Upgrade Guide

This guide has been created to help Engine Yard customers who want to upgrade to new generation AWS instance types.

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Introduction

AWS has released a new generation of instance types (M3, C3, R3, T2 and C4). Previous generation M1 and C1 instance types are anticipated to be deprecated (or EOL'd). The new servers are faster, more powerful, and less expensive.

Engine Yard has rolled out a new pricing model, which affects the previous per-instance policies up to now. See Engine Yard Pricing for specifics about the new model.

With the Engine Yard Transparent Value Pricing ™ model, you might want to change from several smaller instance sizes to fewer larger instance sizes, and from the previous generation to the new types. Engine Yard also strongly recommends that you update your environments by upgrading to the latest:

Upgrade tools

Engine Yard provides you with the leading edge tools and technologies to help your app perform at its best.

In anticipation of customers wanting to upgrade, we released several tools:

  • Upgrade information tool: Provides useful information about your environment so you can decide what you need to do for an upgrade.
  • Environment configuration copy: Makes a copy of your environment, creating it without any data. This provides an easy way to test deploying your application with the recommended Engine Yard distribution. Then you can use the copied environment for the new and upgraded environment. Copy is also a useful tool for simply upgrading your instance types.
  • Application slave promotion: Allows you to add an application slave to your environment, promote it, and then decommission the old application master. This helps make the transition to new instance types easier.
  • Database replica promotion: Allows you to add a database replica to your environment, promote it, and then decommission the old database master. This helps make the transition to new instance types easier.
  • Enhanced maintenance page: Informs customers of any upgrade maintenance you need to do as you transition to the new instances and distribution. (You can now initiate maintenance in the UI, as well as via the CLI.)
  • Migrate elastic IP addresses: Provides the ability to transfer the EIP from an app master in one environment, to an app master in another environment. This is helpful for moving from an old production environment to a new production environment.

Next steps

If you’re unsure of your application / environment's components, you should start with How to Use the Upgrade Information Tool. If you have questions about your environment, contact Engine Yard Support. For upgrade assistance, contact Engine Yard Professional Services. See More information for a list of docs if you know where you need to go next.

FAQs

You might have these questions about upgrading.

Where do I start?

After reading through this upgrade guide, check out How to Use the Upgrade Information Tool. Once you've done that, then you should have an idea about the upgrade process that's right for your situation; depending on your current environment and its tech stack version, choose the appropriate upgrade document:

How do I check what generation/type/size of server I have now?

From the Engine Yard dashboard, environment page, see the Application Instances section.

What generation/type/size of server do you recommend I upgrade to?

See About Instance Sizes and Amazon Instance Type Support.

How do I check which tech stack I have now?

See How to Use the Upgrade Information Tool.

How do I upgrade my tech stack version?

It's best practice to upgrade your tech stack regularly for the latest security and product updates.

Where do I go to see my Engine Yard cookbooks version?

See How to Use the Upgrade Information Tool.

How do I upgrade my Engine Yard cookbooks version?

It's best practice to upgrade your tech stack regularly for the latest cookbooks updates.

What if I have more questions?

Contact Engine Yard Support or your Sales representative.

What if I want help with upgrading?

Contact Engine Yard Professional Services.

What if I do nothing?

Although we certainly do not recommend it, you can choose to do nothing. You might have higher billing rates than in the past, depending on your environment. Over time, as AWS continues to deprecate the older instance families, there may be issues with supply and maintenance.

Engine Yard recommends that all customers take this opportunity to review their applications and environments to determine the most advantageous situation for you.

More information

This table provides a list of other resources for upgrading.

For more information about ... See ...
Using upgrade information How to Use the Upgrade Information Tool
Recommended tech stack Engine Yard Gentoo 12.11 Tech Stack
Supported AWS instances on Engine Yard Amazon Instance Type Support
Choosing AWS instances on Engine Yard About Instance Sizes
Single server (solo) environment upgrades Upgrade a Single Server (Solo) Environment
Multiple server environment upgrades Upgrade a Multiple Server Environment
Simple upgrades from v2 to v4 Simple Upgrade from Engine Yard Gentoo 2009 (stable-v2) to 12.11 (stable-v4)
Complex upgrades from v2 to v4 Upgrade from Engine Yard Gentoo 2009 (stable-v2) to 12.11 (stable-v4) with Custom Chef
Managing databases Manage Databases

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