DataPower firmware upgrade procedure using WAMC

Today I was working on setting up a WAMC based methodology for firmware upgrade procedure for a cluster of DataPower appliances. Bellow are the results:

Running configuration consists from:

• 2 DataPower appliances (DP1 and DP2) in a production HA cluster.
• NLB in front of them with "first alive" routing algorithm, appliance DP1 is configured as primary and DP2 as secondary. Which means that all load is directed to DP1 while DP2 is used as standby in case DP1 will fail.
• WAMC managed set with DP1 as master and DP2 as simple member in a set.

The goal is to install new firmware on one of the appliances and only after successful tests install the firmware on other appliance. All this with no downtime. We will start with DP2 and then continue with DP2. Since DP2 is not primary appliance in NLB pharm, no requests will be sent to it.

1. In WAMC - change the managed set so DP2 will be master.
2. In WAMC - remove DP1 from managed set. This will cause WAMC to stop syncing DP1.
3. In WAMC - upload new firmware.
4. In WAMC - deploy new firmware to managed set. This will start firmware installation on DP2.
5. In WAMC - check the "tasks" for end of firmware upgrade.
6. Make all necessary tests to decide whether to continue with firmware upgrade or to rollback.
7. In case the test ended successfully tell NETWORK team to set DP2 as primary appliance in NLB pharm.
8. In WAMC - add DP1 to the managed set. Since DP2 is master, WAMC will automatically install new firmware on DP1.
9. In WAMC - wait till automated firmware propagation to DP1 ends.
10. Check DP1 for errors.
11. In WAMC - set DP1 back to be master in managed set.
12. Tell NETWORK team to set back DP1 as primary appliance in NLB pharm.

Enjoy.