Before You Start The Upgrade Process; A Brief Overview Of The Upgrade Process - Novell OPEN ENTERPRISE SERVER 2 SP2 Installation Manual

Performing a down-server upgrade on an OES 2 VM guest is similar in many ways to upgrading a
physical machine, but there are important differences as outlined in the following sections:
"Before You Start the Upgrade Process" on page 185
"A Brief Overview of the Upgrade Process" on page 185
"Creating a Temporary Upgrade Directory on the VM Host" on page 186
"Creating a Directory and Copying the ISO Files to the VM Host" on page 186
"Checking the Kernel Type" on page 186
"Shutting Down and Preparing the VM Guest" on page 186
"Copying the Boot Files and Preparing the VM Guest Configuration Files" on page 187
"Starting the Upgrade" on page 188
"Resuming and Completing the Upgrade" on page 189

Before You Start the Upgrade Process

1 Make sure you follow all of the applicable instructions and guidelines in
for the Upgrade to OES 2 SP2," on page 110
Requirements," on page

A Brief Overview of the Upgrade Process

When you perform a down-server upgrade on a physical server to OES 2 SP2, you must first shut
down the server and then reboot it, using the installation kernel and initial RAM disk (initrd) files on
the SLES 10 SP3 installation media. This is accomplished by booting the server through a SLES CD
or DVD, an ISO image file, or by accessing a SLES installation image on the network through a
PXE or other remote connection.
Upgrading a VM guest also requires that you shut down the guest. However, when a Xen VM guest
reboots, it doesn't scan the local storage devices or attempt a PXE connection. Rather, it uses its
configuration information to locate the kernel and other needed files on the host's file system. The
only way to affect the boot process of a VM guest is to modify its configuration.
Therefore, to upgrade a Xen VM guest, you must do the following high-level tasks as detailed in the
sections that follow.
1. Copy the installation/upgrade kernel and initial RAM disk (initrd) files to the VM host's file
system.
2. Create two copies of the VM guest configuration:
A Modified Version: You use this to start the upgrade process and run the first portion of
the process.
An Unmodified Version: You use this to restore the guest's operating environment for
the second portion of the upgrade process.
3. Remove the VM guest's configuration information from the Xen database so that it can boot
using configuration files you create above.
and
111.
Installing, Upgrading, or Updating OES on a Xen-based VM 185
Section 5.2, "Planning
Section 5.3, "Meeting the Upgrade