu command 'Update firmware...' to begin the process. It asks you to locate the firmware source file on disk. The entire update process took about 15 min to complete. The RAID restarted after the update. After seeing all green lights on the RAID, I quit RAID Admin 1.5.
23) Launched Xsan Admin 1.3 on the Server to 'Start' the Xsan volume.
24) Used Xsan Admin 1.3 on Server to mount the Xsan volume on both clients. Both mounted just fine.
And now I'm up to date
I know this is a long description, but I wish that I had had someone else's detailed log before I headed into this overly complex upgrade process (Apple... please make this easier going forward!). Hope it helps someone else.
John Christensen
[email protected]
817.690.8385
G5   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   XServe, XServe Raid, Xsan