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  1. Home
  2. NetBackup™ Upgrade Guide
  3. Primary server upgrade
  4. Preinstall procedure for upgrading to NetBackup 11.2
NetBackup™ Upgrade Guide

Preinstall procedure for upgrading to NetBackup 11.2

Be aware of the general information shown as you plan your NetBackup 11.2 upgrade:

  • Several tools are available to help you perform the extra step that is required for the guided method. For more details, contact your Business Critical Services (BCS) representative.

  • Additional steps are required if the NetBackup upgrade includes an upgrade to RHEL 7.5 and you use Fibre Transport Media Server (FTMS). More information is available.

    See About NetBackup 11.2 support for Fibre Transport Media Server with RHEL 7.5 and later.

  • For NetBackup installations that include globally clustered primary servers using the Global Cluster Option (GCO), follow the upgrade planning guidelines in this guide. Then, refer to the following document for the specific steps to upgrade these servers: https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100041191

  • IT Analytics is the solution for NetBackup reporting and analytics. The IT Analytics Data Collector may be upgraded during the upgrade of NetBackup primary server. More information about the IT Analytics Data Collector and upgrades is available.

    See About the IT Analytics Data Collector.

Use the procedure shown to prepare to upgrade your primary server to NetBackup 11.2.

Preinstall steps to upgrade to NetBackup 11.2 and complete the image metadata migration

  1. Perform environment checks with the SORT tool.

    See Recommended SORT procedures for upgrades.

  2. Download your license file with the procedure shown:
    • Log on to your Cohesity Support account (Cohesity Support) with your username and password.

    • Select Licensing. This option takes you to the Cohesity Entitlement Management System (VEMS).

    • Select Entitlements on the VEMS main menu.

    • Search the Entitlements page for the entitlement that you want to use to generate a license key.

    • Once you have located the entitlement, select the associated Generate License option.

    • Use the Select Version filter to view the list of license key options for the version of the product that you want to deploy.

    • Select the license key option in the table, specify the required information, and select Generate.

    • Select Download File to save the new license to your computer.

      Note:

      More information about how to download license files is available: https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100048764

  3. Run the database precheck tool to confirm your environment is ready for conversion to the new NetBackup database. For details about this tool, see:

    https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100055151

  4. (Conditional) On Linux, if the NetBackup database files reside on btrfs file system, move it to a supported file system (such as ext4 or xfs) before you upgrade. It is not supported to reside the NetBackup database on a btrfs file system. The database files reside on the primary server in the directories under /usr/openv/db.

    To move the NetBackup database files on Linux:

    • Perform a catalog backup.

    • Shut down all NetBackup daemons:

      /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bp.kill_all

    • Start the NetBackup database server

      /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/nbdbms_start_stop start

    • /usr/openv/db/bin/nbdb_move -data data_directory -index index_directory -tlog log_directory

      If you use mirrored transaction log, use the command shown:

      /usr/openv/db/bin/nbdb_move -data data_directory -index index_directory -tlog log_directory -mlog log_mirror_directory

    • Start all NetBackup daemons:

      /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bp.start_all

    • Perform a catalog backup.

  5. (Conditional) On Windows, be sure that all operating system and security updates are applied. More information is available.

    See Windows compiler and security requirements for NetBackup 11.2 and later upgrade.

  6. (Conditional) On Windows, if the NetBackup installation directory contains a large number of files, your upgrade time may be longer. More information is available.

    See Windows primary server upgrades are slowed if a large number of files are in the installation directory.

    https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100060329

  7. Perform any pre-upgrade tasks that you would normally do in regard to your NetBackup environment. For example:

    • Disable antivirus software.

      If the antivirus software cannot be disabled, you should exclude NetBackup files and folders from virus scan events. More information about excluding NetBackup files and folders is available. https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100004864

    • Stop all customized or third-party scripts.

    • Perform any cluster-specific tasks.

    • Run a hot catalog backup.

    • Disable all storage lifecycle policies (SLPs).

    • Deactivate all NetBackup policies.

    • For VMware and Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) environments, reduce the size of the job database before upgrade. Following an upgrade, existing VMware and RHV jobs are assigned an asset namespace to enable access control at an asset level. This process may take some time. More information about this process is available:

      See Reduce the job database size before upgrade.

    • For clustered systems only, take the following NetBackup resources offline:

      • Windows Server Failover Clusters (WSFC): Take all of the NetBackup group resources offline except for the disk, the virtual name, and the virtual IP address. Refer to the Microsoft Cluster Administration documentation to determine how to take the NetBackup group resources offline through the cluster administrator interface.

      • Cluster Server (VCS) clusters: Take the NetBackup resource offline.

        Freeze the NetBackup group with the -persist option using the command shown:

        hagrp -freeze NetBackup_service_group -persistent

      Refer to the NetBackup Clustered Primary Server Administrator's Guide for the commands to take these resources offline.

  8. (Conditional) If you plan to change your NetApp cluster to Vserver mode from node scope mode, create a detailed image report for each filer. You can generate this report with the bpimagelist command. The example that is shown is one possible option. Use whatever options are necessary for your environment.

    bpimagelist - client ndmp_host_name

  9. The NetBackup primary server includes a configured Tomcat web server to support critical backup operations. This web server operates under user account elements with limited privileges. These user account elements must be available on each primary server (or each node of a clustered primary server). More information is available:

    See NetBackup primary server web server user and group creation.

    Note:

    It is recommended that you save the details of the user account that you use for the NetBackup Web Services. A primary server recovery requires the same NetBackup Web Services user account and credentials that were used when the NetBackup catalog was backed up.

    Note:

    If the NetBackup PBX is running in secure mode, please add the web service user as authorized user in PBX. More information about determining PBX mode and how to correctly add users is available.

    https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100032858

  10. (Conditional) If you have customized the settings for your Tomcat web server, determine if those settings persist across upgrades. More information is available:

    See Persistent Java Virtual Machine options.

  11. Stop any applications on the system that interact with NetBackup. This step includes any databases or system components being backed up. Failure to stop these applications may result in unexpected behavior. Observed behavior includes aborted upgrades and application failures.

    For Oracle users, ensure that no backups are running. Stop the RMAN processes before you install NetBackup. If you use AIX, you should run /usr/bin/slibclean as the root user after you stop the RMAN processes.

    If you cannot stop your Oracle database, a procedure is available that may let you install NetBackup with the Oracle database active. More information on this topic is available.

    https://support.cohesity.com/s/article/article-100024130

  12. Stop all NetBackup services.

    • On UNIX systems: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bp.kill_all

    • On Windows systems: install_path\NetBackup\bin\bpdown -f

The preinstall procedure is completed. Proceed to upgrade the NetBackup binaries, based on your platform. More information is available about this topic.

  • See Performing local, remote, or clustered server upgrades on Windows systems.

  • See Performing silent upgrades on Windows systems.

  • See Upgrading Linux server software to NetBackup 11.2.

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