Administrator Guide

4| Upgrading to ClearPass 6.6| Tech Note
The Install Update dialog opens and displays the installation log messages that are generated during the
installation process.
Performing a Cluster Upgrade
This section describes how to manually upgrade a W-ClearPass Cluster to W-ClearPass 6.6.
A W-ClearPass cluster comprises one publisher node and one or more W-ClearPass servers acting as
subscribers. In a W-ClearPass cluster, configuration changes can be performed on the W-ClearPass publisher;
they are then replicated to the subscribers. You cannot make configuration changes on subscriber nodes. Each
node in a W-ClearPass cluster operates as a fully functional W-ClearPass server.
To upgrade a cluster to 6.6.0, we recommend using the Cluster Upgrade Tool. For more information, see Appendix B,
“Cluster Upgrade/Update Tool,” in the W-ClearPass Policy Manager User Guide, and the “Cluster Upgrade Tool”
sections in the W-ClearPass 6.6.0 Release Notes.
W-ClearPass Cluster Upgrade Overview
You must upgrade the publisher node in the W-ClearPass cluster first, before any of the subscriber nodes are
upgraded. If you are using the Session Log Database as an authentication/authorization source, contact
W-ClearPass Support for assistance with the upgrade procedure before upgrading (see Session Log Database
below).
Upgrading each W-ClearPass node is a two-step process:
1. On the node you need to upgrade, initiate the upgrade from either the W-Policy Manager user interface or
the command line interface (CLI).
The upgrade operation installs the file system for the new version in a secondary location on disk. All
services on the node will continue to function and service requests as usual; however, there might be some
performance impact due to disk I/O activity.
2. Reboot
a. W-ClearPass databases are initialized upon reboot. All W-ClearPass services are inaccessible during this
time. The amount of time required for this operation depends on the size of your configuration and
Insight databases.
b. If this is a subscriber node, it is added back into the cluster. The amount of time required for this
operation depends on the size of your configuration database and the nature of the network link to the
publisher node.
c. The Administration user interface and all services are backed up. The Event Viewer displays the message
"Upgrade complete."
Session Log Database
In this release, the Session Log Database is not restored as part of the upgrade process. For more information,
see "Restoring the Session Log Database" on page 8. The Session Log Database contains the following
elements:
l Access Tracker and accounting records
l Event Viewer
l W-ClearPass Policy Manager Application Log
If you are using the Session Log Database as an authentication/authorization source, contact W-ClearPass Support
before upgrading for assistance with the upgrade procedure,