When an appliance update is released, apply the patch so all appliances in the cluster are on the same version. See About cluster patching for more information on how SPP handles access requests and system failures during the cluster patching process.

Prior to installing an update patch to a cluster

• Ensure all appliances in the cluster are online and healthy. Any warnings or problems should be addressed before cluster patching. The patch install process will fail if any of the cluster members are unhealthy or cannot be contacted.

  IMPORTANT: The primary appliance orchestrates the cluster upgrade; therefore, the primary appliance must stay online and have a solid network connection with all of the replica appliances in the cluster. If this cannot be reasonably assured, you should unjoin the replica appliances from the cluster, individually upgrade them, and then re-enroll them into cluster.

• It is highly recommended to take a backup of your primary appliance before applying a patch. For more information, see Backup and Restore..
• You may want to unjoin a replica from the cluster to serve as a backup appliance. In case of a catastrophic failure, you can activate the unjoined replica to be the primary. If the cluster patching process is successful, upgrade the unjoined replica, and then re-enroll it back into the cluster.

To patch appliances in a cluster

1. Log in to the primary appliance, as an Appliance Administrator.
2. Go to the patch updates page:
   • web client: Navigate to Appliance > Patch Updates.

3. Click Upload a File and browse to select an update file.

   The patch will be uploaded and distributed to all of the appliances in the cluster.

   NOTE: If you make changes to the cluster, such as adding a new replica, while a patch is staged, the update file must be distributed to the new cluster member before the patch install process can begin. SPP will not allow the patch install process to begin until all of the cluster members report that they have the update file stored locally.

   NOTE: Clicking the Cancel button during the distribution process stops the distribution of the update file to the replicas. At this point, you can click one of the following buttons:

   • Remove to remove the update file from all of the appliances in the cluster.
   • Distribute to Cluster to continue distributing the update file to each replica in the cluster.

4. Once the file has been successfully distributed to all of the replicas in the cluster, click the Install Now button.

   The primary appliance will go into Maintenance mode to begin the update operation. Once the primary appliance is successfully updated, SPP will perform the update operation on each replica, one at a time. During an update operation, the cluster will be locked so that no other cluster operations can interfere with the update operation. Once the update operation is completed on all cluster members, the cluster will automatically unlock so normal operations can resume.

   The Cluster view shows that an update operation is in progress and the cluster members that are locked, awaiting to install the update file. Go to:

   • web client: Navigate to Cluster > Cluster Management.

   In addition, go to Patch Updates:

   • web client: Navigate to Appliance > Patch Updates.