GM & GMC swap from Physical to Virtual

[#1]

I am planning to swap my GM & GMC from hardware(2215) to virtual(4025). I would also be re-ip addressing my GM which is an HA pair. I wonder what would a best approach.

My idea:

Spin up the new GMCs with some staging IP.

Gracefully shutdown the old hardware GMC appliance.

Re-ip the new virtual GMC appliance with the old Grid Master Candidate IP and join to the grid as the GMC.

Then, spin up the 2 virtuals for GM. 

Join the grid as another GMC and configure HA.

Do set promote on the new virtual HA and assume the role of the Grid Master.

Retire the old Grid master.

Am I missing anything? Hoping to hear from someone.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hello Gokul,

Your MOP sounds fine from a high-level, though further judgement should be done depending on your configuration. I'm sure that you'd take a backup before making any changes, give time for the newly joined Grid master to sync the database with the existing GM(This can take few minutes up to several hours occassionally, depending on the Grid size), Ensure that UDP 2114 and UDP 1194 ports are open between the Grid members and newly designated Grid Master, Wait for atleast 2 hours between successive GM promotions as advised by Infoblox(Chapter link below), review the licenses mapped to the GM's hardware ID etc.. 

You can find few generic guidelines from Infoblox here  & read through this chapter from Infoblox to take a more comprehensive approach. 

Best regards,

[#3]

Hey Alman,

Its you again

Backup, indeed I will certainly take that.

The new 8.5.x comes with VPN testing, so I will certainly test it before making the leap. Licensing, we will be using the new Flex Grid License.

Thank you for the inputs!

Good evening.

Regards,

Gokul

[#4]

You could also try to evaluate the new Hybrid HA Functionality introduced in NIOS 8.6

Hybrid HA High Availability (HA) for applications and deployment flexibility are especially helpful when transitioning between physical and virtual appliances. NIOS 8.6.0 answers this call by allowing physical and virtual machines to be paired for hybrid HA, improving customer experience during migration.

[#5]

Great point there, I would love to explore that feature. But, maybe at a later point when I have a new business case.

I am planning to get this done before end of July 2021, and from what I hear NIOS 8.6 is not going to be available unitil Aug(tentative).

[#6]

NIOS 8.6 was released on March 31st

[#7]

Have you deployed VMWare HA pairs before?

If not, take a look at https://docs.infoblox.com/display/nios85/About+HA+Pairs and be aware of "MAC address changes" and "Forged transmits".

[#8]

I wouldn't want to go to NIOS 8.6.x till I can ensure it is a stable version. Wouldn't want to jump in to the pilot 8.6 now.