Hardware Replacement Grid Member NIOS 8.2.

[#1]

Hi All

We must replace the current hardware pt1400 with IB1415 both with nios 8.2.

The current pt1400 have many configuration relative to DNS, Name Server Groups, Threath Protection, Rpz and 3 newtork interfaces.

Is there a way (or tool) to migrare or replicate all current config on new hardware keeping the current ip address configuration and the name of dns server wihtout out of service?

I read some docs and i saw that it's possibile renaming the grid member and also change ip address of a member, but how is it possible cloning all config, DNS zone and so on.... without copy manually all configurarion?

Is there a way to restore a backup on different hardware? A kind of DR procedure but on different hardware...

Thanks in advance

[#2]

There are a couple of different ways to accomplish this: restoring a database backup or join your new appliance to form a Grid and then promote the new appliance to the Grid Master role. Since you are looking to minimize interruptions, I would probably recommend the second option.

-- For that second option, this does require the Grid license on each appliance. To set this up, you would just define the new appliance under the Grid -> Grid Manager -> Members tab in the GUI for your PT appliance, making sure to enable the Master Candidate option (you will need to edit the properties for the Grid member after it has been added to view this option). Next, connect via HTTPS or SSH (Remote Console access must be enabled for SSH to work) to the new appliance and then use either the Join Grid option under the Grid -> Grid Manager -> Members tab (when using the GUI), or the set membership command if using SSH.

Once the new appliance has successfully joined the Grid, you can update your DNS, DHCP and any other settings however you see fit. You will also need to promote the new appliance to the Grid Master role and you would do this by connecting to it using SSH and then running the command "set membership". During this process, you may see the PT appliance restart, but that is not a full reboot and should be fairly quick.

Note: To enable Remote Console (SSH) access, you can do this through the GUI or through the serial console with the "set remote_console" command. Assuming you do not have access to the serial console, you find this in the GUI through the Security -> Advanced tab (click on the Toggle Advanced Mode link if this is not visible) in the Grid Properties under the Grid -> Grid Manager -> Members tab.

-- If restoring a database backup, you will see the option "Force Restore from Different Grid". Along with that option are two sub-options:

• Retain Current Grid Master IP Settings
• Overwrite Grid Master IP Settings from Backup

The option to retain the current Grid Master IP settings is selected by default. Just enable the "Force Restore from Different Grid" to restore a database backup to a new appliance. After the database has been restored, you will effectively have two functional servers with the close to the same configurations. Be sure to validate/test everything and once confident that everything is working, you can point clients to the IP address for the new server.

Note: The appliance that you are restoring the backup to must be compatible. Since you are restoring from a PT appliance, there may be some incompatabilities.

Regards,

Tony

[#3]

Thanks Tony for your answer and its explanation!

For us the best solution could be restore the single Member of grid (no grid master or candidate in this phase) also if the hardware is different but there two points that prevent restore procedure:

1. The hardware differece between PT1400 and IB1415 (we don't know if involve only RAM or also Disk controller)

2. The restore procedure impact to all grid and not only the member interested

for these 2 points we think that is better using name server group and rename and re-ip procedure.

It's longer procedure but could be better.

Thanks

Fabio