All Nectar sites will be undertaking an upgrade of the hypervisor used on Nectar Research Cloud in the upcoming months. Ubuntu Linux is used as the hypervisor and it will be upgraded to Xenial release.
Why it is being upgraded
The Xenial release of Ubuntu is needed to run the latest and future version of OpenStack. It is important that the Nectar Research Cloud stay at current or recent releases of OpenStack to maintain access to support mechanisms from the OpenStack community. Additionally each new release offers new features (for example Load Balancer as a Service -LBaaS- has become available in a recent release) plus usability improvements and stability.
When
We are planning to have this work done by September 30, 2017.
Impact to users
The upgrades at each of the Nectar sites will result in a period of service disruption (up to 2 hrs) for each research cloud instance. Each site is implementing their own upgrade plan and schedule. Sites will be sending out further detailed communication to their users prior to their upgrades so stay tuned.
Actions for users
Ensure that your data backup processes are working so that in the unlikely event of data loss you will be able to recover. Nectar does not provide a backup service, it is your responsibility to maintain backups of any data or virtual environments created by you. Information on backup is available at:
Stand by for announcements from the site(s) that your allocation(s) are hosted on - they will provide more detail about the scheduling of the work and the impact on your instance's. They will also provide guidance on what, if anything, you should do in preparation for the upgrade.
Jo Morris
What is being upgraded
All Nectar sites will be undertaking an upgrade of the hypervisor used on Nectar Research Cloud in the upcoming months. Ubuntu Linux is used as the hypervisor and it will be upgraded to Xenial release.
Why it is being upgraded
The Xenial release of Ubuntu is needed to run the latest and future version of OpenStack. It is important that the Nectar Research Cloud stay at current or recent releases of OpenStack to maintain access to support mechanisms from the OpenStack community. Additionally each new release offers new features (for example Load Balancer as a Service -LBaaS- has become available in a recent release) plus usability improvements and stability.
When
We are planning to have this work done by September 30, 2017.
Impact to users
The upgrades at each of the Nectar sites will result in a period of service disruption (up to 2 hrs) for each research cloud instance. Each site is implementing their own upgrade plan and schedule. Sites will be sending out further detailed communication to their users prior to their upgrades so stay tuned.
Actions for users
Ensure that your data backup processes are working so that in the unlikely event of data loss you will be able to recover. Nectar does not provide a backup service, it is your responsibility to maintain backups of any data or virtual environments created by you. Information on backup is available at:
https://support.ehelp.edu.au/support/solutions/articles/6000085112-back-up-and-restore
Stand by for announcements from the site(s) that your allocation(s) are hosted on - they will provide more detail about the scheduling of the work and the impact on your instance's. They will also provide guidance on what, if anything, you should do in preparation for the upgrade.