3.5 Upgrading PlateSpin Forge

You can upgrade your Forge software from versions 2.5, 3.0, and 3.0.2.

The rest of this section provides information about upgrading your PlateSpin Forge appliance.

3.5.1 Before Starting the Upgrade

Before starting the upgrade, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

  • The Forge setup installation executable.

  • IP addresses and appropriate credentials for:

    • The Forge appliance (used for the Forge Web Client Interface and the Forge Management VM)

    • The Forge Appliance Host (VMware ESX server)

3.5.2 Summary of Upgrade Tasks

To upgrade your Forge appliance, you need to perform the following tasks in order:

  1. Ensure that no replications are currently running or are scheduled to run during the upgrade.

  2. Save the current state of the management VM by taking a snapshot.

  3. Update the Forge Management VM with the latest Microsoft .NET Framework software and any security patches.

  4. Copy and run the required setup executable locally within the Forge Management VM.

  5. Verify proper operation of the appliance after the upgrade.

3.5.3 Forge Upgrade Procedure

This phase involves pausing all scheduled replications of protected workloads and waiting for running replications to complete.

  1. Use the PlateSpin Forge Web Client to pause all scheduled replications. Wait for any replications that are underway to complete. Ensure that the replication status of protected workloads is idle in the Replication Status column.

    See Launching the PlateSpin Forge Web Interface.

  2. Power off the Forge Management VM. See Starting and Shutting Down the Forge Management VM.

  3. Back up the Forge Management VM by creating a snapshot. See Managing Forge Snapshots on the Appliance Host.

  4. For Forge 1.x appliances, disable Independent mode for VM Hard Disk 2:

    1. In the Inventory panel at the left, right-click the Forge Management VM and select Edit Settings.

      The Virtual Machine Properties window is displayed.

    2. On the Hardware tab, click Hard Disk 2.

    3. At the right, deselect the Independent check box.

  5. Power on the Forge Management VM, access it with the VMware client program, and do the following:

    1. Install the latest Microsoft .NET Framework software. Forge 3 requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, SP1.

    2. Update Windows, applying any available security updates.

    3. Reboot the Forge Management VM.

  6. Run the Forge setup installation executable within the Forge Management VM and follow the on-screen instructions.

    NOTE:In some situations, the installation program might fail to automatically re-import data that it exports during the upgrade process. If this happens, use the PlateSpin.ImportExport.exe utility to recover this data from your server host’s \Documents and Settings\<user_profile>\Application Data\PlateSpin directory. See KB Article 7921084.

  7. Use the PlateSpin Forge Web Client to resume all paused replications.

  8. Use the VMware client program to remove the snapshot created in Step 3.

IMPORTANT:Drivers that were uploaded to the PlateSpin Forge driver database for failback are not preserved. Any such drivers need to be uploaded again after the upgrade.