Migrate MDS server from R81.20 to R82 one domain at a time

[RafaelSantiago]

Hi all,

I have a customer that has a R81.20 Multi Domain Server VM with multiple domains in it. They are planning on making the upgrade to R82. Because of some problem with Check Point partition formatting (assumingly some problem caused by MDS disk expansion in the past) we can't do CPUSE Upgrade method, so we're planning on doing the Migration method with a new R82 MDS VM.

However, customer requested that the migration to the new R82 MDS server be made domain by domain instead of all at once, so they have time to coordinate with all teams involved, and can test all functionalities post migration.

I was taking a look at Check Point documentation, and this sk came up https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk156072.

It states that domain migration version between different versions is supported, but in section (1-A) it states "You must migrate the Global Domain to the target Multi-Domain Management Server before you migrate a local Domain that is assigned to the Global Domain.".  It doesn't really go into detail regarding the Global domain migration between MDS. 

I understand that for the domain migrations the procedure is the following:

On old MDS:

mgmt_cli export-management [version "<TARGET_VERSION>"] domain-name "<NAME_of_DOMAIN>" file-path "/var/log/<NAME_of_DOMAIN>_exported.tgz" --domain 'System Data' --format json

On new MDS:

mgmt_cli import-management file-path "/var/log/<NAME_of_DOMAIN>_exported.tgz" --domain 'System Data' --format json

But what about the Global Domain migration? Is there a way I can just migrate the Global domain (with its global policies) and them start domain migration, one domain at a time?

Regards,

Rafael Santiago

[emmap · Accepted solution]

I don't have time to test it right now but I think you just specify 'Global' as the domain name when you do the export.

[the_rock · Accepted solution]

Emma got it right, thats how you do it. I tested this in the lab while ago for a customer and thats what worked.