Indexer Peer server in not joining back to Indexer cluster after upgrading Splunk Enterprise 7.1 to 8.1

[AkashNTT]

Hi Friends, 

I am upgrading my Splunk Enterprise from 7.1 to 8.1. after upgrading Indexer search head Peer server it is not reflecting under indexer cluster group. there i can see only Master node. do i need to follow any certain steps to upgrade such clusters ?

[PickleRick]

1. What did you do? What components did you upgrade so far?

2. Anything unusual showing up in logs?

[AkashNTT]

hi @PickleRick ,

First of all, Thank you so much for your time !  I am upgrading my Indexer Cluster first.. all are windows server 2016. Before update when i login to my Indexer cluster:Master node console i can see 2 peer nodes (HostA and HostB) under Peer tab and under Search Heads i see one HostC. 

I was simply running the installed for Splunk Enterprise 8.1 on one of Peer hostA and rebooted the server upon complete installation. After that when i go back to Master node HostC and open the indexer Clustering console , it is not showing the HostA under Peer tab. seems it is not able to join back the peer.. also not sure what is the best way to do this update... I simply followed the Splunk upgrade guide which seems quite simple but indeed reality is different..LOL. let me know if you need any further information. Thank u !

[PickleRick]

Ugh. Windows.

But seriously.

The docs say that you should first upgrade SH tier, then the master node and finally the indexers (in fact you should first upgrade the license manager). So you started completely "backwards".

So - no, you didn't follow the upgrade guide.

As I said - look in the logs and see what kind of errors and warnings you have there but I'm afraid you might be in for your local partner or PS help depending on what happened there. There is a possibility that if you upgrade the SH and manager your environment will go back to normal but I wouldn't bet on it.