Can you give me advice on the correct sequence to follow when upgrading Splunk Enterprise from 8.1.3 to 9.0.1?

[supreet]

We wish to upgrade from 8.1.3 to the latest (9.0.1 at this time).

We have:

• Search Head
• Manager Node 1 
• Index Cluster (2 nodes)
• Heavy forwarder 1(1 node)
• Manager Node 2
• Index Cluster (2 nodes)
• Heavy forwarder 2 (1 node)

From my reading of:

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.0.1/Indexer/Upgradeacluster#Upgrade_each_tier_separat...

it looks like we can follow below path: 

HF1, HF2

Manager Node 1 

Manager Node 2 

Search Head

Indexer Cluster 1 (2 nodes)

indexer cluster 2 (2 nodes)

Please advise if this will work correctly? 

[supreet]

Hi @gcusello ,

Thank you for your response. After reading the documentation ( https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.0.1/Installation/UpgradeyourdistributedSplunkEnterpri...) there was one point that caught my eye : 

To upgrade an environment with index clusters, see Upgrade an indexer cluster in Managing Indexers and Clusters of Indexers

As we do have distributed environment with 2 separate index clusters and each connected to 1 Master Node but only one search head, Should I not be following the upgrade an indexer cluster steps and follow Master Node-> SH -> Index Clusters?

[gcusello · Accepted solution]

Hi @supreet,

in your situation, I'd upgrade:

• SH
• MN1
• IDXs Cluster 1
• MN2
• IDXs Cluster 2 
• HFs

Ciao.

Giuseppe

[isoutamo]

Hi

https://community.splunk.com/t5/Installation/What-s-the-order-of-operations-for-upgrading-Splunk-Ent... that instructions for update order is still valid when you are doing live update.

When you have nodes which have several roles just look which role needs to update first based on above instruction.

1. SH/LM (I suppose that this is your LM, if not then update this after MNs have updated)
2. Both MN
3. If your LM is somewhere else than SH, then SH other
4. One index at time on those cluster
5. HFs 
6. UFs

r. Ismo

[gcusello]

Hi @supreet,

here you can find the correct upgrade path: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.0.1/Installation/HowtoupgradeSplunk

As you can see, you can directly upgrade from 8.1.3 to 9.0.1.

About the sequence to follow, you can find all the information at https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.0.1/Installation/UpgradeyourdistributedSplunkEnterpri...

So your order isn't correct, you have to upgrade:

• Search Heads,
• Master Node,
• Indexers,
• Heavy Forwarders,

If you have two Indexers Clusters, completely upgrade one (master node and Indexers) and then the second.

At least Forwarders.

• Search Heads,
• Master Node1,
• Indexers Cluster 1,
• Master Node2,
• Indexers Cluster 2,
• Heavy Forwarders,

remember to check the version of your Forwarders to be sure that all of them are complatible with 9.0.1 at https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/VersionCompatibility/current/Matrix/Compatibilitybetweenforwar.... 

Ciao.

Giuseppe