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Polycom, Inc. 386
See also:
Management and Maintenance Overview on page 332
Upgrading the Software on page 380
Incompatible Software Version Supercluster Upgrades
All the clusters in a supercluster must be running compatible software versions. Patch releases will
generally be compatible, and can be installed using the procedure in Basic Upgrade Procedures on
page 382.
But major and minor version upgrades will not be compatible. An incompatible version software upgrade on
all clusters in a supercluster requires careful planning because it’s not possible to upgrade a cluster to an
incompatible software version while it’s a member of the supercluster. Each cluster must be upgraded
individually.
You have two options for upgrading a supercluster:
● Perform the cluster upgrades in a system-wide maintenance window during which all the clusters can
be shut down and the service is completely unavailable. This is by far the simplest and fastest
method, taking as little as an hour or two.
● Perform the cluster upgrades incrementally so that some system capacity (although greatly reduced)
remains available during the process. This method is far more complex, error-prone, and lengthy. It
can easily take five or more times as long.
During the course of an incremental upgrade, some clusters will be on the new software version while
others are still on the older version, effectively creating two separate superclusters until all the
clusters are upgraded. This requires significant configuration changes in order for some level of
service to remain available, and those configuration changes must be repeated again and again as
each cluster is removed from the original supercluster, upgraded, and added to the new supercluster.
Before deciding to undertake an incremental upgrade, carefully read and consider the information in
Factors to Consider for an Incremental Supercluster Upgrade on page 387.
See also:
Upgrading the Software on page 380
Basic Upgrade Procedures on page 382
Simplified Supercluster Upgrade (Complete Service Outage) on page 387
Complex Supercluster Upgrade (Some Service Maintained) on page 390
Caution: Use Care When Upgrading a Supercluster
We strongly recommend upgrading a supercluster only during a system-wide maintenance window
when there are no calls or conferences on the system and all clusters can be taken out of service.
This makes the process significantly faster and easier.
If you must upgrade incrementally, be aware of the limited capacity available at any given point in the
process. It’s advisable to ensure that there is little or no conferencing activity in any given territory until
after the new supercluster has been created and territory responsibilities for that territory have been
reassigned to a cluster in the new supercluster.
To minimize the time required for an upgrade:
• If the upgrade requires a new license, obtain the license keys ahead of time.
Download a recent backup and upload the upgrade package file to all clusters in the supercluster
ahead of time.