New Features for Commvault HyperScale in Commvault Platform Release 2023E

Replace Metadata Drives on HyperScale X Nodes

When the metadata drives (NVME or SSD drives) on a HyperScale X node fail, you can replace them with new empty drives. You can configure the new drives to store the metadata for Distributed Storage and the Commvault metadata that is associated with the index cache and the deduplication database (DDB).

For more information, see Replacing Metadata Drives on HyperScale X Nodes

Enhancements for Installing Operating System Updates on HyperScale Nodes

The following enhancements were made to improve the performance when installing OS updates on the HyperScale nodes:

Simplified Process to Install Operating System Updates on HyperScale Nodes

You can install operating system updates on the HyperScale nodes using the existing Commvault software update installation process.

On HyperScale X nodes, the installation process installs the Commvault File System (CVFS) updates along with the OS updates.

Smart Server Groups for HyperScale X Storage Pool

When you upgrade the CommServe to Commvault platform release 2023E, a smart server group with all the HyperScale X nodes is created automatically. In new installations, the smart server group is created automatically when you configure the storage pool during the installation.

Non-Disruptive Installation of CVFS Updates

To ensure uninterrupted operations, Commvault File System (CVFS) updates can now be upgraded non-disruptively.

For more information, see the following links:

Improved Monitoring of HyperScale X Nodes

New Alerts to Monitor HyperScale X Hardware and Platform Health

The HyperScale software includes the following new alerts to monitor the hardware and platform health of all the nodes:

Commvault Appliance HyperScale Hardware Alert: Monitors the HyperScale X Appliance hardware components, such as data drives, power supplies, fans, and NICs (network interfaces). Alerts Commvault support when a hardware error or failure is detected.
RefArch HyperScale Hardware Alert: Monitors the hardware components, such as data drives, power supplies, fans, and NICs (network interfaces) in the HyperScale X Reference Architecture cluster. Alerts the local administrator when a hardware error or failure is detected. This alert does not send notifications to Commvault support.
HyperScale Platform Alert: Monitors the HyperScale configuration, and alerts when any issue is detected, such as CVFS service failure, disabled ransomware protection, or if consumption by the system mount points, data drives, or commit log partitions exceeds the threshold values. Alerts for ransomware protection are triggered only if ransomware was previously enabled and then disabled on the system.

For more information, see the following links:

Enhanced Dashboard to Monitor HyperScale X Cluster

The HyperScale dashboard in the Command Center is enhanced to provide a comprehensive view of the status of the software, security configurations. key hardware components, and cluster health.

Using the dashboard view, you can quickly determine the systems or nodes that need immediate attention and further drill-down to view detailed reports for the nodes in the cluster. You can further customize the report to filter the view by storage pool, node, and status to easily monitor the problem area.

For more information, see HyperScale Dashboard.

Add or Refresh a Node from Any Other Node in the Hyperscale Cluster

You can add a new node or refresh an existing node in a HyperScale cluster from any other node in the cluster because the RPMs that are required to perform the operation are available on all the nodes. Also, refreshing a node does not require any operations on that node.

Previously, adding or refreshing a node depended on the remote cache node, and several limitations existed, including the following:

In some cases, the most recent RPMs were not available on the remote cache node, so you had to download the RPMs.
You were required to upgrade the CVFS on all the nodes in the cluster.
Internet access was required to access the most recent RPMs.
To add or refresh a node, you had to upgrade all the nodes in the cluster.
Several manual operations were required to add or refresh a node.

For more information, see the following links: