Upgrading Simulate ONTAP 8 Instances...is it possible?

[KKWAN_WFD]

Dear Gurus of the Netapp Realm:

Is it possible to upgrade the Simulate ONTAP OS version in a fully functional VMWare VM?   I have a fully functional 8.1RC2X13 7-Mode VM that I would like to use to test the process of upgrading a dual-controller FAS2240-2 to 8.2 GA (this is also to address some Kerberos/NFSv4 issues that I am ovserving in production) - if not, is there an easi(er) way to pull the settings onto an XML file and then restore later?   I spent quite a bit of time (at least 2 days) to get it to the current stage and is hoping not to duplicate all that work.

[scottgelb]

NetApp doesn't provide the builds for the upgrades externally... once I was able to get one (for the Insight labs we were teaching so had approval for it).  But there is an internal build tree that has the VSIM upgrade tgz just not publicly available...  It takes me time to rebuild a new VSIM for each new version so would be ideal to have the upgrade capability but was told no when I asked.  Maybe worth taking an inside track if it isn't easy to recreate the VSIM.

[KKWAN_WFD]

Thanks for the reply -

I was told that the Simulate ONTAP 7s can be upgraded easily, but the 8s are not. Is the difference between the VSIM and the mainline upgrade tgz that much different to not allow this?  

I am also guessing that the internal builds are internal for a reason. 

(Somehow I think this would have been easier if Netapp can put together a restricted version of ONTAP EDGE for testing purposes only)

[scottgelb]

I tried using the tgz for ontap and it actually worked to upgrade and says all good, but won’t reboot. So doesn’t really work. But for an upgrade plan it could be useful although can’t do takeover/giveback since reboot will break. Take a VM snap first…

Agreed an eval of edge would be good to use the VSA for this.

[KKWAN_WFD]

Hm.  Do you still have the VM after the upgrade?  Does SIMLOADER actually even show up prior to bringing it up? 

[scottgelb]

It just locks up when it tried to reboot.

Sent from my iPhone 5