Appliance Kit › How to upgrade your applications to use the new appliance kit (APK) › Upgrading an appliance to use the DHCP configuration mode

Upgrading an appliance to use the DHCP configuration mode

Follow the instructions below to upgrade an existing Linux appliance from volfix to DHCP configuration mode (either a catalog class or singleton).

Upgrade appliances to use the DHCP configuration mode

1. Make an application containing a singleton copy of the appliance to be upgraded:
   • If the appliance is in a catalog, create a new application containing an instance of the catalog class and branch the instance to create a singleton.
   • If the appliance is a singleton:
     • If the application containing the singleton is running, the application must be stopped.
     • Copy the application that contains the singleton using the app copy command. The singleton should be upgraded in its own application so in case something goes wrong the original singleton is preserved. All of the remaining steps in this section should be executed over the new copy of the application.
     • Note: If you do not want to make a copy of the application because it has very large volumes, you can convert the singleton into a catalog class and instantiate an instance of that class in a new application.
2. In the new application, connect the singleton to a NET appliance to obtain external network access (this is only needed if your appliance does not have its external interface enabled and configured):
   • If necessary add a net terminal to the singleton in the infrastructure editor and mark this terminal as a gateway interface in the appliance boundary
   • Connect the net terminal of the singleton to the in terminal of the NET appliance instance
   • Configure the NET appliance with the appropriate network settings
3. If the singleton has a read-only boot volume or any of its boot volume folders (That is, /usr) residing on common, read-only volumes, these volumes must be converted to read/write. This is needed since the installation of various packages on the appliance may require updates to these volumes:
   • Open the new application in the GUI. Right-click the singleton and select the "Modify Boundary" menu item.
   • Select the "Volumes" tab.
   • Look at both the "Type" and "Options" columns and see if there are any common, read-only volumes. If there are no volumes of this type go to the next step.
   • For all of the common, read-only volumes, unselect the read-only button (the read-only button has a picture of glasses).
4. Configure all mandatory properties and volumes of the singleton and start the application in debug mode (using the --debug option).
5. Install the dhclient package on the singleton (this is a dependency of APK). For example, on a CentOS based appliance:
   • ssh into the running singleton appliance
   • Execute: yum install dhclient
6. Copy the appropriate APK to /tmp in the running singleton:
   • Obtain the IP address of the DHCP server for the internal interface of the singleton appliance:
     • Within the appliance shell execute ifconfig -a and note the broadcast subnet of the last enumerated network interface, For example 10.47.255.255. The IP address for the DHCP server is identical except for the last number which is 254, For example 10.47.255.254. If the broadcast subnet does not list a usable address, you must execute the following 2 steps:

       Execute dhclient -r ethX where X is the number of the last enumerated network interface (removes the DHCP lease just in case)

       Execute dhclient ethX and note the IP address from which DHCPOFFER is made

   • Use wget to download the appropriate APK into your appliance:
     • wget http://10.47.255.254:8080/download (this downloads index.html which contains the list of files that are downloadable from the grid controller; you may also use a text-based browser for convenience)
     • cat index.html; note the latest version of the APK package (For example, apk-2.0.20-linux-rh.tar.gz; 2.0.20 is the latest version as of CA 3Tera AppLogic 2.7)
     • cd /tmp
     • wget http://10.47.255.254:8080/download/apk-2.0.20-linux-rh.tar.gz (be sure to use the correct IP and APK package)
     • cd /
7. Follow the appropriate APK installation instructions. It should not be necessary to replace the domU kernel. Do not delete the /appliance directory.
   • If upgrading a CentOS-based appliance, execute the following:
     • cd /
     • mv /appliance /appliance_save
     • tmp/apk-install
     • rm -f /tmp/apk-install /tmp/apk-2.0.18-linux-rh.tar.gz
     • mv /appliance_save /appliance
     • mkdir /var/log/appliance
   • For other operating systems other than CentOS, see the APK Installation for RedHat or Ubuntu Distributions section in the Appliance Developer Guide for detailed instructions.
8. If the singleton ordinarily allows for password based ssh authentication (for example, as in a VDS application singleton), edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and modify the following:
   • Change PermitRootLogin without-password to PermitRootLogin yes
   • Remove ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
9. To make the original /appliance/appliance.sh script execute on appliance start:
   • Create a file /etc/sysconfig/applogic_appliance with mode 644 which contains the following text: /appliance/appliance.sh $@
10. In the infrastructure editor, view the singleton boundary and note any files listed in the Config Files tab, For example /etc/httpd/conf.d/appl.conf
    • If there are no config files listed on this tab, go to the next step.
    • In your appliance, create a file /etc/sysconfig/applogic_init with mode 644 containing a space separated list of config files (surrounded by double quotes), For example:
      • APK_CONFIG_FILES="/etc/httpd/conf.d/appl.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/bnna.conf"
11. Stop the application. In the infrastructure editor modify the singleton boundary:
    • In the Config Files tab delete all entries
    • In the General tab click the Virtualization Mode Options button and do the following:
      • Clear the Kernel Path and Initrd Path entries
      • Change the Configuration Mode from volfix to dhcp
    • Save the application
12. Start the application in debug mode (using the --debug option). It should start without error. If starting the app fails, examine the grid controller system log for details (log list). Test the appliance to verify it works.
13. If the upgraded appliance had common, read-only volumes that were converted to read/write in step 3, please verify the volumes are converted back to read-only.
14. Your appliance is now upgraded to use the APK and the DHCP configuration mode. If your upgraded appliance is a singleton, the upgrade process is complete. If your appliance is a catalog class, please see Upgrading applications to use your new DHCP-based appliances on how to upgrade your CA 3Tera AppLogic applications to use the upgraded appliance.