BeeGFS 8.4 Upgrade Guide

Please read and understand the information below completely before attempting the upgrade.

Possible upgrade paths

The following upgrade paths from older versions are supported:

  • v6.y ⟶ v7.4.z ⟶ v8.4.z

  • v7.y ⟶ v7.4.z ⟶ v8.4.z

  • v8.y ⟶ v8.4.z

The required steps depend on your starting version.

General requirements

Always check the release notes and upgrade guides between the source and destination releases for any new features or configuration options you may wish to update. Most configuration changes are optional, with the following exception:

  • After upgrading to or past BeeGFS 8.4, if you are using BeeGFS Hive Index you will need to take additional steps to migrate to the new BeeGFS Index package and database schema. See the BeeGFS Index section for more details and how to migrate.

  • After upgrading to or past BeeGFS 8.3, users of the BeeGFS Community Edition must obtain a community license. Refer to the Licensing page for more details. No action is required if you are using an unexpired/expired enterprise or unexpired temporary license.

  • After upgrading to or past BeeGFS 8.1, if you are using Remote Storage Targets a new required sysBypassFileAccessCheckOnMeta client parameter was introduced in 8.1 that must be set to true in the client configuration used for all Remote and Sync nodes.

Upgrade from 6 or ≤7.3

If you are still on BeeGFS 7.3 or earlier, first upgrade to 7.4 following the BeeGFS 7.4 upgrade guide. Once complete, continue with with the path to upgrade from 7.4.

Upgrade from 7.4

It is possible to upgrade directly from BeeGFS 7.4 to BeeGFS 8.4. First check all servers and clients are on supported Linux distributions and kernel versions for BeeGFS 8.4. Then follow the steps in the BeeGFS 8 upgrade guide.

Upgrade from any 8.x release

It is possible to upgrade from any BeeGFS 8 release to BeeGFS 8.4. Follow the steps in this guide.

Before Upgrading

  1. Check all servers and clients are on supported Linux distributions and kernel versions.

Upgrade to 8.4

  1. If you use buddy mirroring, make sure that all buddies are in GOOD state in the previous output before proceeding.

  2. Stop the BeeGFS system:

    • stop/unmount all clients

    • stop all storage services

    • stop all meta services including any event listeners (if in use)

    • stop the management service

  3. Refer to the backup guide and take a full system backup if possible. If a full backup is not possible ensure you at least take a minimal backup of important system configuration.

    Note

    A minimal backup of important system configuration after stopping all services and before upgrading packages is strongly recommended. Proceed without any backups at your own risk!

  4. Download the BeeGFS package repository file for your distribution to all nodes. Visit the BeeGFS download page and follow the step-by-step directions to add the BeeGFS package repositories to your Linux distribution’s package manager.

  5. Upgrade all BeeGFS packages.

  6. Update optional configuration:

  1. Enable automatic sync and restore for Remote Storage Targets.

  2. Enable NFSv4-style ACLs (enterprise feature / experimental).

  3. Enable Long-Term Client-Side Metadata Caching (experimental).

  1. Start all services and clients and verify that the system works as expected.

  2. Update required configuration:

  1. Users of the BeeGFS community edition will need to obtain a community license after upgrading if they don’t have one already in place. Refer to the Licensing page for more details. No action is required if you are using an unexpired/expired enterprise or unexpired temporary license.

  1. After finishing the upgrade run the following commands to verify the upgrade:

    1. Verify all nodes and targets are online and in a good state: beegfs health check

      Tip

      If the “Available Capacity” check warns that targets are low on free space, you can adjust the “capacity pool” thresholds defined in the beegfs-mgmtd.toml so they are better suited to your environment.