Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator Deployment Guide, Release 4.2(x)

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Upgrade Your Nexus Dashboard Cluster

Updated: November 11, 2023

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Overview

sd Upgrade Your Nexus Dashboard Cluster

This section described how to upgrade the Nexus Dashboard cluster to release 3.0.1 which is required for this release of Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator.

Before you begin

You must have the following completed:

  • Backed up and downloaded the existing Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator configuration.

Before upgrading the Nexus Dashboard cluster:

  • Check your existing Nexus Dashboard release.

    At a minimum, you must upgrade to Nexus Dashboard release 3.0.1.

    Note

    Nexus Dashboard supports direct upgrades between specific sets of releases only:

    • If you are on release 2.2.1 or later, you can upgrade directly to release 3.0.1.

    • If you are on a release prior to release 2.2.1, you must first upgrade to release 2.2.1 and then to release 3.0.1.

  • Ensure that you have read the Release Notes for every upgrade hop's target release for any changes in behavior, guidelines, and issues that may affect your upgrade.

    The upgrade process is the same for all Nexus Dashboard form factors. Regardless of whether you deployed your cluster using physical servers, VMware ESX, Linux KVM, Azure, or AWS, you will use the target release's ISO image to upgrade.

  • Ensure that your current Nexus Dashboard cluster is healthy.

    You can check the system status on the System Overview page of the Nexus Dashboard GUI or by logging in to one of the nodes as rescue-user and ensuring that the acs health command returns All components are healthy.

  • We recommend that you create a backup of the existing Nexus Dashboard cluster configuration prior to the upgrade.

  • Ensure that no configuration changes are made to the cluster, such as adding worker or standby nodes, while the upgrade is in progress.

  • If you are upgrading Nexus Dashboard from release 2.1(1) or earlier, you may need to clear your browser cache after the upgrade is completed for the UI to show properly.

Procedure

1.

Download the Nexus Dashboard image.

If you have to upgrade across multiple hops as mentioned in the Before you begin section above, download the images for every target hop.

  1. Browse to the Software Download page.

    https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286327743/type/286328258

  2. Choose the Nexus Dashboard version you want to download.

  3. Download the Cisco Nexus Dashboard image (nd-dk9.<version>.iso).

    Note

    You must download the .iso image for all upgrades, even if you used the VMware ESX .ova image or a cloud provider's marketplace for initial cluster deployment.

  4. (Optional) Host the image on a web server in your environment.

    When you upload the image to your Nexus Dashboard cluster, you will have an option to provide a direct URL to the image.
2.

Log in to your current Nexus Dashboard GUI as an Administrator user.
3.

Disable all installed services in the cluster.

When you upgrade Nexus Dashboard, all currently installed services must be disabled.
4.

Upload the new Nexus Dashboard image to the cluster.

Note

Note that the UI may differ slightly across different Nexus Dashboard releases, but the navigation remains the same.

  1. Navigate to Operations > Firmware Management.

  2. Select the Images tab.

  3. From the Actions menu, select Add Image.
5.

Select the new image.

Note

If you have to upgrade over multiple hops, you must upload only one image at a time for the immediate release to which you are upgrading. Then after the upgrade to that hop is complete, you can repeat the process with the image for the next hop.

  1. In the Add Firmware Image window, select Local.

    Alternatively, if you hosted the image on a web server, choose Remote instead.

  2. Click Select file and select the ISO image you downloaded in the first step.

    If you chose to upload a remote image, provide the file path for the image on the remote server.

  3. Click Upload to add the image.

    The image will be uploaded to the Nexus Dashboard cluster, unpacked, processed, and made available for the upgrade. The whole process may take several minutes and you will be able to see the status of the process in the Images tab.
6.

Wait for the image status to change to Downloaded.

You can check the status of the image download progress in the Images.
7.

Set up the update.

  1. Navigate to Operations > Firmware Management.

  2. Select the Updates tab.

  3. Click Setup Update.

    The Firmware Update screen opens.
8.

Choose the upgrade image.

  1. In the Firmware Update > Version selection screen, select the firmware version you uploaded and click Next.

  2. In the Firmware Update > Confirmation screen, verify the details and click Begin Install.

    The installation progress window is displayed. You can navigate away from this screen while the update is in progress. To check on the update status at a later time, navigate to the Firmware Management screen and click View Details in the Last Update Status tile.

    This will set up the required Kubernetes images and services but will not switch the cluster to the new version. The cluster will continue to run the existing version until you activate the new image in the next step. The entire process may take up to 20 minutes.
9.

Activate the new image.

  1. Navigate back to the Operations > Firmware Management screen

  2. In the Last Update Status tile, click View Details.

  3. Click Activate.

  4. In the Activation Confirmation window, click Continue.

    It may take up to 20 additional minutes for all the cluster services to start and the GUI to become available. The page will automatically reload when the process is completed.
10.

If you upgraded a virtual cluster deployed in VMware ESX, convert the nodes to the new profile.

Note

If your cluster is not deployed in VMware ESX or is already on release 2.1.1 or later, skip this step.

Starting with Release 2.1.1, Nexus Dashboard supports two different node profiles for virtual nodes deployed in VMware ESX. After the upgrade, you must convert all the nodes of the existing cluster to one of the new profiles:

  • Data node—node profile designed for data-intensive applications, such as Nexus Dashboard Insights

  • App node—node profile designed for non-data-intensive applications, such as Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator

The profile you choose depends on your use case scenario:

  • If you plan to run only the Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator service, convert all nodes to the App node profile.

  • If you plan to run Nexus Dashboard Insights or co-host applications, you must convert the nodes to the Data profile.

You convert the nodes to the new profile by deploying brand new nodes using that profile and replacing existing nodes with them one at a time.

  1. Bring down one of the nodes.

    You must replace one node at a time.

  2. Deploy a new node in VMware ESX using the App or Data profile OVA.

    When deploying the new node, you must use the same exact network configuration parameters as the node you are replacing.

  3. Log in to the existing Nexus Dashboard GUI.

    You can use the management IP address of one of the remaining healthy master nodes.

  4. From the left navigation pane, select System Resources > Nodes.

    The node you are replacing will be listed as Inactive.

  5. Click the (...) menu next to the inactive master node you want to replace and select Replace.

    The Replace window will open.

  6. Provide the Management IP Address and Password for the node, then click Verify.

    The cluster will connect to the new node's management IP address to verify connectivity.

  7. Click Replace.

    It may take up to 20 minutes for the node to be configured and join the cluster.

  8. Wait for the cluster to become healthy, then repeat this step for the other two nodes.
11.

After the upgrade is successful, delete the upgrade image you had uploaded.

You must remove the older upgrade images before uploading a new image for the next upgrade.
12.

If you are upgrading across multiple hops, repeat these steps for each upgrade one at a time.