Appliances Configured in Central Management with External Load Balancer

Last updated
Save as PDF

Before upgrading appliances configured in Central Management with an External Load Balancer, complete all prerequisites. For more details, see Prerequisites to Upgrade Web Gateway Appliance.

Upgrade to Major or Minor Versions

The section outlines the process for upgrading three appliances configured in a central management with the external load balancer. Assume a scenario where three nodes are part of the central management configuration.

SWG1 (Considering SWG1 to access the UI or manage the configuration)
SWG2
SWG3

Upgrade SWG3 Appliance

Log in to the web UI of SWG1.
Take a configuration backup. For more details, see Prerequisites to Upgrade Web Gateway Appliance.
Stop the traffic distribution to SWG3 from the external load balancer (3rd party load balancer distributing traffic to multiple SWG nodes).
Remove the SWG3 appliance from the cluster.
1. Go to Configuration.
2. From the Appliances tree, select SWG3.
3. Click Delete.
Log in to the standalone appliance SWG3 via the command line as the root user to upgrade the appliance to the intended or required version. For more details, see Standalone Appliance.

NOTE: Skyhigh recommends using the yum command to streamline and simplify the upgrade process, provided that you have root access to the command line.

Reboot the SWG3 appliance.
SWG3 is upgraded to a new version and is working as a standalone appliance.

Once SWG3 has rebooted and is running the upgraded version, you can resume traffic distribution to it from the external load balancer. The appliance retains its policy configuration as a member of the central management cluster.

NOTE: Follow Steps 1-7 to upgrade SWG2 and SWG1 appliances.

Rejoin all nodes to the Central Management Cluster

Once the nodes are upgraded, to rejoin a node to the Central Management from the primary node:

Log in to the web UI of SWG1
Select Configuration > Appliances.
On the Appliances toolbar, click Add/Join.
Enter the Host name or IP address of the SWG2 appliance to be added.
From the Network group drop-down, select a network group for the SWG2 appliance.
Select Add Appliance.
Click OK.
Ensure traffic distribution is back enabled from the external load balancer.
Follow Steps 1-7 to add SWG3 to the central management cluster.

Upgrade to Macro Version

When upgrading to a macro version, you do not need to break up the cluster if the version differences are within the same macro. For the upgrade process, see Standalone Appliance.

NOTE: Once the upgrade is completed, make sure to verify it against the checklist. See SWG Upgrade Checklist.