Upgrading Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.1 to 2.2

At the moment we’re running Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.1 on a Gen1 physical appliance. We’re looking to take the upgrade path from 2.1 all the way up to 3.1 (currently only 3.0.2 is supported on the Gen1 appliance).

First stop, 2.2.

The Gen1 appliance upgrade path isn’t a fun one. It requires that we back up our current application database, wipe our appliance, do a bare-metal install of 2.2, and then restore our application database. Cisco’s documentation for application backup and restore can be found here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/prime/infrastructure/2-2/administrator/guide/PIAdminBook/backup_restore.html#72460

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Step one

Back up the PI application database to an FTP repository (I recommend FileZilla Server for hosting a light-weight FTP server on your workstation).

• Create a ftp repository on your Prime Infrastructure server via CLI
  • SSH to PI
  • conf t
  • repository NAME
  • url ftp://x.x.x.x
  • user username password plain password
• Verify your repository configuration
  • show repository NAME

• Backup your Prime Infrastructure application
  • backup backup-name repository repository-name application NCS

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Step two

Install Prime Infrastructure 2.2

Reboot your appliance from the PI 2.2 installation media and follow the on-screen configuration prompts. For more information follow Cisco’s Installation Guide

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Step three

Restore your application database

• SSH to the Prime Infrastructure server and setup your ftp repository again
  • conf t
  • repository NAME
  • url ftp://x.x.x.x
  • user username password plain password
• Verify your repository configuration, and check that your backup is there
  • show repository NAME

• Run the restore command, taking note of the scary warnings
  • restore BACKUP_NAME.tar.gpg repository REPOSITORY_NAME application NCS