NAME

Netdisco UPGRADE - Instructions on Upgrading between versions.

AUTHOR

Max Baker

SUPPORT

See the INSTALL manpage or the README manpage or http://netdisco.org

UPGRADING

Here are some hints for upgrading between versions of Netdisco.

FIRST! Go read below where it says Backup Database and Backup Configuration Files and DO IT!.

The best way is to back everything up, move the configuration files out of the way and then follow INSTALL for all but the database steps.

Then change the configuration files back to match. If you reuse your old configuration file, check it against the new one to see what config file directives have been added / removed / changed.

You DO NOT wipe the database contents for an upgrade. But just in case, you will have of course made a backup by now.

Make sure to read the section(s) relevant to your version update in VERSION SPECIFIC NOTES, then read the APPLICATION NOTES and General Upgrade Procedures sections.

VERSION SPECIFIC NOTES

v1.0 -> 1.1

Update Database

You will have to run the following command to add new tables and modify existing ones.

 cd /usr/local/netdisco/sql
 ./pg upgrade-1.0-to-1.1.sql

v0.95 -> 1.0

New Perl Modules

  Parallel::ForkManager
  Net::LDAP (optional for LDAP authentication)
  Net::SSLeay (optional for encrypted LDAP authentication)
  IO::Socket::SSL (optional for encrypted LDAP authentication)

Update Database

You will have to run the following command to add new tables and modify existing ones.

 cd /usr/local/netdisco/sql
 ./pg upgrade-0.95-to-1.0.sql

Note that it is safe to run the upgrade.sql scripts more than once (in case you are running a CVS or RC version). Also note that if you are upgrading from 0.94, you must run upgrade-0.94-to-0.95.sql first.

v.0.94 -> 0.95

New and Updated Perl Modules

This version of Netdisco is based around the new API for the Graph module, so you need to have version 0.50 or greater and GraphViz 2.02 or greater.

Also we are now using the Net::NBName module to scan nodes for netbios information, and this module must be installed.

 perl -MCPAN -e shell
        install Net::NBName
        install Graph
        install GraphViz

You should update all the Perl modules listed in INSTALL as well.

SNMP::Info

Please make sure you have the newest verison of SNMP::Info available, version 1.04 minimum.

 perl -MCPAN -e shell
        install SNMP::Info

New SQL script

The pg_all, pg_init, pg_back, and pg_run commands have been rolled into one new command : sql/pg. This new command will read the command line for arguments and then parse netdisco.conf for the database user and password. Run sql/pg --help for more options.

Database Upgrades

Now would be a great time to upgrade to Postgres 8.x if you haven't already. There are some major speed, memory, and storage benefits, and there is no INDEX bloat problem. Upgrading from 7.x does require a data base dump/restore. See Postgres documentation and the sql/pg_dump command that you already used to make a backup. Follow the instructions in INSTALL and re-install the database related Perl modules after changing versions.

You will have to run the following command to add new tables and modify existing ones.

 cd /usr/local/netdisco/sql
 ./pg upgrade-0.94-to-0.95.sql

Note that it is safe to run the upgrade.sql scripts more than once (in case you are running a CVS or RC version). Also note that if you are upgrading from 0.93 or older, you must run upgrade-0.93-to-0.94.sql first.

Security Warning

WARNING! There is a potential community string exposure when Netdisco is auto-discovering network equipment. If a malicious host were to implement CDP and Netdisco were to discover that host, Netdisco would send all read-only community strings to that device in an attempt to add it to the topology.

To avoid this problem, limit the address range that netdisco will discover or disable CDP and similar discovery protocols from your end-ports. Be aware that in configurations with IP phones, CDP may be necessary for certain aspects of phone support. See Security Warning in the README manpage for more information.

v0.93 -> 0.94

Autodetection of Uplink Ports

Macsuck will now autodetect some uplink ports. If it sees the MAC addres of a known switch port or router, it will not collect mac addresses on that port.

Start checking the logs from your macwalk device (you can do it from the web page now) and look for the uplink warnings. Fix your topology file to match.

SNMP::Info

You will need SNMP::Info v0.9 in order to support the new netdisco-mibs package.

Database Upgrades

Now would be a great time to upgrade to Postgres 7.4 if you haven't already. There are some great speed benefits, and there is no INDEX bloat problem. Upgrading from 7.2 or 7.3 does require a data base dump/restore. See Postgres documentation.

You will have to run the following command to add new tables and modify existing ones.

 cd /usr/local/netdisco/sql
 ./pg_run upgrade-0.93-to-0.94.sql

Note that it is safe to run the upgrade.sql scripts more than once (in case you are running a CVS or RC version).

GraphViz

Program

Make sure you have a relatively new version. If you get an error similar to

  Creating CMAP : /usr/local/netdisco/html/netmap.map
    warning, language cmap not recognized, use one of: ps hpgl pcl mif...

You need a newer version of GraphViz

GraphViz.pm 2.01

The newest Perl interface to GraphViz (non-dependent on the GraphViz release) has some better client map interfaces for the Network Graph.

Please make sure this newest version is installed.

 perl -MCPAN -e shell
    install GraphViz

Double check the version.

 perl -MGraphViz -e 'print $GraphViz::VERSION'

Perl Modules

A lot of the Perl modules that Netdisco depends on have released newer (better) versions. Go to the INSTALL and follow Part 8.1 Perl Modules and Mason. If you use CPAN, it will upgrade all the dependency modules for you too.

Bay Switches

If you have bay switches, note that the naming scheme for the ports has changed from 1 to 1.1 as they were folded into the new Nortel classes. The above upgrade script will do the renaming for you, so you won't lose data.

v0.92 -> 0.93

GraphViz 0.10

You may want to install this latest version of GraphViz

Database Upgrades

For some of the new features, fields have been added to some of the database tables. A .sql file has been made to make the changes for you. Please run :

 cd /usr/local/netdisco/sql
 ./pg_run upgrade-0.92-to-0.93.sql

IGNORE the warning about nuking all the data in the table. It won't. But even if you did, YOU ALREADY MADE A BACKUP RIGHT? (sql/pg_back)

New MIB Files

If you insist on using this old version of netdisco, at least download the netdisco-mibs package and use that.

v0.91 -> 0.92

Make sure you run Database Cleanup or -K when you are done upgrading. The bug where the MAC address of switch ports showing up on their own port has been fixed. SNMP::Info Version 0.7 required.

v0.90 -> 0.91

netdisco_apache.conf

Double check that your copy of netdisco_apache.conf has the settings right for all the session_* directives.

GraphViz

Make sure you have GraphViz 0.9 installed.

APPLICATION NOTES

Apache / Mod_perl

You shouldn't have to upgrade apache, but now would be a good time to see if there are any security upgrades to apache or mod_perl.

SNMP::Info

When upgrading to any version, please make sure you have the newest version of SNMP::Info installed (at least 2.04):

CVS Version

To update a CVS version of SNMP::Info :

    cd /usr/local/netdisco/SNMP
    cvs update

CPAN Version

To update a version installed by CPAN :

    perl -MCPAN -e shell
    install SNMP::Info

Manual Install Version

Download the newest version from CPAN or http://snmp-info.sourceforge.net and install.

General Upgrade Procedures

Read INSTALL

Read the INSTALL file that comes with the new version to see what has changed. Make sure you have all the Requirements listed.

Backup Database

For any version you will want to make backup copies of all your data first.

    cd /usr/local/netdisco/sql
    ./pg --back
    scp db_back*.gz somesafehost:

Backup Configuration Files

Make backups of all your files.

    tar cvf - -C /usr/local netdisco | gzip > netdisco-back.tgz
    scp netdisco-back.tgz somesafehost:
    cp /usr/local/netdisco/*.conf /path/to/some_where_safe
    cp /usr/local/netdisco/*.txt  /path/to/some_where_safe

Vacuum full and reindex database

For PostgreSQL you may be suffering from severe space and performance problems because of various issues. Especially for versions before 7.4. Please consider upgrading to 8.x and ALSO run the Procedure, "Things are Getting Really Slow" in README.

This will REINDEX and VACUUM FULL your database.

On a recent Postgres 7.3 install this changed the database size from 16GB to 400 MB! Sound worth it?

Install on top of existing Netdisco

Put the new files in your netdisco/ directory

    cp -R /path/to/netdisco-new-0.999 /usr/local/netdisco

[Optional] Upgrade Perl Modules

Following the procedures in INSTALL, now would be a good time to upgrade all the required Perl modules.

This step is optional, unless a certain Perl module is listed for your version.

Check Permissions

Make sure the permissions are set to let the web user read the html/ directory and write to the mason/ directory.

Modify the Configuration Files

New options are always being added to the config files and Netdisco. It's usually a lot cleaner to modify the new config file that comes with Netdisco than try to add the new features to the old one. This helps get rid of old bugs too.

Restart Apache

You must do a full restart on apache (not a graceful or restart) so that Netdisco will use the newly installed version of netdisco.pm.

    /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl stop
    /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

Restart Admin Daemon

You need to restart the admin daemon to run on the new copy of Netdisco.

    su - netdisco -c "/usr/local/netdisco -p restart"

Reload Crontab

Review netdisco.crontab and reload it for the netdisco user.

    su 
    crontab -u netdisco /usr/local/netdisco/netdisco.crontab