Veritas NetBackup™ Upgrade Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.1.2)
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      About the NetBackup 8.1.2 Upgrade Guide
    2. About changes in NetBackup 8.1.2
      1.  
        Veritas Smart Meter introduced
      2.  
        Upgrades from NetBackup 7.6.0.4 and earlier are not supported
      3.  
        HP-UX and AIX support change
      4.  
        Newer Red Hat Linux compilers used with NetBackup 8.1.2
      5.  
        VxUpdate replaces update_clients script in NetBackup 8.1.2
      6.  
        Port 443 required for NetBackup web user interface
      7.  
        About MSDP
      8.  
        Performance issues with upgrades to NetBackup 8.1.2 from NetBackup 8.0 and earlier
      9.  
        About certificate requirements for NetBackup 8.1
      10.  
        SCCM and Chef deployment tools and documentation now available
    3.  
      Potential required changes for NetApp clusters
    4.  
      About automatic file changes from an upgrade
    5.  
      Errors when Bare Metal Restore information is replicated using Auto Image Replication
    6.  
      Known catalog backup limitation
    7.  
      Available NetBackup upgrade methods
    8.  
      About Veritas Services and Operations Readiness Tools
    9.  
      Recommended SORT procedures for new installations
    10.  
      Recommended SORT procedures for upgrades
    11.  
      About the NetBackup preinstall checker
  2. Planning for an upgrade
    1.  
      About planning a NetBackup 8.1.2 upgrade
    2.  
      How to plan for an upgrade to NetBackup 8.1.2
    3.  
      About Veritas Smart Meter
    4.  
      Best practices for Veritas Smart Meter
    5.  
      Creating the user account to support the NetBackup web server
    6.  
      About NetBackup 8.1.2 support for Fibre Transport Media Server with RHEL 7.5
    7.  
      MSDP changes in NetBackup 8.1
    8.  
      About security certificates for NetBackup hosts
  3. Master server upgrade
    1.  
      About master server upgrades
    2.  
      Preinstall procedure for upgrading to NetBackup 8.1.2
    3.  
      Performing local, remote, or clustered server upgrades on Windows systems
    4.  
      Performing silent upgrades on Windows systems
    5.  
      Upgrading UNIX/Linux server software to NetBackup 8.1.2
    6.  
      Post-install procedure for upgrading to NetBackup 8.1.2
    7.  
      About NetBackup startup and shutdown scripts
    8.  
      Completing your system update after an upgrade
  4. Media server upgrade
    1.  
      Upgrading NetBackup media servers to NetBackup 8.1.2
  5. MSDP upgrade for NetBackup
    1.  
      MSDP upgrade considerations for NetBackup 8.1
    2.  
      About MSDP rolling data conversion
    3.  
      About MSDP fingerprinting algorithm changes
  6. NetBackup Deployment Management with VxUpdate
    1.  
      About VxUpdate
    2.  
      Commands used in VxUpdate
    3.  
      Repository management
    4.  
      Deployment policy management
    5.  
      Manually initiating upgrades from the master server using VxUpdate
    6.  
      Manually initiating upgrades from the client using VxUpdate
    7.  
      Deployment job status
  7. Appendix A. Reference
    1.  
      NetBackup master server web server user and group creation
    2.  
      Generate a certificate on the inactive nodes of a clustered master server
    3.  
      About the NetBackup Java Runtime Environment
    4. About the NetBackup web user interface
      1.  
        First-time sign in to a NetBackup master server from the NetBackup web UI
      2.  
        Sign out of the NetBackup web UI
    5.  
      About the NetBackup answer file
    6.  
      Update cloud configuration file on the master server immediately after install or upgrade to NetBackup 8.1.2
    7.  
      About NetBackup software availability
    8.  
      Additional post-upgrade steps for NetApp clusters
    9.  
      Using NetApp disk arrays with Replication Director
    10.  
      About compatibility between NetBackup versions
    11.  
      Installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux
    12.  
      Installation and upgrade requirements for Windows and Windows clusters
    13.  
      Requirements for Windows cluster installations and upgrades
    14.  
      Upgrading clients after servers are upgraded
    15.  
      Install and upgrade of the UNIX and Linux client binaries with native installers
    16.  
      Removing a clustered media server by migrating all data to a new media server
    17.  
      Disabling the connection between your NetBackup OpsCenter server and your NetBackup Master Server
    18.  
      Post upgrade procedures for Amazon cloud storage servers

Installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux

Table: NetBackup installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux describes the requirements to prepare your UNIX and Linux 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.

Note:

NetBackup version 8.1.2 does not support installation of a master or a media server on an HP-UX or AIX platform.

Table: NetBackup installation and upgrade requirements for UNIX and Linux

Check

Requirement

Details

 

Operating System

Memory

  • Master servers in a production environment with several database agents enabled should have a minimum of 16 GB of memory and four cores each.

  • Media servers in a production environment with several database agents enabled should have a minimum of 4 GB of memory each.

 

Disk space

  • The exact amount of space that is required depends on the hardware platform. More information about this topic is available.

    NetBackup Release Notes for 8.1.2

    http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332

  • 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.

If space is an issue, you can install NetBackup on an alternate file system. The installation lets you select an alternate install location, and creates the appropriate link from /usr/openv.

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

  • Ensure that the gzip and the gunzip commands are installed on the local system. The directories where these commands are installed must be part of the root user's path environment variable setting.

  • All NetBackup installation ESD images, appropriate licenses, and the root password for all servers.

  • A server of a supported hardware type that runs a supported version of its operating system (with applicable patches), adequate disk space, and supported peripherals. For details on these requirements, refer to the NetBackup Release Notes.

    http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332

  • All NetBackup servers must recognize and be recognizable by their client systems. In some environments, this means that each must be defined in the other's /etc/hosts file. Other environments may use the Network Information Service (NIS) or Domain Name Service (DNS).

  • The minimum screen resolution configuration is 1024x768, 256 colors.

Clustered systems

  • Ensure that each node in the NetBackup cluster can run the ssh command or its equivalent. The root user must be able to perform a remote logon to each node in the cluster without entering a password. This remote logon is necessary for installation and configuration of the NetBackup server and any NetBackup agents and options. After installation and configuration are complete, it is no longer required.

  • You must install, configure, and start the cluster framework before you install NetBackup.

  • You must have defined a virtual name using DNS, NIS, or the /etc/hosts file. The IP address is defined at the same time. (The virtual name is a label for the IP address.)

  • Begin the upgrade from the active node, and then upgrade the inactive nodes.

More information about cluster requirements is available.

Veritas NetBackup Clustered Master Server Administrator's Guide

http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332

 

NFS compatibility

Veritas does not support installation of NetBackup in an NFS-mounted directory. File locking in NFS-mounted file systems can be unreliable.

 

Kernel reconfiguration

For some peripherals and platforms, kernel reconfiguration is required.

For more details, see the NetBackup Device Configuration Guide.

http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332

 

Red Hat Linux

For Red Hat Linux, NetBackup requires server networking.

 

Other backup software

Veritas recommends that you remove any other vendor backup software currently configured on your system before you install this product. Other vendor backup software 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). You must create these required account elements before installation. 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

By default, the UNIX installation script attempts to associate the web server with user account nbwebsvc and group account nbwebgrp. You can override these default values with the NetBackup installation answer file. You must populate the NetBackup installation answer file on the target host before you start the UNIX installation script. Populate the NetBackup installation answer file with custom web server account names as shown.

  1. Log in to the server as root.

  2. Open the file /tmp/NBInstallAnswer.conf with your preferred text editor. Create the file if it does not exist.

  3. Override the default web server user account name by adding the line shown:

    WEBSVC_USER=custom_user_account_name

  4. Override the default web server group account name by adding the line shown:

    WEBSVC_GROUP=custom_group_account_name

  5. Save and close the file.

 

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.