Zero downtime deployment

Hi, was just wondering about "best practice" in terms of supporting zero-downtime deployment.
We have a cluster with N nodes that are not storage nodes, and M nodes that are storage nodes. We use java all around, and pof-serialize the objects that we store in coherence.
We want to deploy a new codebase, which requires a restart of all the processes, and it might also include changes to the objects that are being stored (ie, their serialization might be different).
The typical approach is to do a "rolling restart" of the various processes, but i fear all that synch-up coherence does might not work right with some members running an older version of code, while the ones that are restarted are running a newer version of the code.
Anybody have any experience with this?
Thanks.

Hi,
If you change the serialisation format then a rolling restart will not work. You need to make sure that all your POF classes are evolvable - that is that they implement EvolvablePortableObject. Doing this can take a lot of effort. We do it, not for rolling restart, but to make sure clients of our system do not constantly need to upgrade their client libraries. It can be quite complicated as it is not just serialisation that you need to be aware of but even changing how methods work that get called on the server side can break evolvability, for example changing how a filter works, an aggregator works, a method return type etc.
We have looked at zero downtime rolling restarts in the past and decided they were more trouble than they were worth. In our case we have large clusters 300+ nodes so a rolling restart would take a very long time as you need to wait for the cluster to re-balance the partitions each time you stop then restart the node. We found it could take quite a few hours to do a rolling restart whereas a full deployment and reload of the data take about 90 minutes.
You would also need to be careful if your cluster sits on top of a database. If you need to make any DB changes then this will not work unless they can some how be evolvable too otherwise either the new code or old code will be incompatible with the start of the DB.
Other people may have different experiences of zero-downtime, but as I said, we just found it too much effort and just go for the normal small-amount-of-planned-downtime approach.
JK

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ASA 5520 Upgrade 8.0(4)-- 8.4.2--Zero Downtime

Hello Everyone,
We are currently on 8.0(4) and planning on upgrading our failover pair to 8.4.2, I read some documents saying that we can perform a zero downtime upgrade.
According the below documents Version 8.2 supports mismatch memory failover,
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa82/configuration/guide/ha_overview.html#wp1077536
https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3549760#3549760//
Upgrade Path:
Active Firewall:                         Standby Firewall:
   8.0(4)                                       8.0(4)-->8.2.2
   8.0(4)                                       Upgrade RAM-2G---Reload
   faiover to standby                    8.2.2
   8.0(4)--->8.2.2                          8.2.2
   Upgrade RAM-2G-reload         8.2.2----Fail over
   8.2.2--Active                             8.2.2--Standby
8.2.2                                          8.3.1
8.2.2                                          8.4.2
Failover to stanby                      8.4.2
8.2.2--Standby                           8.4.2-----Active
Can I perform zero downtime upgrade with the above upgrade path? Will both the firewalls act as a failover pair if one is on 8.2.2 and other is on 8.4.2.
"Performing Zero Downtime Upgrades for Failover Pairs
The two units in a failover configuration should have the same major (first number) and minor (second number) software version. However, you do not need to maintain version parity on the units during the upgrade process; you can have different versions on the software running on each unit and still maintain failover support." (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa83/configuration/guide/admin_swconfig.html)
Upgrade RAM-2G

You can do it in a lot fewer steps.
1. Upgrade RAM on standby, reload and make it active.
2. Repeat process for newly standby unit.
Now you have 2 units still on 8.0(4) with requisite RAM for 8.3+. TAC will recommend you go up in "baby steps" but the software will work upgrading directly from 8.0 to 8.4. 8.4(3) is the current version for the 5520 platform. At most conservative, I might upgrade to 8.2(4) as an interim but it's not strictly necessary. So my next step would be:
3. Upgrade standby unit from 8.0(4) to 8.4(3). At this point take stock of the script syntax changes. Examine the upgrade log (on disk0:) and address any discrepancies.
Note active/standby failover will work here but should not be run this way for any extended time as syntax changes would affect the ability to synchronize if changes are introduced on the active member.
Finally:
4. Flip upgraded standby unit to active and upgrade remaining standby unit to 8.4(3).
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WinPE 4.0 Startup Script on a Zero Touch Deployment

Hi,
First, the scenario im using is SCCM2012 SP1 + MDT2012 Update 1, Zero Touch deployment, started from client, so no USB or PXE boot.
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WinPEshl.ini - When you update the file gets overwrited, so i cant add commands
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Im trying inject the file at the update distribution point process by adding it on osdinjection.xml, but the update process fails to inject OSD Binaries on the boot image.
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I also wanted to inject some startupscripts in the winPe environment. SCCM 2012 ignored the WinPEshl.ini and the startnet.cmd.
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Zero Downtime Migration from Oracle to Sybase

Is there any way/ tool to migrate from oracle to sybase with Zero Downtime??
Thanks

Better answered on a Sybase forum I suppose...

Zero downtime Upgrade ASA 8.0(4) TO 8.4(7)

Hi All,
I checked a few blogs and upgrading ASA 5520 from 8.0(4) to 8.4(7) following below path. I will be upgrading RAM to 2GB at version 8.2.5. Reason for 8.4.6 is we may get an error message ""No Cfg structure found in downloaded image file" Error Message" if we upgrade directly to 8.4.7.
Please advise if we can perform Zero downtime upgrade if I follow below path and will they still be in HA? Active/standby
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8.2.5--->8.4.6(Active on 8.2.5 and standby 8.4.6)--> Will they be in HA?
I believe below one should not be a problem.
8.4.6-->8.4.7(Active on 8.4.6 and standby 8.4.7)--> Will they be in HA?
Thanks in advance.
Regards

8.0.4-->8.2.5 (Active on 8.0.4 and standby 8.2.5)--> Will they be in HA?
HA will work...as in the units will failover. But due to changes in configuration syntax you could run into problems with config synchronisation. And could also cause issues in traffic flow if a failover occurs. So it is best to upgrade the second ASA to the new version ASAP. It is also the reason cisco recommend using the same Major and Minor software versions.
8.2.5--->8.4.6(Active on 8.2.5 and standby 8.4.6)--> Will they be in HA?
Same as above.
8.4.6-->8.4.7(Active on 8.4.6 and standby 8.4.7)--> Will they be in HA?
This should be fine
Please remember to select a correct answer and rate helpful posts

Cisco ASA non zero downtime upgrade

Hello,
with a NON zero downtime procedure upgrade all connections are lost, even nat and arp table ? here, http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa84/configuration/guide/asa_84_cli_config/ha_overview.html#wp1078922, on Table 61-2 State Information I think it is only for plain failover but not for upgrade with a non zero downtime upgrade procedure.

Assuming you have a working HA pair with stateful failover, the Cisco supported answer is that you cannot skip minor releases (i.e. going from 9.1 directly to 9.3).
You CAN upgrade directly from 9.1(2) to 9.1(5) as that third ordinal (the number in parentheses) is known as the maintenance release level.
See table 1-6 in the Release notes for confirmation, excerpted here:
"You can upgrade from any maintenance release to any other maintenance release within a minor release.
For example, you can upgrade from 8.4(1) to 8.4(6) without first installing the maintenance releases in between."
Note that 9.1(3) or later have some restrictions that are unique to those more recent code levels as some file system changes were put in place that requires certain prerequisites for a successful upgrade. Given that you are on 9.1(2) already that doesn't affect you in this case but it may be a consideration for other readers. Those requirements are noted just above Table 1-6 in those release notes.

Zero-downtime Database Migration tool ?

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Hi,
I dont think that there is any easy answer. It looks like huge project so it should be done part to part.
If I understand
1) you have create staging database with all changes
2) production is in old structure
3) now you want to merge this two databases into one? Or applly all changes form staging to prod?
I see there one solution clone your staging and create new prod. Whenit's donw switch connection to your new prod database.
Regards,
Tom

Zero downtime backups

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Zero touch deployment using SCCM

Hi,
As SCCM is called as zero touch deployment method for operating system deployment. So please help me to clear my below doubts –
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http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj127984.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd560793(v=ws.10).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh397289.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/meacoex/archive/2013/02/19/migrate-windows-xp-to-windows-7-using-sccm-2012.aspx
Prashant Patil

Zero-fingerprint deployment scenario - peer review invite

School/College implementation with student BYO laptop concept.
Packaging the vApps and securing the desired sandboxing is of course a part of the project as well as having expirydates.
Delivery is another question: By website for download, using streaming features, delivery by common iFolder or whatever you might have found a solid solution ??
And on top of the applications what about filesharing ? (iFolder) and printing ? (iPrint) or any other solutions.
KR /Bjrn

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Major version upgrade of WebLogic with zero/minimal downtime

From what I can tell, the recommended approach for supporting minimal downtime during major version upgrades (e.g. WL 9 -> WL 10) is to have 2 domains available in the production environment.
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Have gotten as far as upgrading all of the software, deleting /var/db/.AppleSetupDone, and rebooting. It brought me back in to Setup Assistant and let me choose "migrate from another mac os x server" and is now sitting waiting for me to take the old server down and boot it into target disk mode. Which we can probably do Sunday at about 2am or so...
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How to achieve no-downtime solution deployment on farms with multiple WFEs and LB

Taking SharePoint Solution Deployer, my opensource PowerShell deployment script, to the next level,
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The basic idea is to deploy the solutions on each WFEs one-by-one by
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I am struggling with three things here:
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for
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2. As there can be different types of load balancers (hardware, software) which might not be configurable through my script I assume that taking out the WFE from the the load balancer may not always be possible.
So I thought about just taking the server offline.
I haven't found an option yet to take only one server in the farm offline (without removing it from the farm of course), so maybe I miss something. Any ideas?
3. Before taking a single WFE offline, I would like to assure that this server does not have any open sessions, operations of users ongoing. Unfortunately I found only the possibility to quiesce the whole farm, but not a single
server. Am I missing something?
Appreciate any ideas which might point me in the direction to solve the overall goal!
SharePoint Architect, Speaker, MCP, MCPD, MCITP, MCSA, MCTS, Scrum Master/Product Owner
Blog: www.matthiaseinig.de, Twitter:
@mattein
CodePlex: SharePoint Software Factory,
SharePoint Solution Deployer

Hi Mike,
unfortunately not. I tried several different approaches but didn't really success reliably with any of them. So eventually I gave up on it.
Interesting idea though that Eric Hasley is commenting on the blog post you mentioned.
"There is another approach that has worked for me in the past. Because the deployment to each server is handled through a timer job,
by stopping the timer service in a controlled fashion you can rollout your solution without incurring any user outage."
It could work like that (in theory).
Stop the SPTimerV4 on all servers in the farm apart from one.
Take out the one to deploy to from the NLB
Wait until it has no connections
Deploy the solutions on it in the ordinary way (eg. with my
SharePoint Solution Deployer ;))
Put it back into the NLB and take the others out
Wait until they have no connections left
Activate the timer service on the others servers and let them deploy
Put them back into the NLB
No clue if this is actually working and you still have the problem with the NLB, so it could take a while.
Also I am not certain what happens in state 5 if users use different versions of your solutions at the same time (old version on the remaining open connections, new version on the updated server)
I do not have a suitable farm at hand to play with it though, so can't test it.
Cheers
Matthias
Matthias Einig, CEO, SharePoint MVP
Blog: www.matthiaseinig.de, Twitter:
@mattein
Projects: SharePoint Code Analysis Framework (SPCAF),SharePoint Code Check (SPCop),
SharePoint Software Factory,
SharePoint Solution Deployer

Deploy WSP without IISRESET

Hi Team,
I have a WSP with multiple Visual Web Parts with the custom code of .NET. I want to deploy the same on Production Server with Zero DownTime, without RESET the IIS. Please help me out??
Regards Sourabh Soni

hi!
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I dont know what your webparts are doing, but when its possible to create a sandboxed solution you can add them without iis-reset to a site collection.
Plan a short downtime for deployment. Max. 5 minutes of being offline every company will survive.
br,
ronald

Downtime needs to be reduced while processing releases

Hi All,
We are having SQL Server 2012 which is configured in Mirroring. Both are Standard Editions.
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Hello,
Try the following technical considerations to speed up deployments:
Understand processes
and environments in depth.
Automate database changes and deployments, and avoid manual changes. This should speed up releases and improve the quality of releases too. Define the deployment
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Parameterized scripts and configurations.
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Schedule database changes at different times (during maintenance window).
Find tools and practices to create smart automated tests.
Organizational considerations:
The less functional dependencies then changes can be implemented faster.
Improve release planning
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ASA 8.2 8.4 9.1 possible with no downtime as we run active/standby?

Hello,
We have 2 x ASA 5520s (with 2GB mem) in active/standby mode, they also include the IPS modules.
The current firmware is 8.2 and I was wondering if it is possible to upgrade these firewalls with no downtimes? In the past I have upgraded the standby ASA, rebooted it and then made it the active ASA then upgraded the new standby ASA.
I have have quite a lot of NAT Exempts (No-NATs?) and a few static NATs, how did you approach this during your upgrades?
I guess I can roll back as the 8.2 firmware will still be on the flash and I will have the config?
Thanks

Yeah it's supported:
Release Notes for the Cisco ASA Series, 9.1(x)
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa91/release/notes/asarn91.html#wp732442
This document has the information that you need; it talks about the requirements and zero downtime procedure.
But you need to take a lot of considerations that you can reference in the document:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-12690
If you don't mind me asking why are you upgrading?
Because of a fix or feature?

Zero downtime deployment

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