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Guidelines for Scheduling Full Upgrades

Owned by Shwetha S
Last updated: Jun 13, 2024 by Panna .
7 min read

When scheduling a full upgrade in NIOS, the Grid Master replicates the following features to the Grid members, including those that have not been upgraded:

  • DNS resource records

  • DNS zones

  • DNS views

  • Name server groups

  • Shared record groups

  • IPv4 and IPv6 host addresses

  • Roaming hosts

  • IPv4 and IPv6 networks

  • IPv4 and IPv6 shared networks

  • Fixed addresses

  • DHCP ranges

  • DHCP failover association

  • DHCP option spaces

  • DHCP options

  • DHCP filters

  • MAC filter items

  • Blacklist and NXDOMAIN rules

  • DNSSEC key pairs

  • DNSSEC import keyset operation

  • Signed and unsigned zones

  • DNSSEC rollover KSK and ZSK operations.

You can perform the following tasks during an upgrade:

  • Upgrade a specific member during the scheduled Grid upgrade. For information about how to upgrade a single member during a scheduled Grid upgrade, see “Upgrading a Single Member Immediately” in Upgrading NIOS Software.

  • Revert a single member that has already been upgraded to troubleshoot issues, such as service outages, on that specific member. The upgrade of that member can then be rescheduled. For more information, see “Reverting a Single Member” in Upgrading NIOS Software.

  • Clear authentication cache and authentication records.

  • Perform AD (Active Directory) configurations. Note that the keytab file must be uploaded before the upgrade starts.

  • Add, modify, or delete a zone. Note that the Microsoft Management zone is limited until the managing member completes the upgrade and exits the revert window.

  • Import zone.

  • Add, modify, or delete a nameserver group.

  • Add, modify, or delete a nameserver records.

  • Add, modify, or delete shared record group operation

  • Add, modify, or delete DNS View operation.

  • DNSSEC Sign Zone operation and replicate to the Grid Master Candidate that has not completed the upgrade. It is recommended that GMC is upgraded immediately after the Grid Master’s upgrade.

  • DNSSEC rollover KSK and ZSK operations. It is recommended that GMC is upgraded immediately after the Grid Master’s upgrade.

  • DNSSEC Unsigned zone. It is recommended that GMC is upgraded immediately after the Grid Master’s upgrade.

  • Add, modify, or delete IPv4 and IPv6 networks that are under Microsoft Management until the managing member of the Microsoft servers has completed its upgrade and exited its revert time window. 

  • Add, modify, or delete DHCPv4/DHCPv6 Range operation.

  • Add, delete, or modify a Add Filter operation.

  • Add Match Rule operation-Need to confirm.

  • Add Option Space.

  • Add Failover Association.

  • Configure DDNS operation.

  • Complete an Order DHCP Range operation.

  • Clear the Authentication Cache operation.

  • Clear the Authentication Record operation.

  • It is recommended to wait until the affected Grid member has finished upgrading before making any changes to its properties (DNS, DHCP, and File Distribution).-Need to confirm if recommendations can be added here or not.

  • Assign or unassign an nameserver group to a zone.

  • Change the nameserver group assigned to a zone.

  • Add, delete, or modify a DHCP range, a filter, or a fixed address.

  • Import the DHCP lease history file.

  • Delete DNS views during schedule Grid upgrade.

  • You can configure the All available load balancing method for a DTC pool.

  • The record types are reset to default record types (A and AAAA records) and you modify the record types for an LBDN.

Note the below restrictions when scheduling a full upgrade:

  • NIOS 9.0.4 supports TLS version 1.3. However, Splunk does not support TLS version 1.3.

  • Do not change the host name of the Grid members that are assigned to a zone if the members have not been upgraded, have been reverted, or are in the revert time window..

  • Do not restart DNS and DHCP services or schedule a restart for these services on Grid members that have not been upgraded. For information about restarting groups, see Restarting Services.

  • Do not modify the settings for automated mitigation of phantom domain attacks using the CLI commands on a Grid member until the member has completed the upgrade.

  • Due to new validation checks introduced in BIND 9.16, a few resource records that were invalid RDATA in BIND 9.11 are considered invalid in BIND 9.16. If you add such invalid Resource Records (RR) to a zone, the zone fails to load during an upgrade, or a Grid restore. An error message is displayed when you add invalid Resource Records (RR) or Resource Records (RR) with invalid RDATA under a zone.

The Grid Master and upgrade groups can be scheduled to upgrade at different times in order to limit service impact. However, upgrades needs to be performed within a limited window of time (i.e. within a couple of days). If an upgrade spans nine or more days, a warning is displayed in the NIOS UI.

NIOS does contain checks and rules to ensure data integrity that can cause undesirable results during the upgrade process. However, when scheduling a full upgrade, the following rules and behavior have to be noted and followed to ensure a seamless upgrade:

  • Do not modify member properties for the following: DNS, DHCP, TFTP/HTTP/FTP, Captive Portal, Reporting, and load balancing until the member has completed the upgrade and exited its revert time window.

  • Do not delete DNS zones and IPv4 and IPv6 networks that are under Microsoft Management until the managing member of the Microsoft servers has completed its upgrade and exited its revert time window, a warning message is displayed.

  • Do not add, modify, or delete network views, rulesets, and DNS64 synthesis groups until the entire Grid upgrade is complete.

  • Do not create additional named Access Control Lists (ACLs) until after the entire Grid has been upgraded. For information about named ACLs, see Configuring Access Control.

During a scheduled full upgrade, the Grid Master skips Grid members that do not complete their NIOS within 10 minutes, the default upgrade policy time, and moves to the next Grid member within the upgrade schedule.

During a scheduled full upgrade, do not perform the following tasks on a Grid member that has not been upgraded yet:

  • Use the DHCP expert mode configuration feature

  • Set the time zone for a Grid member

  • Test the email configuration settings of a Grid member

When scheduling a full upgrade from a previous NIOS release to a release that includes the Infoblox Threat Protection feature, do not perform the following on a Grid member until the member has completed the upgrade:

  • Start or stop the Threat Protection and DNS services.

Before scheduling a full upgrade from a previous NIOS release to a release that includes the IPv6 Grid feature, the following rules apply:

  • Any Network configuration cannot be updated while schedule upgrade is in progress.

  • The current configuration and database must be backed up.

  • If the subscriber site has HA and the HA passive node is the first to upgrade, the data repository connectivity uses the IPv4 protocol for the site members. If you want the data repository to be connected over the IPv6 protocol, you must stop and restart the subscriber service in the upgraded Grid. The subscriber data is lost when the service is stopped and restarted. It is recommended to stop/start the service of each member at a time to synchronize the subscriber cache with the next active member on the same site.

When scheduling a full upgrade from a previous NIOS release to a release that includes the Secure Dynamic Updates feature, the following rules apply until the Grid has completed the upgrade:

  • All dynamic updated records are labelled as static records. Infoblox suggests to enable this feature only after all records are changed to Dynamic.

  • NIOS tags the RRsets that are not auto-generated as static records. For information about Secure Dynamic Updates, see Secure Dynamic Updates.

When scheduling a full upgrade that includes the DNS Traffic Control feature, the following rules apply until the entire Grid has been upgraded:

  • Do not add an SNMP health monitor.

Upgrading Parental Control at DNS Cache Acceleration

Upgrading Infoblox subscriber services parental control at DNS Cache Acceleration using cached domain and subscriber data has the following restrictions:

  • Upgrade subscriber services using a staged upgrade. This does not affect subscriber data.

  • You must update parental control category data download credentials after the upgrade.

  • When you upgrade, designate a few members per site to run garbage collection as subscriber services does not perform garbage collection.

  • Restrictions when upgrading subscriber sites:

    • You cannot add or remove members from a site during an upgrade.

    • You cannot stop or start a subscriber secure service during an upgrade.

    • You cannot change any subscriber service configuration during an upgrade.

Microsoft Management Rules

On a member that synchronizes data with Microsoft DNS and DHCP servers, the following functions are deactivated during an upgrade:

  • Synchronization of Microsoft DNS and DHCP data

  • Rotation of Microsoft logs

  • Start and stop of Microsoft servers

  • Releases of DHCP leases from a Microsoft DHCP server

Note

Deactivation of these functions does not affect data on the Microsoft servers. After the upgrade, the member automatically restarts the synchronization of Microsoft data.

On a member that synchronizes data with Microsoft DNS and DHCP servers, the following rules apply:

  • Do not modify the managing member if the old and new members have not been upgraded and have not exited their revert time windows.

  • Do not add, modify, or delete zones, IPv4 DHCP ranges, and IPv4 networks until the managing member has been upgraded and exits the revert time window.

  • Do not add, modify, or delete DNS resource records if the associated zone is managed by a Microsoft server and the managing member is still in its revert time window.

  • Do not add, modify, or delete fixed addresses that are assigned to a Microsoft server and the managing member is still in its revert time window.

  • Wait until the new managing member is upgraded to configure it as a DNS primary or secondary.

DHCP Expert Mode Upgrade

Enabling DHCP expert mode allows administrators to directly manipulate sections of the DHCP configuration file. In this mode, all built-in protections and error checking normally provided by Infoblox are bypassed.  

Because these protections are removed, Infoblox is unable to provide support for DHCP while in the DHCP expert mode except to confirm that administrator changes to the configuration file were written.  The integrity of the configuration file when the DHCP expert mode is enabled is entirely the responsibility of the administrator. If Infoblox support for DHCP is required, first disable the DHCP expert mode and then reproduce the issue.

Infoblox strongly discourages the use of DHCP expert mode. Consider using it only after discussing the situation with Infoblox Support.