Upgrading the Pexip Infinity platform

The upgrade process

When you initiate an upgrade of the Pexip Infinity software, the following steps occur automatically, in order.

1. The Management Node software is upgraded, after which the Management Node will automatically reboot.
2. The first Conferencing Node is put into maintenance mode, meaning all further incoming calls to it will be rejected.

3. When all calls have cleared from the first Conferencing Node, its software is upgraded and the system is rebooted. This process should take around 2 minutes to complete, but may take longer depending on the speed of the connection between the Management Node and Conferencing Node over which the files are transferred.

   If all calls have not cleared after 1 hour, the first Conferencing Node will be taken out of maintenance mode and put at the back of the queue of systems to be upgraded. A further attempt to upgrade the first Conferencing Node will be made after all other systems have been upgraded (or had upgrade attempts made).

4. After the first Conferencing Node has been upgraded successfully (or has been put back in the queue for a later upgrade attempt) and is again available, the second Conferencing Node is put into maintenance mode.
5. The process continues with each subsequent Conferencing Node being put into maintenance mode, and, after all calls have cleared, being upgraded and then rebooted.
6. If the upgrade of the Management Node and all Conferencing Nodes has not completed successfully after 24 hours, the process will stop and all systems will be left in their existing upgrade state. This is designed to prevent situations where one Conferencing Node cannot be upgraded, which would otherwise leave the system in a permanent state of upgrading.

If the upgrade process does not complete successfully and stops after 24 hours, you may have a mix of upgraded and non-upgraded systems. You will then need to repeat the upgrade process. During a repeat upgrade, only those systems that have not already been upgraded will be included in the upgrade process.

During the 24-hour period from when an upgrade has been initiated, you cannot re-initiate an upgrade using the Administrator interface. If you must re-initiate an upgrade during this time, you must reboot the Management Node and then start the process again.

When to upgrade

While the upgrade is in progress, some Conferencing Nodes will be running the newer version of the software and some will be running the older version. These Conferencing Nodes will be incompatible until they are all again running the same version. This means that there may be instances where two endpoints dial the same Virtual Meeting Room alias but if they are routed to different Conferencing Nodes that are running different versions of the software, the two endpoints will be in different conferences. For this reason, we recommend upgrading at a time of minimal usage.

Upgrading from version 4 or later to version 11

To upgrade Pexip Infinity software from v4 or later to v11:

1. Before upgrading, we recommend that you use your hypervisor's snapshot functionality to take a full VMware/Hyper-V snapshot of the Management Node. If upgrading from v8, due to incompatibilities resolved in v8.1, ensure that you take a non-quiescing snapshot. This snapshot will be required should you later need to downgrade, or if the upgrade fails. You may also want to take a snapshot of each Conferencing Node, although depending on the size and complexity of your deployment it may be easier to simply redeploy these from the Management Node in the unlikely event that this is required.
2. Reboot all Conferencing Nodes. There are two ways of doing this:
   • Log in to the virtual hypervisor and reboot the machine using its processes.
   • Connect to the Conferencing Node via SSH, login as admin, and issue the command sudo reboot.
3. Download the Pexip Infinity upgrade package for v11 from www.pexip.com/software-download.
4. From the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface, go to Utilities > Upgrade.

5. Select Choose File and browse to the location of the upgrade package.

   

6. Select Upgrade. There will be a short delay while the upgrade package is uploaded.

   After the upgrade package has been uploaded, you are presented with a confirmation page showing details of the existing software version and the upgrade version.

7. To proceed, select Upgrade.

   You are taken to the Upgrade status page, showing the current upgrade status of the Management Node and all Conferencing Nodes (for a definition of each status, see Definition of upgrade statuses). This page automatically refreshes every 5 seconds.

8. When the upgrade completes, all systems will show a status of No upgrade in progress and have the new Installed version.

   If a Conferencing Node fails to upgrade, for example if it remains on a Waiting for calls to clear status, it should be rebooted. The upgrade process will then continue as expected.

No additional actions are required to upgrade the Management Node or Conferencing Nodes individually.

We recommend that you take a fresh backup of your system after upgrading.

Error messages during upgrade

The following Error-level messages are expected during an upgrade and do not require any action:

2014-03-03T12:12:01.924+00:00 <manager_hostname> 2014-03-03 12:12:01,924 Level="ERROR" Name="administrator.system.configuration" Message="Node configuration failed." Node="<worker_hostname>" Resource="File[/etc/certs/privatekey.pem]"

2014-03-03T12:12:01.924+00:00 <manager_hostname> 2014-03-03 12:12:01,924 Level="ERROR" Name="administrator.system.configuration" Message="Node configuration failed." Node=""<worker_hostname>" Resource="File[/etc/certs/server.pem]"

2014-03-03T12:12:02.400+00:00 <manager_hostname> 2014-03-03 12:12:02,399 Level="ERROR" Name="administrator.system.connectivity" Message="Unable to contact node." Node="<node_ip_fqdn>"

Upgrading from version 3 to version 11

To upgrade Pexip Infinity version 3 software to the latest version, you must first upgrade to version 6. To do this:

1. Download the Pexip Infinity v6 upgrade file (contact your authorized Pexip representative for the link to this file).
2. Follow the steps outlined in Upgrading from version 4 or later to version 11, but when asked to Choose File browse to the location of the v6 upgrade file.
3. Verify that the upgrade has completed successfully.
4. Download the Pexip Infinity v11 upgrade file.
5. Follow the steps outlined in Upgrading from version 4 or later to version 11, and when asked to Choose File browse to the location of the v11 upgrade file.

Upgrading configuration-only deployments

The automatic upgrade process described above will update the Management Node and all Conferencing Nodes, including Conferencing Nodes that have been created using the configuration only deployment type.

However, if after the upgrade you wish to deploy new configuration-only Conferencing Nodes, you must download and use a version of the Conferencing Node VM template that matches the version of the Management Node that you have upgraded to. Creating a new Conferencing Node from a VM template containing a different version of the Pexip Infinity software than that which is running on the Management Node is not supported and will not work. For more information, see Deploying a Conferencing Node using a generic VM template and configuration file

Definition of upgrade statuses

During an upgrade, the Upgrade status page will report the status of each Conferencing Node as follows:

Status	Description
No upgrade in progress	During a platform upgrade, this is the default state that occurs before a Conferencing Node is upgraded, or after the node has rebooted .
Upgrade pending	An upgrade of the platform is in progress and this Conferencing Node is in the queue to be upgraded.
Preparing to upgrade	The Conferencing Node is preparing to upgrade. During this time the node will be put into maintenance mode, and other services will be stopped.
Waiting for calls to clear	The Conferencing Node is in maintenance mode and is waiting for existing conferences to complete.
Timeout waiting for calls to clear	Not all conferences had cleared after 1 hour. This Conferencing Node has been removed from maintenance mode and the upgrade will be attempted again later.
Upgrade in progress	The new software is being unpackaged and installed on the Conferencing Node. During this time the Conferencing Node will not synchronize configuration with the Management Node.
Rebooting	The upgrade has completed and the Conferencing Node is rebooting.
Could not communicate with conferencing node	This error will be reported if the Conferencing Node cannot be contacted.

Downgrading or recovering from a failed upgrade

To downgrade your system to the previous version, or to recover your system after a failed upgrade:

1. Restore the Management Node from the VMware snapshot that you took using your hypervisor at the start of the upgrade process.
2. Restore the individual Conferencing Nodes by either:
   • redeploying each Conferencing Node manually from the Management Node - see Deploying new Conferencing Nodes, or
   • restoring the hypervisor snapshot of each Conferencing Node that was taken at the start of the upgrade process.

Checking the installed version

Management Node

To view which software version is running on the Management Node, click on the About link at the top right corner of the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface.

Conferencing Nodes

To view which software version is running on individual Conferencing Nodes, go to Status > Conferencing Nodes. The software version number will be shown in the Installed version column.