Please give me your feedback on my upgrade method. Why on a new server? 3 reasons (1) new mx disk format, (2) more log space is needed (3) RHAT REL 7 kernel version 3.10.
So I created this new server in VMWare ESX 6.0 using 1TB disk, CPUs 4/2 (8 cores), RAM 16GB. I configured it with the same IP address as my production server but with network disconnected at startup (no conflict). I booted to CD and mounted the image: Check_Point_R80.20._T101_Security_Management_Gaia.iso and started the installation.
<above here is past tense>
<below here is future tense>
Next I'll copy the R80.20 tools to existing R80.10 SMS to run pre-upgrade verifier. After that I plan to migrate export: $FWDIR/bin/upgrade_tools/migrate export [filename]
and copy this file to storage and shutdown the R80.10 server
On the new R80.20 server $FWDIR/scripts/migrate_server import <filename> Import file from storage. Run the status check: $FWDIR/scripts/cpm_status.sh
At this point I should be ready to install a policy on one of my R80.10 clusters. If anything goes wrong or is suspect that cannot be resolved, the R80.10 SMS is still intact and can be put back online for production.
I have used this method of upgrading more than once and it has not failed me. Please let me know if you see any potential problems. When I get feedback, I will proceed.
As always, I value your support.
Dan Roddy