Backing up Hardware Appliance before upgrade

[JOHNMILLER2]

Hi,

I am upgrading a 130 Hardware appliance from 8.1 to 8.2. I see RSA recommends backing it up with PING before upgrading as described in this article:

Using PING to Back Up and Restore the RSA Authentication Manager 8.2.x Hardware Appliance

It appears PING has been abandoned by its developers. What is the updated RSA recommendation for backing up the appliance before upgrading it?

Thank you,

John 

[EdwardDavis]

I am not sure PING has been abandoned, but am not sure....the most recent version is 4.00 and we wrote the advice to use PING backup for version 3.02. At any rate we still recommend PING 3.02 as we know it works. Using PING 4.00 may render certain appliances USB keyboard inoperable (I just discovered this yesterday myself, PING 4.00 does not have the correct keyboard/usb drivers for a Dell 1U R210) but we tested all appliances using PING 3.02 (and with 3.02 that same Dell worked flawlessly).

[JayGuillette]

alternate or safety net approach would be to take a backup from the operations console on the primary, then if disaster strikes you rebuild by following KB article 34277 - How to factory reset an Authentication Manager 8.2 hardware appliance without a factory reset button from the Operations Console

https://community.rsa.com/docs/DOC-62265 

Basically burn a DVD with the version of AM you want to restore to, AM 8.1 or AM 8.2.  Must be same version as the database backup was from.

[JOHNMILLER2]

Thanks guys.

The PING website download links are all broken. The forum is still up and the members are all asking what happened.Last activity was October 2016.

I will make the DVD using "rsa-am-hardware-appliance-8.1.0.0.0.iso"  to backup 8.1 Patch 5. Then I can reapply patch 5 before restoring the backup if disaster strikes. There is no issue upgrading an appliance from 2014 to 8.2 SP1 correct?

Thanks,

John

[EdwardDavis]

No issues... But being on 8.1 patch 5 may be an issue due to a library file that is not needed.

Do this:

before doing any patches

get on command line as root and do

rm -rf /lib/*readline*

(this removes a 32 bit library that is not needed, that 8.1 patch 5 introduced, but will prevent 8.2 from installing)

install 8.1 sp1  - 8.1.1.0.0

install 8.2  - 8.2.0.0.0  (note replication will break here until replica is also 8.2)

install 8.2 sp1  - 8.2.1.0.0

install 8.2 sp1 patch 3  - 8.2.1.3.0

NOTE: there is a new base image 'rsa-am-hardware-appliance-8.2.1.0.0.iso' to burn to DVD

so at this point if you need to factory reset it, you don't have to go all the way back to 8.1

[JOHNMILLER2]

Hi Edward,

The primary appliance is 8.1 patch 5 but the replica is just 8.1 no patch.

Should I install patch 5 on the replica and rm them both or leave the replica as is and install 8.1 SP1 on first the primary and then the replica, without ever installing patch 5 on the replica ?

Thanks,

John

[EdwardDavis]

Leave the replica alone and just put 8.1 sp1 on it, saves a bit of trouble.

[JOHNMILLER2]

Ok thank you

[JOHNMILLER2]

Hi, 

I see the 8.2 file we downloaded  is "rsa-am-hardware-appliance-8.2.1.0.0.iso", so it seems to include SP1. Does this mean I can change the above sequence to:

install 8.1 sp1  - 8.1.1.0.0

install 8.2  - 8.2.1.0.0  (note replication will break here until replica is also 8.2)

install 8.2 SP1 Update - rsa-am-update-8.2.1.0.0.zip

install 8.2 sp1 patch 5

Also, should I update the webtier as I go, or just at the end? Are the webtier update files in rsa-am-extras-8.2.1.0.0.zip?

See attachment for available files we see

Thanks,

John

[EdwardDavis]

You can only do it in the order I wrote if you are patching 'in place'.

8.1 sp1, 8.2, 8.2 sp1, 8.2 sp1 patch 3

Webtier 8.2.1.0.0 is in the extras .iso, but we spun a new webtier for 8.2 sp1 patch 2...so it would save time to wait until the primary is 8.2.1.3.0, then uninstall web tier and reinstall using this web tier 8.2.1.2.0

RSA Authentication Manager 8.2 SP1 Patch 2 - Web-Tier Server Download