Installation and upgrade requirements for Windows and Windows clusters

Table: NetBackup installation and upgrade requirements for Windows and Windows clusters describes the requirements to prepare your Windows systems for NetBackup installation. Use this table as a checklist to address each item.

For the most up-to-date information about installation requirements, Veritas recommends use of the SORT website. More information about SORT is available.

See About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools.

Caution:

Veritas supports moving the NetBackup catalog with the nbdb_move command to a non-default location on a Windows cluster after installation or upgrade. Before any upgrades, however, you must move the NetBackup catalog back to the default location for the upgrade to succeed. Do not attempt a NetBackup upgrade if the catalog is not in the default location. You master server is rendered unusable if you fail to move the database back to the default location before upgrade. More information about the nbdb_move is available.

NetBackup Commands Reference Guide

Table: NetBackup installation and upgrade requirements for Windows and Windows clusters

Check	Requirement	Details
	Operating system	Make sure that you have applied the most current operating system patches and updates. If you are not certain that your operating system is current, contact your operating system vendor and request the latest patches and upgrades. For a complete list of compatible Windows operating systems, refer to the Software Compatibility List (SCL) at the following website: http://www.netbackup.com/compatibility
	Memory	Media servers in a production environment with several database agents enabled should have a minimum of 4 GB of memory each.
	Disk space	An NTFS partition. The exact amount of space that is required to accommodate the server software and the NetBackup catalogs depends on the hardware platform. More information about this topic is available. NetBackup Release Notes for 8.3 For upgrades, you must have an additional 500 MB of disk space on the drive where Windows is installed. After the upgrade is complete, this additional space is not needed. NetBackup catalogs contain information about your backups that become larger as you use the product. The disk space that the catalogs require depends primarily on the following aspects of your backup configuration: The number of files that are backed up. The frequency of your backups. The amount of time that you set to retain your backup data. Veritas recommends that you have a minimum available disk space of 5% in any Disk Storage Unit volume or file system. Note: The value for disk space is for initial installation only. The NetBackup catalog requires considerably more space once the master server is placed in a production environment.
	General requirements	Make sure that you have all of the following items: NetBackup installation ESD images Appropriate license keys Administrator account and password for all servers Screen resolution configured for at least 1024x768, 256 colors. Note: To install NetBackup on Windows 2008 Server, Windows 2008 R2 Server, Windows 2012 R2, Windows 2012 UAC-enabled, and Windows Server 2016 environments, you must log on as the official administrator. Users that are assigned to the Administrators Group and are not the official administrator cannot install NetBackup in UAC-enabled environments. To allow users in the Administrators Group to install NetBackup, disable UAC.
	Remote and cluster installations	In addition to all previously stated installation requirements, the following guidelines apply to remote installations and cluster installations: All nodes in the cluster must run the same operating system version, service pack level, and NetBackup version. You cannot mix versions of server operating systems. The installation account must have administrator privileges on all remote systems or on all nodes in the cluster. The source system (or primary node) must run Windows 2008/2008 R2 Server/Windows 2012/2012 R2/Windows 2016. For Windows 2008 R2, clusters are only supported on Enterprise and Data Center editions and not Standard edition. The destination PC (or clustered nodes) must have Windows 2008/2008 R2/Windows 2012/2012 R2/Windows 2016. The Remote Registry service must be started on the remote system. The NetBackup installer can enable and start the Remote Registry service on the remote system. If the Remote Registry service is not started, the installation receives the following error message: Attempting to connect to server server_name failed with the following error: Unable to connect to the remote system. One possible cause for this is the absence of the Remote Registry service. Please ensure this service is started on the remote host and try again. NetBackup virtual name and IP address Have the virtual name and IP address for NetBackup available. You must provide this information during installation. Cluster support changes for media servers You cannot perform a new installation of a clustered media server. Windows Server Failover Clusters (WSFC) The shared disk that the NetBackup Group uses must already be configured in the cluster and online on the active node. Install NetBackup from the node with the shared disk (that is, the active node). Computer or host names cannot be longer than 15 characters. Cluster server (VCS) clusters: All NetBackup disk resources must be configured in Veritas Enterprise Administrator (VEA) before you install NetBackup. Cluster node device configuration and upgrades When you upgrade clusters, the `ltid` and the robotic daemons retrieve the device configuration for a particular cluster node from the EMM database. The cluster node name (provided by `gethostname`) stores or retrieves the device configuration in the EMM database. The cluster node name is used when any updates are made to the device configuration, including when `ltid` updates the drive status. The cluster node name is only used to indicate where a device is connected. The NetBackup virtual name is employed for other uses, such as the robot control host. More information about cluster requirements is available. NetBackup Clustered Master Server Administrator's Guide
	Remote Administration Console host names	You must provide the names of the Remote Administration Console hosts during master server installation.
	NetBackup communication	Make sure that your network configuration allows all servers and clients to recognize and communicate with one another. Generally, if you can reach the clients from a server by using the ping command, the setup works with NetBackup. NetBackup services and port numbers must be the same across the network. Veritas suggests that you use the default port settings for NetBackup services and Internet service ports. If you modify the port numbers, they must be the same for all master servers, media servers, and clients. The port entries are in the following file: %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\drivers\etc\services. To change the default settings, you must perform a custom installation of NetBackup or manually edit the `services` file.
	CIFS-mounted file systems	Veritas does not support installation of NetBackup in a CIFS-mounted directory. File locking in CIFS-mounted file systems can be unreliable.
	Storage devices	Devices such as robots and standalone tape drives must be installed according to the manufacturers' instructions and recognized by the Windows software.
	Server names	When you are prompted for server names, always enter the appropriate host names. Do not enter IP addresses.
	Mixed versions	Make sure to install NetBackup servers with a release level that is at least equal to the latest client version that you plan to use. Earlier versions of server software can encounter problems with later versions of client software. See About compatibility between NetBackup versions.
	Installations on Windows 2008/2008 R2 Server Core, 2012/2012 R2 Server Core/Windows 2016	You can only install NetBackup on these computers with the silent installation method. See Performing silent upgrades on Windows systems.
	Other backup software	Remove any other vendor's backup software currently configured on your system. The backup software of another vendor can negatively affect how NetBackup installs and functions.
	Web Services	Beginning with NetBackup 8.0, the NetBackup master 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 master server (or each node of a clustered master server). More information is available: See NetBackup master server web server user and group creation. Note: Veritas recommends that you save the details of the user account that you use for the NetBackup Web Services. A master 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. http://www.veritas.com/docs/000115774
	CA Certificate fingerprint	(Conditional) For media servers and clients only: If you use a NetBackup Certificate Authority, you must know the CA Certificate fingerprint of the master server at time of installation. This requirement only applies if you use a NetBackup Certificate Authority. More information is available about the details on the CA Certificate fingerprint and its role in generation of security certificates. https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000127129
	Authorization Token	(Conditional) For media servers and clients only: In some cases, the installer requires an authorization token to successfully deploy security certificates. More information is available about the details on authorization tokens and their role in generation of security certificates. In some cases, if you use a NetBackup Certificate Authority, the installer requires an authorization token to successfully deploy security certificates. More information is available about the details on authorization tokens and their role in generation of security certificates. https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000127129
	External certificate authority	For master servers (including cluster): The configuration of an external certificate authority is a post-installation activity. For media servers and clients: You can configure the ECA during the install procedure or after the installation completes. More information about post-installation configuration is available: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100044300
	Customer Registration Key for Veritas Smart Meter	Beginning with NetBackup 8.1.2, you must specify a Customer Registration Key for Veritas Smart Meter. More information about Veritas Smart Meter is available: See About Veritas Smart Meter. During install and upgrade to NetBackup 8.1.2, please allow the installer to copy the `veritas_customer_registration_key.json` file to its final destination. NetBackup can set the file permission and ownership correctly through this process. If you place the file onto your systems outside of the install or the upgrade process, the process may not work correctly. Note: Be aware that NetBackup does not support the short file name format (8.3 format) for the customer registration key file name.

See Upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux.

Installation and upgrade requirements for Windows and Windows clusters

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