Prudent Prep's before upgrading RSA Auth Mgr 8.1 code on hardware appliances

[LaneFrazier]

Asking this question here as I have had this same question in support case since last Friday with no answer. Case is 01305889

Reference the following articles

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

https://community.rsa.com/thread/192973

My question deals with the latest question I had on this thread
https://community.rsa.com/thread/198411

We are preparing to move from 8.1 sp1 P3 level to the 8.3 P4 level most likely in our RSA environment.

Its a combination of intel based hardware appliances (primary and replicas and VMware replica's

Primary is on a hardware appliance and we have no real way of backing it up prior to upgrade except with an unsupported freeware program called ping rel 4. The Rel 3 that was tested is not even available any more and Ping $ seems to have some known issues....keyboards etc .

We do daily backups via Primary  RSA operations console via schedule

I need to know how to prepare for the worst in case something went wrong during upgrade on my primary during upgrade.

If something bad did occur

Would I just promote one of my replicas to a primary to get back where I was? Or could I reset to factory with the 8.1 iso file and reapply sp1 and P3 and restore my latest backup file from ops console to get back.

Again this is on an appliance not a VMware primary.

We are upgrading soon and I'm trying to make sure I have all the bases properly covered

[_EricaChalfin]

Lane Frazier‌,

I have contacted your support engineer requesting that they call you about your case.

Regards,

Erica

[_EricaChalfin]

Lane Frazier‌,

I pulled the following from your case notes, just in case anyone else would want the same information:

Upgrade path

The upgrade path would be to go from Authentication Manager 8.1 SP1 P3 >  8.2 >  8.2 SP1 >  8.3 and finally to  8.3 P4.

Prerequisites

• Please ensure to take a backup or a VM snapshot before proceeding with the upgrade.
• Please ensure that you upgrade the primary first and then the replica(s), subsequently.Taking Backup. 
• Please remember to take the back up to the local machine and use WinSCP to move the backup file from the local machine to a safe location.
• Backup Path.  On the primary Operations Console go to  Maintenance > Backup and Restore > Back Up Now.  The backup file will be saved in /opt/rsa/am/backup and the filename will be date time stamp with an extension of  .backup.
• Upgrade 

Before starting, Ensure that the replication status is Normal before you perform an upgrade

1. On the primary's Operations Console go to Administration > Update and Rollback.

2. You will get an option to upload the required files and will be prompted for the operating system password.

3.  Once the upgrade is done, you can access the Security Console and Operations Console after ten minutes.

4.  Confirm the upgrade from the Security Console by clicking Software Version Information on the Home tab. 

Download the software you need following 000034558 - How to download RSA Authentication Manager 8.x full kits and service packs from RSA Link or from the RSA Authentication Manager Downloads page.

Replication will break once the primary is upgraded. This is normal behaviour, since the primary and replica will be on different versions of the software  .If the upgrade on primary fails for any reason you can build an Authentication Manager 8.1 server using the iso and bring it up to 8.1 SP1 P3 then restore from the backup taken above.

You can also promote one of the replica servers to primary using the Promotion under Maintenance to avoid any further downtime. 

Regards,

Erica