Preface

This document provides an overview of the process to upgrade the SDP from any older version (dating back to 2007) to the 2020.1 release.

If your SDP version is 2020.1 or newer, refer to the SDP Guide (Unix) for instructions on how to upgrade from SDP 2020.1 to later version. Starting from SDP 2020.1, the upgrade procedure for the SDP is aided by automated and incremental upgrade mechanism similar to p4d itself, capable of upgrade SDP from the current release to any future version (so long as the current release is SDP 2020.1 or newer).

1. Upgrading the SDP

This section defines the procedure for ugprading the SDP itself.

1.1. Upgrade Order: SDP first, then Helix P4D

The SDP should be upgraded prior to the upgrade of Helix Core (P4D). If you are upgrading P4D to or beyond P4D 2019.1 from a prior version of P4D, you must upgrade the SDP first. If you run multiple instances of P4D on a given machine (potentially each running different versions of P4D), upgrade the SDP first before upgrading any of the instances.

The SDP should also be upgraded before upgrading other Helix software on machines using the SDP, including p4d, p4p, p4broker, and p4 (the command line client).

1.2. Upgrading other Helix Software

See the SDP Guide (Unix) for instructions on how to upgrade Helix binaries in the SDP structure after the SDP has been upgraded to 2020.1.

1.3. SDP and P4D Version Compatibility

The SDP is often forward- and backward-compatible with P4D versions, but for best results they should be kept in sync by upgrading SDP before P4D. This is partly becuase the SDP contains logic that helps upgrade P4D, which can change as P4D evolves.

The SDP is aware of the P4D version, and has backward-compatibility logic to support older versions of P4D. This is guaranteed for supported versions of P4D. Backward compatiblity of SDP with older versions of P4D may extend farther back, though without the "offically supported" guarantee.

1.4. SDP Installation Methods

There are 4 methods for installing a new version of the SDP in order to upgrade, each described in detail later.

  • In-Place, Manual: Manual upgrades of the SDP must be peformed to upgrade from versions older than r20.1 in-place on existing machines. This document provides details on how to do this.

  • In-Place, Automated: Automated in-place upgrades can be done if your current SDP version is r20.1 or later. Refer to documentation in SDP Guide (Unix) for upgrading from SDP r20.1 onward.

  • Migration-Style: A migration-style upgrade is one in which the existing server machines (virtual or physical) are left in place, and brand new "green field" machines are installed fresh using the Helix Installer (which installs the latest SDP on a "green field" baseline operating system). Then the Helix Core data is migrated from the existing hardware to the new hardware. This approach is especially appealing when upgrading other aspects of the infrastructure, such as the hardware and/or operating system.

  • Custom with HMS: The Helix Management System is used by some customers.

2. Planning

Legacy SDP upgrades require some familiarization that should be done prior to scheduling an upgrade.

2.1. Mount Point Names

You will need to be aware of your moint point names. While referred to as mount point names in this document, in any given installation any or all of the three SDP "mount points" may be simple directories on the root volume or some other volume. In some installations, creative liberties were taken to use fewer than three volumes, and in some cases the operating system root volume was used as one of the volumes. Investiage and be aware of how your installation was configured.

In the examples below, the modern SDP mount point names are used:

  • /hxdepots - Volume for versioned files and rotated/numbered metadata journals.

  • /hxmetadata- Volume for active and offline metadata

  • /hxlogs - Volume for active journal and various logs.

Depending on the version of the SDP, the above values may be used, or earlier defaults such as, /depotdata, /metadata, and logs. However, often customer sites changed from the defaults to custom values, such as /depots, /p4db, /p4journal, and others.

In the sample steps in this document, adapt the steps to use your local values for mount point names to the new values.

If your site uses two volumes for metadata, /hxmetadata1 and /hxmetadata2, continue using the same names below.

2.2. Operating System User

You will need to be aware of your operating system user that p4d runs as in your environment.

The sample steps below assume that Perforce runs as the peforce operating system user, which is typical. Adapt if your user is something else, such as p4admin.

In modern installations, the default home directory is /home/perforce, though in some installations the home directory is /p4. In either case, this does not need to be changed during the upgrade process.

3. Upgrade Procedure

After Chapter 2, Planning, the SDP procedure can be planned in detail.

The procedure is broken into 3 phases, Preparation, Execution, and PostOp. Preparation steps can be done in a non-disruptive manner on a production server ahead of the Execution. Execution steps are generally performed in a scheduled maintenance window. PostOp steps are done some time after the upgrade is complete, perhaps days or weeks later.

3.1. Preparation

Preparation steps are:

  1. Acquire Downloads.

  2. Deploy new SDP common files.

  3. Generate new SDP config files.

  4. Configure new SDP instance bin files and symlinks.

  5. Determine Metadata Symlink Type (Fixed or Variable)

  6. Account for customization (if any)

3.1.1. Acquire Downloads

Download the latest SDP tarball release from this link: https://swarm.workshop.perforce.com/projects/perforce-software-sdp/download/downloads/sdp.Unix.tgz.

Copy the downloaded tarball to the machine and put it in /hxdepots/sdp.Unix.tgz. (If a file with the same name exists from a previous upgrade, move it aside first.)

3.1.2. Deploy new SDP commmon files

mkdir /hxdepots/new
cd /hxdepots/new
tar -xzf /hxdepots/sdp.Unix.tgz
cat sdp/Version

Verify that the contents of the Version file are as expected.

3.1.3. Generate new SDP config files

EDITME

The SDP config files sometimes contain local custom modifications made by administrators. Often the need for customization goes away with new SDP versions. However, when generating new config files, be sure to review old files for any custom values.

3.1.4. Configure new SDP instance bin files and symlinks.

EDITME

3.1.5. Determine Your Metadata Symlink Type (Fixed or Variable)

Login as the perforce operating system user, and run this command:

ls -l /p4/1/root /p4/1/offline_db

The root and offline_db will be symlinks.

Depending on how old the SDP is, the structure will either be fixed or variable metadata symlinks. Determine which you have.

Variable Metadata Symlink References

If one of the symlinks points to a directory ending in db1, and the other in db2 (it doesn’t matter which is pointing to which), you have variable metadata symlinks.

Fixed Metadata Symlink References

If the target of the root and offline_db symlinks points to directories ending in the same names, i.e. root and offline_db, then you have fixed metadata symlinks.

3.1.6. Upgrade *_init scripts

The format of SDP init scripts may have changed since your legacy version. Check them to see if they need to be modified.

For each instance, look in the /p4/N/bin folder, and review the scripts. Compare them to templates in /p4/common/etc/init.d. For example, compare /p4/1/bin/p4d_1_init with /p4/common/etc/init.d/p4d_instance_init.template.

If your current init scripts look exactly like the templates, except for subsitutions of any REPL_* strings from the template, then they do not need to be updated. Older SDP versions had more complex *_init scripts.

If they need to be replaced, plan to do so during your upgrade with steps like these samples:

cd /p4/N/bin
mkdir OLD_DELETE_ME_LATER
mv p4d_N_bin OLD_DELETE_ME_LATER/.
sed s:REPL_SDP_INSTANCE:N:g /p4/common/etc/init.d/p4d_instance_init.template > p4d_N_init
chmod +x p4d_N_init

If there are p4broker_N_init, p4d_N_init, and/or p4dtg_N_init scripts, follow the same procedure for those, generating new init scripts from the templates.

These steps can only be executed after the /p4/common folder has been updated.

3.1.7. Upgrade systemd unit files

The format of systemd unit files changed with the SPD 2020.1 release.

3.1.8. Account for customization (if any)

EDITME

3.2. Execution

This section outlines sample steps for executing an actual upgrade after Chapter 2, Planning and Section 3.1, “Preparation” have been completed. The following is typically performed in a scheduled maintenance window.

Execution steps are:

  1. Stop Services

  2. Move Old SDP aside.

  3. Upgrade Physical Structure

  4. Put new SDP common files in place.

  5. Put new SDP config files in place.

  6. Put new SDP instance bin files in place.

3.2.1. Stop Services

Stop the p4d service for all instances on this machine. Also stop all p4broker services running on this machine (if any).

For this short maintenance, the broker cannot be left running (e.g. to broadcast a "Down For Maintenance (DFM)" message) because the structure change cannot be started until all processes launched from the SDP directory structure have stopped.

Sample commands:

p4d_1_init status
p4d_1_init stop
p4d_1_init status

p4broker_1_init status
p4broker_1_init stop
p4broker_1_init status

The extra status are for situational awareness; and are not strictly necessary.

3.2.2. Move old SDP Aside

EDITME

3.2.3. Upgrade Physical Structure

In this step, the physical structure of the upgrade is done for pre-2019.1 SDP.

The structure of the SDP changed in the 2019.1 release, to increase performance and reduce complexit in post-failover operations. The following notes describe how to do an in-place conversion to the new structure.

First, become familar with the Pre-2019.1 and 2019.1+ structures.

SDP Pre-2019.1 Structure:

  • /p4 is a directory on the operating system root voume, /.

  • /p4/N is a symlink to a directory is typically the mount point for a storage volume (/hxdepots by default).

  • /p4/N contains symlinks for /hxdepots, /hxmetadata, and hxlogs, as well as tickets and trust files.

SDP 2019.1+ Structure:

  • /p4 is a directory on the operating system root volume, /, (same as Pre-2019.1 Structure).

  • /p4/N is local directory on the operating system root volume,

  • /p4/N contains symlinks for /hxdepots, /hxmetadata, and hxlogs, as well as tickets and trust files (same as the Pre-2019.1 structure)

  • /p4/N/bin is local directory on the operating system root volume. The bin directory is the only actual directory in /p4/N; other items are files or symlinks to directories.

The verify_sdp.sh script (included in the SDP starting with SDP 2019.1) give errors if the 2019.1+ SDP structure is not in place.

Converting the SDP structure in-place to the new style requires downtime on the edge/replica of interest. While the downtime can be brief if only the SDP structure is changed, commonly the P4D is upgraded in the same maintenance window. If the P4D is pre-2019.1, a longer maintenance window will be required, depending on duration of checkpoints.

Following is the procedure to upgrade the structure in-place on a machine.

In the following sample procedure, the default SDP instance name of 1 is used, and default mount point names are used. Adapt this to your environment by applying this procedure to each instance on any given machine. If you have multiple instances, apply this procedure for each instance, one at a time.

3.2.4. Replace Instance Symlink with Directory

Move the instance symlink aside, and replace it with a regular directory. Then copy the .p4* files (e.g. .p4tickets and .p4trust) into the new directory. Sample commands:

cd /p4
mv 1 1.old_symlink
mkdir 1
cd 1
cp -p /p4/1.old_symlink/.p4t* .

3.2.5. Convert Fixed to Variable Metadata Symlinks

If you have Fixed Metadata Symlinks, first convert them to to Variable Metadata Symlinks. If you already have Varialbe Metadata Symlinks, proceed to Section 3.2.4, “Replace Instance Symlink with Directory”

In this step, move the underlying directories that will be pointed to by the root and offline_db sylmink names, and move them to their db1 and db2 names.

mv /hxmetadata/p4/1/root /hxmetadata/p4/1/db1
mv /hxmetadata/p4/1/offline_db /hxmetadata/p4/1/db2

3.2.6. Replace Instance Symlink with Directory

Next, recreate the same symlinks you see reported by the ls command:

ls -l /p4/1.old_symlink/*
cd /p4/1

ln -s /hxmetadata/p4/1/db1 root
ln -s /hxmetadata/p4/1/db2 offline_db
Do not just copy the sample commands above. Pay close attention to the ls output, and make sure the root points to whatever it was pointing to before, either a directory ending in db1 or db2 (unless you just converted from Fixed Metadata Symlinks in STEP 4). Also confirm that offline_db and root aren’t both pointing to the same directory; one should be pointing to db1 and the other to db2.

Then, create additional symlinks akin to whatever else is in /p4/1.old_symlink

That should look something like this:

cd /p4/1
ln -s /hxdepots/p4/1/depots
ln -s /hxdepots/p4/1/checkpoints
ln -s /hxdepots/p4/1/checkpoints.YourEdgeServerID
ln -s /hxlogs/p4/1/logs
ln -s /hxlogs/p4/1/tmp

ls -l

Next, create the bin directory, as a local directory and copy files to it:

mkdir bin
cd bin
cp /p4/1.old_symlink/bin/p4d_1_init .
cp /p4/1.old_symlink/bin/p4broker_1_init .
ln -s /p4/common/bin/p4broker_1_bin p4broker_1
ln -s /p4/common/bin/p4_bin p4_1

Last, take a look at /p4/1.old_symlink/bin/p4d_1 - that p4d_1 will be either a tiny script or a symlink (depending on whether your p4d is case sensitive or not). If you server is case sensitive, it will be a symlink. If your server is case-insensitive, it will be a tiny script.

If your server is case sensitive, create the symlink like this:

ln -s /p4/common/bin/p4d_1_bin p4d_1

OR, if your server is case-sensitive, that p4d_1 will be a tiny script, so just copy it:

cp /p4/1.old_symlink/bin/p4d_1 .

Then, start your server again, and run the verify_sdp.sh script and confirm that it’s happy now.

3.2.7. Put new SDP common files in place.

EDITME

3.2.8. Put new SDP instance bin files in place.

EDITME

3.3. Post Operation Steps

Cleanup steps can occur after the upgrade. In some cases cleanup is done immediately following the upgrade; in other cases it may be deferred by days or weeks.

3.3.1. Cleanup

Temporary directories with DELETE_ME created durnig the upgrade procedure can now be deleted.

Appendix A: Custom HMS Managed Installations

If the Helix Management System (HMS) is used to manage this installation, you should have custom site-specific documentation for upgrading the SDP that supercedes this documentation. If the file /p4/common/bin/hms exists at your site, you have an HMS-managed site. Conact Perforce Consulting for more information.

Note that HMS solutions are inherently custom and not officially supported, but can be fully automated for global Helix Core topologies.