migrate_server utility feedback

[Josh28]

Dear community,

I’m planning an upgrade of our MDS deployment (2 VM, active and standby, running around 30 CMA, 2To of logs currently) from R81.10 to R81.20 using the migrate_server utility.

Following the documentation https://sc1.checkpoint.com/documents/R81.20/WebAdminGuides/EN/CP_R81.20_Installation_and_Upgrade_Gui... , I’ve configured two new VMs in R81.20 using the same IP addresses, hostname etc… (First-Time wizard and initial configuration in the smartConsole completed) and ran the the migrate_server verify on the R81.10 VM and fixed the issues mentioned in the report.

I’ll do the export/import in a few weeks but I’m looking for some feedback about the utility, mainly about the following:

• I guess I should do the import/export on both active and standby MDS ?
• Regarding the logs, our /var/log is currently at 2To so I’m worried that the export might take some time (or fail?) if I export the logs too. How did you handle the logs while migrating the configuration ?
• Is there any specific configuration file not mentioned in the migrate_server report that I should check, like fwkern.conf etc…
• Any other tips related to a MDS upgrade

Thank you for your help.

[PhoneBoy]

For any serious volume of logs, you generally copy them via other means (sftp or similar) to the target system and initiate log reindexing after the migration is complete.

[Josh28]

Thanks for your feedback, I'll do that, after looking at the amount of logs I have, even if I only keep on the MDS the strict necessary logs, it will be too much to handle with the migration tool I think.

Should I only backup the logs in /var/log/mds_logs to save the trafic logs of the CMAs ?

[PhoneBoy]

There's a reason that capturing logs is not the default in migrate_server 🙂
For the exact location of logs, please refer to: https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk130992
It may be that /var/log/mds_logs encompasses all of the above, but I don't have an MDS handy to confirm this. 🙂

[the_rock]

I built mds lab to confirm and thats the location 🙂

[the_rock]

I see what Phoneboy is saying, that works the same way for regular SMS as well.

Andy