Moving, restoring or changing the IP address of the Management Node

These procedures explain how to change the IP address of your Management Node, or physically move your Management Node to a new host server, without losing your Pexip Infinity platform configuration or invalidating your Pexip Infinity licenses.

Before performing any of these procedures we recommend that you follow standard IT practices, as per your company policy. For example, ensure that you take a snapshot of the Management Node prior to making any changes, and if possible take offline backups of the VMs.

In all cases you will have a loss of service while you perform the maintenance procedure.

Note that these instructions only apply to on-premises deployments. For cloud-based deployments, if you need to change the IP address of the Management Node you must decommission your entire deployment, terminating all of the existing instances, and then redeploy your system.

To change the IP address of your Management Node, where you want to keep the same physical host for the Management Node:

  1. We recommend that you backup your current configuration:

    1. Go to Utilities > Backup/Restore.

    2. In the Create backup section, enter a Passphrase and then enter it again in the Re-enter passphrase field.

      The text entered here is used to encrypt the backup file. You must remember this text as it will be required if you need to subsequently restore the data from the file.

    3. Select Create backup.

      After a few seconds you see a message: "Successfully created the backup file: <file_name>" where <file_name> takes the format:

      pexip_backup_<hostname>_<version>_<build>_<date>_<time>.tar.pexbak

    4. Download the file from the host VM:
      1. From the Existing backup files section at the bottom of the page, select Download backup for the file you have just created.
      2. Follow your browser's prompts to save or download the file to your local file system.

      3. If required, you can delete unwanted backup files from your host VM by selecting Delete backup.

        The system keeps on the host VM only the 5 most recent manually-taken backups and the 5 most recent automatic backups. Older backup files are deleted.

  2. Return your Pexip Infinity license.

    You must return your license before decommissioning your current host installation.

    1. Go to Platform > Licenses.
    2. Select the license you want to deactivate.
    3. Make a note of the License entitlement key.
    4. Select Return license.

  3. Decommission your Conferencing Nodes i.e. delete the Conferencing Nodes and remove the associated VMs. Follow this procedure for each Conferencing Node:

    1. Put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode and wait until all calls on it have terminated.
    2. From the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface, go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes.
    3. Select the Conferencing Node to be deleted, and from the Action drop-down menu select Delete selected Conferencing Nodes.
    4. Select Go and on the following page confirm that you want to delete the selected Conferencing Node by selecting Yes, I'm sure.

    5. Shut down and remove the Conferencing Node VM.

      1. Log in to the VM manager, shut down the deleted Conferencing Node and then power it off.
      2. Right-click on the Conferencing Node and select Delete from Disk (VMware) or Delete (Hyper-V / KVM).

  4. Re-run the installation wizard and supply the new IP address of the Management Node:

    1. Open a console window on the Management Node VM.

    2. At the login prompt, log in as admin.
    3. Enter the operating system password.

    4. Type installwizard.

      The Pexip installation wizard begins.

      At the IP address prompt, enter your new Management Node IP address.

      (If you interrupt the installation wizard, or it does not complete properly for any reason, you must reboot the Management Node and then rerun the installation wizard.)

  5. Reapply your previous license:

    1. Go to Platform > Licenses.
    2. Select Add License.
    3. In the License entitlement key field, enter the entitlement key from the 'old' Management Node that you noted previously.
    4. Select Save.

    The system will attempt to activate the license on the 'new' Management Node:

    • If the license is activated successfully, you are returned to the Licensing page and the new license is shown under the Licensing section.
    • If the activation attempt is unsuccessful (for example, if the Management Node was unable to establish a connection to the Pexip licensing server), or you selected Manually activate, the license is saved as a Stored license request. You must then activate it manually.

  6. Re-provision your Conferencing Nodes.

    See Deploying new Conferencing Nodes for links to the appropriate instructions for your hypervisor.

Note that if your Management Node is installed on VMware and you do not need to perform a fundamental redeployment of the Management Node, i.e. you only want to move it across host servers, then you should use vMotion to perform the move.

To move or restore a Management Node to a new physical host, where you are keeping the same IP address for the Management Node on the new host server:

  1. Backup your current configuration:

    1. Go to Utilities > Backup/Restore.

    2. In the Create backup section, enter a Passphrase and then enter it again in the Re-enter passphrase field.

      The text entered here is used to encrypt the backup file. You must remember this text as it will be required if you need to subsequently restore the data from the file.

    3. Select Create backup.

      After a few seconds you see a message: "Successfully created the backup file: <file_name>" where <file_name> takes the format:

      pexip_backup_<hostname>_<version>_<build>_<date>_<time>.tar.pexbak

    4. Download the file from the host VM:
      1. From the Existing backup files section at the bottom of the page, select Download backup for the file you have just created.
      2. Follow your browser's prompts to save or download the file to your local file system.

      3. If required, you can delete unwanted backup files from your host VM by selecting Delete backup.

        The system keeps on the host VM only the 5 most recent manually-taken backups and the 5 most recent automatic backups. Older backup files are deleted.

  2. Return your Pexip Infinity license.

    You must return your license before decommissioning your current host installation.

    1. Go to Platform > Licenses.
    2. Select the license you want to deactivate.
    3. Make a note of the License entitlement key.
    4. Select Return license.

  3. Install the Management Node on the new host server.

    Note that all of the configuration data that you enter via the installation wizard, including the IP address, will be subsequently replaced when you restore your backup.

    See Pexip Infinity installation overview for links to the appropriate instructions for your hypervisor.

  4. Restore the previous configuration to the new Management Node from your backup.

    1. Go to Utilities > Backup/Restore.

    2. In the Restore backup section, enter the Passphrase.

      The text entered here must be identical to the text that was used to create the backup file.

    3. Select Choose File and then choose the backup file that you want to restore.

      The file must be chosen from your local file system (you cannot select a file from the list of Existing backup files).

    4. Select Restore backup.

      You are taken to the Restore backup confirmation page.

      If instead, you see "Failed to restore the system from the backup file" with a "Decryption Error: decryption failed" message, the most likely reason for this is that you have entered an incorrect passphrase.

    5. The confirmation page shows the date that the backup was taken, and the Management Node IP address that will be restored to this system.

      Select Restore backup to confirm the restoration.

    If the restore is successful, after a few seconds you will see a "Successfully restored the backup file" message and the Management Node will reboot.

    You need to wait for the node to return from rebooting before you can access it again.

  5. Reapply your previous license:

    1. Go to Platform > Licenses.
    2. Select Add License.
    3. In the License entitlement key field, enter the entitlement key from the 'old' Management Node that you noted previously.
    4. Select Save.

    The system will attempt to activate the license on the 'new' Management Node:

    • If the license is activated successfully, you are returned to the Licensing page and the new license is shown under the Licensing section.
    • If the activation attempt is unsuccessful (for example, if the Management Node was unable to establish a connection to the Pexip licensing server), or you selected Manually activate, the license is saved as a Stored license request. You must then activate it manually.

To manually move or restore a Management Node to a new physical host server, where you also want to use a different IP address for the Management Node:

  1. Decommission your Conferencing Nodes i.e. delete the Conferencing Nodes and remove the associated VMs. Follow this procedure for each Conferencing Node:

    1. Put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode and wait until all calls on it have terminated.
    2. From the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface, go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes.
    3. Select the Conferencing Node to be deleted, and from the Action drop-down menu select Delete selected Conferencing Nodes.
    4. Select Go and on the following page confirm that you want to delete the selected Conferencing Node by selecting Yes, I'm sure.

    5. Shut down and remove the Conferencing Node VM.

      1. Log in to the VM manager, shut down the deleted Conferencing Node and then power it off.
      2. Right-click on the Conferencing Node and select Delete from Disk (VMware) or Delete (Hyper-V / KVM).

  2. Backup your current configuration:

    1. Go to Utilities > Backup/Restore.

    2. In the Create backup section, enter a Passphrase and then enter it again in the Re-enter passphrase field.

      The text entered here is used to encrypt the backup file. You must remember this text as it will be required if you need to subsequently restore the data from the file.

    3. Select Create backup.

      After a few seconds you see a message: "Successfully created the backup file: <file_name>" where <file_name> takes the format:

      pexip_backup_<hostname>_<version>_<build>_<date>_<time>.tar.pexbak

    4. Download the file from the host VM:
      1. From the Existing backup files section at the bottom of the page, select Download backup for the file you have just created.
      2. Follow your browser's prompts to save or download the file to your local file system.

      3. If required, you can delete unwanted backup files from your host VM by selecting Delete backup.

        The system keeps on the host VM only the 5 most recent manually-taken backups and the 5 most recent automatic backups. Older backup files are deleted.

  3. Return your Pexip Infinity license.

    You must return your license before decommissioning your current host installation.

    1. Go to Platform > Licenses.
    2. Select the license you want to deactivate.
    3. Make a note of the License entitlement key.
    4. Select Return license.

  4. Install the Management Node on the new host server.

    All the configuration data you enter via the installation wizard, including the IP address, will be subsequently replaced when you restore your backup. Thus, at this stage you can use the same IP address as you used for your previous Management Node installation.

    See Pexip Infinity installation overview for links to the appropriate instructions for your hypervisor.

  5. Restore the previous configuration to the new Management Node from your backup (this also restores the original Management Node IP address — you set the new address in the next step):

    1. Go to Utilities > Backup/Restore.

    2. In the Restore backup section, enter the Passphrase.

      The text entered here must be identical to the text that was used to create the backup file.

    3. Select Choose File and then choose the backup file that you want to restore.

      The file must be chosen from your local file system (you cannot select a file from the list of Existing backup files).

    4. Select Restore backup.

      You are taken to the Restore backup confirmation page.

      If instead, you see "Failed to restore the system from the backup file" with a "Decryption Error: decryption failed" message, the most likely reason for this is that you have entered an incorrect passphrase.

    5. The confirmation page shows the date that the backup was taken, and the Management Node IP address that will be restored to this system.

      Select Restore backup to confirm the restoration.

    If the restore is successful, after a few seconds you will see a "Successfully restored the backup file" message and the Management Node will reboot.

    You need to wait for the node to return from rebooting before you can access it again.

  6. Re-run the installation wizard and supply the new IP address of the Management Node:

    1. Open a console window on the Management Node VM.

    2. At the login prompt, log in as admin.
    3. Enter the operating system password.

    4. Type installwizard.

      The Pexip installation wizard begins.

      At the IP address prompt, enter your new Management Node IP address.

      (If you interrupt the installation wizard, or it does not complete properly for any reason, you must reboot the Management Node and then rerun the installation wizard.)

  7. Reapply your previous license:

    1. Go to Platform > Licenses.
    2. Select Add License.
    3. In the License entitlement key field, enter the entitlement key from the 'old' Management Node that you noted previously.
    4. Select Save.

    The system will attempt to activate the license on the 'new' Management Node:

    • If the license is activated successfully, you are returned to the Licensing page and the new license is shown under the Licensing section.
    • If the activation attempt is unsuccessful (for example, if the Management Node was unable to establish a connection to the Pexip licensing server), or you selected Manually activate, the license is saved as a Stored license request. You must then activate it manually.

  8. Re-provision your Conferencing Nodes.

    See Deploying new Conferencing Nodes for links to the appropriate instructions for your hypervisor.