This is how I upgraded my Novell GroupWise 6.5.7 system to 7.0.2.

Novell have ensured that the upgrade process to GroupWise 7 is as smooth as possible, and realise that it may not be completed in a single task. As such the upgrade can be broken up over a number of days spread over months if required. This is a good thing, as initially I had only a single 3hr maintenance window per week to work with. In the end I managed to get a Saturday to do the work, and roped in a few mates to help out with some of the other tasks.

My overall process follows Novell's guidelines and goes like this:

Create SDD in advance called GW7SDD
Upgrade the primary domain
Upgrade the secondary domain
Upgrade the post offices in the primary domain
Install new GWIA in the primary domain
Upgrade the post offices in the secondary domain
Install new GWIA in the secondary domain
Create new WebAccess environment

Preparation for the upgrade included the following:

Top-down rebuild of GW 6.5.7 system
Printed config documentation from the Webconsoles of each MTA/POA/GWIA/Webacc
Copied GW7 snapins to ConsoleOne
Logged a service call with Novell for support if required.
(With this last one I gave Novell Technical Support a date and time that I was intending to conduct the upgrade so that they could be on hand should a fan distribute the proverbial).

My rollback plan consisted of a number of technologies.

First of all, I was installing the new GW7 components into a subdirectory of SYS:\SYSTEM so that they wouldn't over-write the 6.5 nlms.
I also had the SAN administrator take a clone of the mail LUNS on the SAN
I had copies of SYS:\SYSTEM on both mail servers
I took copies of the Domain and PO databases

The rollback process was to be like this:

Unload all agents
Comment out all agent load lines in the AUTOEXEC.NCF
Dismount all mail volumes on server
Detach LUN's
Attache SAN clone and mount on server
Load original 6.5 agents

I tested this procedure a number of times in a test environment and it worked perfectly. I didn't have to use the rollback however.

The update process.

The first step in the update process is to upgrade the schema. As I was already running 6.5, this wasn't required.

My original process worked along the lines of several 3 hour sessions of work.

Session 1
Set all logging to VERBOSE in ConsoleOne
Stop the GW driver in IDM and unload DIRXML.NLM
Unload all POA's, MTA and GWIA on servers
Shutdown the webaccess services
Clone mail LUNs
Start all MTA's and POA's
Disable incoming SMTP mail at gateway
Comment out the MTA load line in AUTOEXEC.NCF
Copy the GW7SDD to the server
Unload the MTA for the Primary domain
Change the GW driver in IDM to GW7.0
Create a backup copy of WPDOMAIN.DB
Connect to Primary domain with ConsoleOne and run RECOVER to actual location
Run a validate to actual location
Copy the *.dc files from \gw7sdd\domain to the domain directory
Copy the *.dc files from \gw7sdd\po to the wpoffice directory under the domain directory
Run the \gw7sdd\agents\install.exe and install to sys:\system\gw70
Add the primary domain to the upgrade list
Complete the install but do not launch the MTA automatically
Edit the autoexec.ncf and modify the load line for the MTA to suite
Load the MTA and wait 60 seconds, watching the admin recover status until complete
Confirm the domain is upgraded in ConsoleOne
Allow 15mins for admin changes to sync to the rest of the system
Total time - 35mins

Repeat the above process for Secondary domains ensuring to connect to the secondary domain.

Upgrade Post Offices in Primary Domain

Comment out the load lines for the POA's in the AUTOEXEC.NCF
Unload the POA
Create a backup copy of WPHOST.DB
Connect to Primary domain and rebuild the post office
Copy the *.dc files from \gw7sdd\po to the root of the post office folder
Run the \gw7sdd\agents\install.exe and install into sys:\system\gw70
Select the post office and complete the install, do not launch the POA automatically.
Edit the load line for the poa to suite the install location
Load POA and watch the console screen for the agent for errors
Confirm PO has been upgraded in ConsoleOne.
(IMPORTANT) Copy the \gw7sdd\client\ofviews\win\*.vew to the PO\ofviews\win folder on the server
Total time: 30mins

Repeat for all other PO's in the primary domain.

Install new GWIA in the primary domain

Unload the GWIA on the server
Comment out the load lines in the AUTOEXEC.NCF
Create a copy of the gwia.cfg in sys:\system\
Run \gw7sdd\internet\gwia\install.exe and install into sys:\system\gw70
Enter the path to the primary domain
Finish the install and check the database version for the GWIA in ConsoleOne. Change to 7.0.1 if necessary
Edit the AUTOEXEC.NCF to reflect the path to the new GWIA location
Load the GWIA
Transfer the settings from the old GWIA to the new one by comparing them in ConsoleOne.

Post session 1 upgrade activity
Re-enable SMTP gateway traffic
Restart WebAccess
Re-enable the GW IDM driver
Install GW7 client and test login
Set appearance to GW 6.5 at the domain level
Remove unused SAN clones

Session 2
Disable incoming SMTP traffic at gateway
Unload POA's MTA's, GWIA of secondary domain
Clone the email LUNs
Load MTA and POA's on secondary domain

Upgrade Domain, Post offices and GWIA's as per session 1 ensuring you connect to the owning domain.

WebAccess

I created a completely new WebAccess environment running along side the old 6.5.
I created two WebAccess servers and configured them for fail-over (How I did this will be the subject of another blog). In front of the WebAccess application is a content switch to load balance between them.

Tags: groupwise, Novell