Preparing to upgrade SnapDrive

Perform these preparations if you are upgrading SnapDrive for Windows from an existing installation.

Before you begin

Steps

1. Plan and announce downtime.

   Pick a time for the upgrade when loss of access will have the least effect on your users. When the time you have set arrives, make sure that nobody is using the system and there are no SnapDrive operations running.

2. Back up your application data.

   If you have SnapManager, use SnapManager rather than SnapDrive to create a backup. Make sure that you have a valid and up-to-date SnapManager backup and that no SnapManager backups are scheduled to occur while you are upgrading. If there are backups scheduled, cancel them.

3. If you are upgrading a server cluster, prepare the hosts by upgrading the operating systems on the cluster nodes to the required Service Pack and hotfix level if necessary.

   If you need to apply a new Service Pack or hotfix, you will have to reboot the cluster.

4. Create a full backup, including system state, and create an Emergency Repair Disk for your single system, or for each node in a server cluster.
5. If you are using SnapDrive 4.1 or earlier with MPIO (ntapdsm.sys), and you want to upgrade both, you must uninstall the earlier version of SnapDrive without uninstalling the earlier MPIO drivers, or the installation fails.

   MPIO is not installed with SnapDrive 6.3, and path management will not be available until a new version of MPIO is installed. To upgrade both SnapDrive and Data ONTAP DSM for Windows MPIO, complete the following steps.

   1. Uninstall SnapDrive 4.1 or earlier using the Add/Remove Programs (or Programs and Features) utility in the Windows Control Panel.

      This uninstalls SnapDrive without removing the legacy MPIO drivers.

   2. Install Data ONTAP DSM for Windows MPIO.

      For more information and to download the installation package, go to Multipath I/O on the NOW site.

   3. You are prompted to reboot.
6. If you are upgrading a server cluster, make sure that the Cluster Groups are online and that you can perform a “move group” operation back and forth between nodes.
   Note: If the cluster service is not running, SnapDrive will be unable to collect data necessary for disk enumeration and will cause warning messages to be logged in the Event Viewer.

7. If you are running NetApp Host Agent, stop the NetApp Host Agent service.
   Note: You might have to upgrade NetApp Host Agent, depending on the version you are running. See the SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows Release Notes for more information.

8. If you use SnapManager, stop SnapManager before upgrading SnapDrive.