Preparing to Upgrade Satellite? Open a Proactive Support Case.

Worried about your upcoming Satellite upgrade? Don’t be.

In addition to our detailed upgrade documentation, our support team has been through hundreds of upgrades and they’re happy to help if something deviates from your expectations. In order to optimize your upgrade experience if you chose to engage our support team, please submit what we call a “Proactive Support Case” ahead of your planned upgrade window.

Why should you do this? This will allow for an experienced Satellite support professional to be on-call and/or aware of your plans so they can quickly assist or help triage any issues you could see, as well as minimizing logistics in the event that a problem does occur since a case is already open.

On average, most planned upgrades within a major release, for example from Satellite 5.7 to Satellite 5.8 or Satellite 6.2 to Satellite 6.3, are able to be completed within a 4-8 hour maintenance window and many are completed well under that time estimate.

Here’s how you can submit a proactive support ticket:

Note: In order for our support team to properly prepare for a proactive support ticket we require some time to review the case and staff appropriately to make sure we have someone available to assist.

• For support during normal business hours: Proactive support cases that need coverage during normal business hours should be opened at least 48 hours prior to the upgrade event.

• For support during the weekend: Proactive support cases that need weekend coverage should be opened at least 4 days prior to the weekend of the upgrade.
  For example, If you plan to upgrade this weekend your support ticket will need to be in by close of business Tuesday in order to be proactively supported.

1. Open a case providing information about the upcoming upgrade from Satellite 5.x to Satellite 5.8.

   • Access Red Hat Customer Portal
   • Access Support > Support Cases > Open a New Support Case > Open Case
   • Fill in the forms, describing the planned upgrade
   • Include notation “proactive case”

   • Include Environment information for all impacted components:

     • SOS Report
     • Time/Date of planned upgrade window
     • For Satellite 6 include:
       • How many Satellite and Capsule Servers are in use
       • Are any of the above using the disconnected model? If so, how many?
       • Output from Foreman-debug
     • For Satellite 5 include:
       • How many Satellite and Proxy Servers are in use
       • Are any of the above using the disconnected model? If so, how many?
       • Output of spacewalk-debug
       • Output of: rhn-satellite status
       • Output of rhn-schema-version
       • Output of database-schema-version
       • If the environment was previously upgraded include the schema-upgrade-log
       • Contents of: /etc/rhn/rhn.conf

   • Include any additional information that would assist troubleshooting

   • Submit the case
2. Notify TAM/CSM team of the proactive case
   • Notify TAM/CSM of case #
   • Use support number, if needed, to raise awareness (1-888-467-3342)
3. Case will be flagged within Red Hat to be monitored for potential actions
4. Post upgrade: work with TAM/support team to ensure case is closed

Customers who submit a proactive support ticket are still asked to follow the upgrade documentation very carefully as that is still the single best source for guidance on your Satellite upgrades. However, our support professionals have seen their fair share of “edge cases” and exceptions and they can help close any gap quickly if they see any potential challenges.

Staying on Satellite 5? Get to Satellite 5.8 ASAP!

Are you a Satellite customer running Satellite 5.7 or earlier version?
Hopefully, by now, you've heard about the Satellite 5.7 and Satellite 5.6 end of life on January 31, 2019.
You need to upgrade your Satellite environment to Satellite 5.8 ASAP.

On Satellite 5 and ready to move to Satellite 6 but want more help?

Red Hat has recently released a consulting offering for Satellite 5 to Satellite 6 transition. Contact your account team for more details.