Parallel Upgrade of N-able N-central

Last Modified

Fri Mar 20 14:31 GMT 2020

Description

  • Using a second VM to upgrade N-able N-central to minimize downtime.
  • This article assumes basic familiarity with the N-able N-central upgrade process.
  • For more general details regarding installation and upgrades, please see the install guide for your version.

Environment

  • N-able N-central
  • Supported Virtualization Environment

Solution

Parallel Upgrade Process

  • NOTE: This process reduces N-able N-central downtime, but will leave a gap in export data to Report Manager or custom data export.
  • This gap is generally going to be from the time the last exports finish (step 1 below) until the final cut-over.
  1. Turn off Exports to Report Manager.
    • Simply disabling the Report Manager Maintenance Service and Report Manager Maintenance Watchdog Service will do this, but allow current export to complete.
    • An alternative would be so shut down the Report Manager server itself, or otherwise prevent communication between Report Manager and N-able N-central.
  2. Take Full Backup.
    • The backup may not be able to start immediately if an export is in progress.
  3. Create a new VM with the appropriate disk, cpu, and memory specifications.
  4. Restore Full Backup of to new VM instance (Hyper-V, AWS, Azure, VMware).
  5. Review new N-able N-central VM for any issues after restore completes.
  6. Turn off outbound communication.
    1. Administration > Mail and Network Settings > Outbound Communication,
    2. Disable.
  7. Move onto upgrade pre-checks of new instance (if applicable for known issues).
  8. Check that all devices are set to "Never" upgrade,
    1. Administration > Defaults > Agent and Probe Settings,
    2. Upgrades tab,
    3. Set both Agents and Probes to Never,
    4. Check the propagate box for both,
    5. Save.
  9. Upload the upgrade file and click Install.
  10. Upgrade Finishes (Success/Failure email).
  11. Run Server Health Check.
  12. Change IP Address/Hostname of old VM or modify firewall settings (as required).
    • Having both VMs point to the same IP/FQDN externally will cause complications.
    • Restricting this can be done in any manner that suits the environment, but the original VM should be removed from activity before the new VM is switched over.
  13. Change IP Address/Hostname of new VM or modify firewall settings (as required).
    • Firewall Reboot may be required in some environments due to network change.
  14. Run post-upgrade checks and ensure that agents/probes are checking in.
  15. Shut down original VM.
  16. Re-enable outbound communication.
  17. Test notification and PSA functionality and validate SMTP/Mail Relay settings.
  18. Turn Report Manager back on.
    • Please monitor emails over the coming days after the upgrade to ensure no export problems occur.
    • If they do please contact support.