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Replacing a Publisher node - Do it on a live or dead network?

niall.doherty
Level 4
Level 4

Hi, I intend to replace a Publisher node (in a 6.1 cluster) and had always thought of building it in a 'dead' environment before disconnecting existing / connecting up new Pub. However I've read Cisco recommend doing it in the 'live' environment due to "…a duplication of entire network environment is required, which is highly risky".

Anyone done this the 'dead' way, should I discount this method and simply do the 'live' method? Any thoughts/comments/recommendations would be great.

Thanks, Niall

10 Replies 10

Ayodeji Okanlawon
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

I will suggest that before you plug that publisher into your network,

do the following:

1. Ensure its has the same ip as the old one.

2. Ensure that you have restored the latest DR files from the old publsiher to the new one.

3. Just to double check, do some manual counts after restroing the backup files on the new publisher and compare it to the old, just to be sure you have all devices and configuration updated.

4. Ensure that you have re-hosted all your license files to the new publisher

5. Ensure that after the restore of your backup files, you have the subscribers all configured on the new publisher...

6. Enable all necessary services as you have them on the old publisher.

After all this have been done, you can then take off the old pub and plug in the new pub but ensure that you have the new pub offline while you are doing all the necessary configs

These are the things I can think off off my head right now!

Hope this helped a little

Please rate all useful posts

we recommend doing it in a duplicate network so you can just unplug it from dummy network and connect to live network. but this would mean having same ip addressing in a lab network making sure no traffic could go to the real network

the other option would be to create it on any other network and then change the ip address of the server to the real one.

it really depends of the fact if you just want to unplug/plug or if you are willing to sacrifice some time to change the ip address to match the one from live server

HTH

javalenc

if this helps, please rate

HTH

java

if this helps, please rate

Hi.

I have just read that when replacing a Publisher node that in Vers 6.1.1 (which I am running) I need to reinstall the subscriber node(s) also?

What exactly does this mean? Do I need to take the backup file (used to restore Pub) and do a restore on the 2 subscribers I have? When I look in the Pub I see the existing subscribers configured. Just seems strange that this needs to be done when I'm not touching or replacing these existing subscriber servers.

Thanks,

Niall

Hi.

Has anyone done a Publisher replacement on vers 6.1? If so, did you reinstall or simply restore the subscribers?

Thanks,

Niall

if you're going to replace the PUB with all same network info just do the restore on the server, everything should work just fine.

maybe just a cluster reboot to sync all but that's it

HTH

javalenc

if this helps, please rate

HTH

java

if this helps, please rate

Thanks for your help here, I appreciate it!

Niall

Hi Niall,

I'm wondering did you make PUB replacement, if yes, which way did you done it: on live net or dead.

thanks in advance

Hi there, yes I did the Publisher replacement.

The way I did it was by building a Publisher 'off-line' using exactly the same configuration as the live one being replaced.

On the day of the swap I put the most recent 'backup' onto the off-line Publisher whilst also making a new backup just before switching the 'old' on-line Publisher off. I then turned the new Publisher on and immediately did a restore from the last backup made - I then did a cluster reboot.

I'm happy to say that this worked absolutely fine for me.

Regards,

Niall

Hi Niall,

The license files mapped to original publisher's MAC address. We cannot upload the license files to new server. Is it correct?

Will Cisco TAC replace the old license files with new license files that mapped to the MAC address of new server for us? Without the new license files we cannot turn on the services in new server.

I agree with your action by restore the latest backup to CM cluster and restart the cluster once.This way will ignore the out of sync. in cluster.

Regards,

Michael.

Hi Michael.

You're correct, you do need the license files re-issued for the new MAC address!

To do this you need to contact 'licensing@cisco.com' (not TAC) and explain what you are trying to do. When you do this, they should re-issue the new license files quite quickly (in my experience anyway).

Hope this helps,

Niall

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