This section provides important information and best practices to consider prior to upgrading an Orchestrator. Please remember to contact VMware Support to assist you with Orchestrator upgrades at https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?legacyId=53907.
Consider the following when upgrading the Orchestrator:
- This upgrade work does not modify any existing APIs.
- Just like other releases, there are schema changes when upgrading to a newer release. However, these changes will not impact the upgrade process.
The OS for the SD-WAN Orchestrator virtual appliance and the underlying data stores that store the configuration and statistics data are being upgraded. The specific upgrades include the following:
- The OS version is changing from Ubuntu 14.04 to 18.04.
- The Config store is moving to MySQL 8.0.
- The Stats store is moving to ClickhouseDB.
Note: The Orchestrator OS, database, and several other dependent components currently in use have reached their end of life, and will no longer be supported.
Best Practices/Recommendations:
Listed below are some upgrade best practices:
- From the System Properties page in the Orchestrator, make a note of the value of the edge.heartbeat.spread.factor system property. Then, change the heartbeat spread factor to a relatively high value for a large Orchestrator (e.g. 20, 40, 60). This will help reduce the sudden spike of the resource utilization (CPU, IO) on the system. Make sure to verify that all Gateways and Edges are in a connected state before restoring the previous edge.heartbeat.spread.factor value from the System Property page in the Orchestrator.
- Leave the demoted SD-WAN Orchestrator up for a few hours before complete shutdown or decommission.
- Freeze configuration modifications to avoid any additional configuration changes until the upgrade process is completed.
