Upgrading HP Vertica to a New Version
Important: The Version 7.0 installer introduces new platform verification tests that prevent the install from continuing if the platform requirements are not met by your system. Manually verify that your system meets the requirements inBefore You Install HP Verticabefore you update the server package on your systems. These tests ensure that your platform meets the hardware and software requirements for HP Vertica. Previous versions documented these requirements, but the installer did not verify all of the settings.
Version 7.0 introduces the new installation parameter--failure-thresholdthat allows you to change the level at which the installer stops the installation process based on the severity of the failed test. By default, the installer stops on all warnings. You can change the failure threshold to FAIL to bypass all warnings and only stop on failures. However, your platform is unsupported until you correct all warnings generated by the installer. By changing the failure threshold you are able to immediately upgrade and bring up your HP Vertica database, but performance can not be guaranteed until you correct the warnings.
Important: When upgrading from 5.x to a later version of HP Vertica, due to a change in how transaction catalog storage works in HP Vertica 6.0 and later, the amount of space that the transaction catalog takes up can increase significantly during and after the upgrade. Verify that you have a at least 4x the size of the Catalog folder in the catalog free (in addition to normal free space requirements) on your nodes prior to upgrading.
To determine the amount of space the Catalog folder is using, rundu -hon the Catalog folder. Note: do not rundu -hon the entire catalog. Run it specifically on the Catalog folder in the catalog.
For example:
[dbadmin@localhost ~]$ du -h /home/dbadmin/db/v_db_node0001_catalog/Catalog/
Upgrading HP Vertica
Follow these steps to upgrade your database. Note that upgrades are an incremental and must follow one of the following upgrade paths:
l HP Vertica 3.5 to 4.0 l HP Vertica 4.0 to 4.1 l HP Vertica 4.1 to 5.0 l HP Vertica 4.1 to 5.1 l HP Vertica 5.0 to 5.1
l HP Vertica 5.0 to 6.0 l HP Vertica 5.1 to 6.0 l HP Vertica 6.0 to 6.1
l HP Vertica 6.1 to 7.0. If you have enabled LDAP over SSL/TLS, readConfiguring LDAP Over
SSL/TLS When Upgrading HP Verticabefore upgrading.
IMPORTANT NOTE: HP strongly recommends that you follow the upgrade paths. Be sure to read the New Features and New Features for each version you skip. The HP Vertica documentation is available in the rpm, as well as athttp://www.vertica.com/documentation(which also provides access to previous versions of the documentation).
1. Back up your existing database. This is a precautionary measure so that you can restore from the backup if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
Note: Release 5.1 introduced a new backup utility,vbr.py. This utility replaced both the backup.shandrestore.shscripts, making both obsolete. Any backups created with backup.share incompatible with backups created withvbr.py. HP Vertica recommends that you use the current utilityvbr.pyas soon as possible after successfully upgrading from a version prior to Release 5.1 to Release 5.1 or later. Documentation for the 5.0 scripts remained in the 5.1 documentation. However, the topics were marked Obsolete in that version and were removed from later versions of the documentation.
2. Stop the database using admintools if it is not already stopped. SeeStopping a Database. 3. On each host that you have an additional package installed, such as theR Language Pack,
uninstall the package. For example:rpm -e vertica-R-lang.
Note: If you fail to uninstall HP Vertica packages prior to upgrading the server package, then the server package fails to install due to dependencies on the earlier version of the package. The error that appears is similar to the following:
error: Failed dependencies:
vertica-base = 6.1.3 is needed by (installed) vertica-R-lang-6.1.3-3.x86_64
4. On any host in the cluster, install the new HP Vertica Server RPM or DEB. SeeDownload and Install the HP Vertica Server Package.
For example:
# rpm -Uvh /home/dbadmin/vertica-x86_64.RHEL5.rpm
deb syntax:
# dpkg -i /home/dbadmin/vertica-x86_64.RHEL5.rpm
Note: If you fail to install the rpm or deb prior to running the next step, thenupdate_ verticafails with an error due to the conflict between the version of theupdate_vertica script and the version of the rpm argument.
5. As root or sudo, runupdate_vertica. Use the same options that you used when you last installed or upgraded the database, except for the--hosts/-s host_listparameter, as the upgrade script automatically determines the hosts in the cluster.
If you forgot the options that were last used, open/opt/vertica/config/admintools.conf in a text editor and find the line that starts withinstall_opts. This line details each option. It is important to use the same options that were used previously as omitting any options used previously causes them to revert to their default setting when the upgrade script runs. Also, if you use different options than originally used, then the update script reconfigures the cluster to use the new options, which can cause issues with your existing database.
Note:Installing HP Vertica with the install_vertica Script- provides details on all options available to theupdate_verticascript.update_verticauses the same options as install_vertica.
For example:
# /opt/vertica/sbin/update_vertica --rpm /home/dbadmin/vertica-x86_64.RHEL5.rpm
Note: the rpm/deb file must be readable by the dbadmin user when upgrading. Some upgrade scripts are run as the dbadmin user, and that user must be able to read the rpm/deb file.
6. Start the database. The startup scripts analyze the database and perform any necessary data and catalog updates for the new version.
7. Perform another backup. When moving from Version 5.0 and earlier to Version 5.1 and later, the backup process changes from usingbackup.shto usingvbr.py. You cannot use an incremental backup between these different versions of backup scripts. Create a full backup the first time you move to usingvbr.py, and optionally use incremental backups as you continue to upgrade. However, HP Vertica recommends doing full backups each time if disk space and time allows.
8. Continue along the upgrade path and perform these same steps for each version in your upgrade path.
9. After you have upgraded to the latest version of the server, install any additional packs you previously removed. See the pack install/upgrade instructions for details on upgrading the packs. For R, seeInstalling/Upgrading the R Language Pack for HP Vertica.
Notes
l Downgrade installations are not supported.