Veritas NetBackup™ Appliance Upgrade Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (3.3.0.1)
Platform: NetBackup Appliance OS

Manually initiating upgrades from the client using VxUpdate

Manually initiate deployment jobs when you are logged into the client locally and want to force an immediate update. You can either use a deployment policy to initiate an immediate upgrade or specify an upgrade without an associated policy. You can use the upgrade to update the NetBackup version or for other upgrades such as emergency binaries.

Among the reasons for a client initiated upgrade using VxUpdate is mission critical systems with specific maintenance windows. One example of these systems is database servers with limited available down time.

Note:

You can only launch updates on the local client. You cannot use the nbinstallcmd command on a client to launch jobs on other clients. If you want to launch updates on other clients, you must initiate them from the master server.

VxUpdate also provides the ability to launch upgrades from the master server with the command line. More information is available.

See Manually initiating upgrades from the master server using VxUpdate.

The nbinstallcmd version on a back-level host is not the current nbinstallcmd version when you initiate a non-policy based upgrade directly on the target client or media server. Refer to the NetBackup Commands Reference Guide for the currently installed version of NetBackup for the exact format of nbinstallcmd command.

Because of this older version of nbinstallcmd, exceptions to normal VxUpdate behavior include:

  • If your master server uses both NetBackup certificate and an external certificate, and your target media server or client is at NetBackup 8.1.2: Running a non-policy based upgrade directly on the target host is not supported. You must upgrade with one of the options shown:

    • Upgrade the client or the media server using VxUpdate from the master server.

    • Create a policy on the master server. Then run policy-based nbinstallcmd on the target client or media server.

    • Disable the external certificate on your master server before starting the non-policy-based upgrade on the target host. You may turn on the external certificate after the upgrade completes successfully.

  • If the client or the media server is at NetBackup 8.2 or earlier, the -components flag is not available. This flag was introduced in NetBackup 8.3 to enable optional installation of the NetBackup Java GUI and JRE. When you run an ad-hoc nbinstallcmd on a client or a media server at NetBackup 8.2 or earlier, the -components javagui_jre option defaults to MATCH. This value causes the upgrade to match the Java GUI and JRE status of the pre-upgrade host. If the pre-upgrade host had Java GUI and JRE installed, it remains installed after upgrade. If the pre-upgrade host did not have Java GUI and JRE installed, it is not installed after upgrade.

To start a client initiated deployment job based on an existing policy

  1. Navigate to the binary directory from a command prompt.

    UNIX or Linux: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin

    Windows: install_path\netbackup\bin

  2. Use the nbinstallcmd as shown:

    nbinstallcmd -policy policy -schedule schedule -master_server name

    Example: nbinstallcmd -policy all_clients -schedule install812 -master_server master1

    If the job initiated successfully, you are returned to the command prompt without an error message.

  3. Monitor upgrade status with the NetBackup administrator and the Activity Monitor in the NetBackup Administrative Console.

You can start a client initiated deployment job without an associated policy from the command line. The options required for the nbinstallcmd command vary depending on your security configuration. Please refer to the nbinstallcmd command documentation for a list of all possible options and examples of command usage.

NetBackup Commands Reference Guide