Planning Platform Release Installations

For a successful installation, perform the following preparation tasks before you install the platform release (formerly "feature release").

To keep your CommCell environment up to date, we recommend the following:

• Update the platform release every 1 to 2 years.

• Update the maintenance release every 2 to 3 months.

Remember the Installation Sequence

When you install a new platform release version in your CommCell environment, the platform release must be installed in the following sequence:

1. CommServe computer

2. MediaAgents

3. Client computers

Review Space Requirements

The following table outlines the space requirement for installing the platform release on a computer that has the File System Agent, MediaAgent, or other packages.

For each additional package that you install on a File System Agent or MediaAgent computer, you will need an additional 500 MB of disk space. The above-mentioned space requirement will vary based on the size of the installation media and the platform release version that is installed on the computer.

Review Considerations for the CommServe Computer

• Verify that your environment meets the system requirements for the CommServe server for the new platform release. For more information, see CommServe Server System Requirements.

• During the platform release installation on the CommServe computer, services are stopped and the CommCell Console is closed. Therefore, install the platform release at a time when you are not running jobs in your CommCell environment. You can wait for the jobs to finish, or you can terminate them.

• If the CommServe computer is a standby CommServe host, see Installing Platform Releases On High Availability CommServe Hosts.

• If the CommServe computer is in a cluster environment, consider the following requirements:

  • The platform release must be installed on the active node of the cluster. During the installation on the active node, the installation program will provide options to update the passive nodes.

  • The platform release must be installed on physical nodes. Installations on virtual nodes are not supported.

  • For the platform release to be installed on passive nodes automatically, make sure that the installation media is located in a network share that is accessible by all cluster nodes. Access to the network share from the passive nodes must be already authenticated so that it does not prompt the installer for user credentials.

Review Considerations for Standalone CommCell Console

The CommCell Console that is installed on the CommServe computer is updated along with the CommServe software.

If you installed the CommCell Console on additional clients, see Installing the Platform Release on a Standalone CommCell Console.

Review Considerations for the MediaAgent and Client Computers

• Detect Deduplication Databases in Transactional Mode

  When you upgrade the MediaAgent from 11.24 and older feature releases, the software runs a pre-upgrade check to detect any deduplication databases in transactional mode and instructs you to convert the deduplication databases to non-transactional mode manually, before proceeding with the upgrade operation. For more information, see Converting a Transactional Deduplication Database to a Non-Transactional Deduplication Database.

• Outlook Add-In with ContentStore Email Viewer

  If you changed the display name of the ContentStore, you must rerun the name change command. You can use the Search Admin page or CVPConfigurationTool to make the change. For information on the Search Admin page, see Managing Configuration Commands for ContentStore Email Viewer Clients from the Search Admin Page. For information on CVPConfigurationTool, see Using CVPConfigurationTool from the Command Line.

• Determine the clients that you want to update

  For optimal and reliable performance in your CommCell environment, we recommend that the CommServe computer, the MediaAgents, and clients operate at the same platform release level.

  You can choose not to update all MediaAgents and clients. However, you will not benefit from software enhancements and new features.

  To view the platform release version of all clients in your CommCell environment, see Viewing the Platform Release Details for One or More Clients.

• Discover the SAP HANA tenant databases in a multitenant database container configuration

  Beginning in SP7, you can perform backup and restore operations on multitenant database containers from the CommCell Console.

  When you upgrade the SAP HANA client to SP7, or you upgrade the CommServe computer, and the SAP HANA client to SP7, after the upgrade, refresh the SAP HANA instance properties, and then discover the tenant databases.

  To refresh the SAP HANA instance, see Refreshing the SAP HANA Instance Properties After an Upgrade.

  To discover tenant databases, see Manually Discovering SAP HANA Databases.

• Prepare block-level clients for restart after platform release installations

  If you have block-level clients, you must restart the clients after installing the platform release only if the driver was updated. Therefore, plan the installation for a time when you can restart the block-level clients.

  After you restart the clients, native snapshots are deleted, which causes backup copy jobs to fail. To resolve this issue, see Knowledge Base article WFS0016: Native Snapshots are Deleted after the Restart of the Client Computer.

• Review considerations for cluster environments

  The platform release must be installed on the physical nodes of the cluster. Installations on virtual nodes are not supported.

• Verify the platform release version installed on the CommServe computer

  When you install a new platform release version, make sure that it is already installed on the CommServe computer, unless you plan to install the platform release on the CommServe computer and clients at the same time by using the CommCell Console.

• Migrate the SAP Archive Link repository to ObjectStore

  SAP Archive Link clients with SP7 or later platform releases use the Commvault ObjectStore as the storage repository to store and manage the backup data. Agents prior to SP7 use a combination of the UNIX file system backups with the index maintained in a PostgreSQL database.

  To apply the latest platform release on clients with SP6 or earlier releases, you must first migrate the contents and index that was stored in the old repository (PostgreSQL database) to the ObjectStore.

  To migrate the SAP Archive repository, contact Customer Support.

• Stop the DB2 services on HP UNIX and Windows clients before you start the platform release installation

  We recommend that you stop the DB2 services before you start the Commvault platform release installation so that there are no errors when you install the platform release.

• Recycle DB2 services on UNIX clients after the platform release installation completes

  Recycle the DB2 services on UNIX clients so that the DB2 log manager uses the new Commvault VENDOR library and that log archives are successful.

  This will prevent the following error from occurring during an online full backup job.

  SQL2428N The BACKUP did not complete because one or more of the requested log files could not be retrieved

• Salesforce cloud connector considerations

  The software supports Java 10 (JRE 10.0.2) or greater as part of the Cloud Apps package. Verify that the Linux platform that you use for Salesforce supports this Java version. For more information, see Salesforce: System Requirements.

Review Considerations for the Private Metrics Reporting Server

The Metrics Reporting Server must be at the same software version or later than a CommServe computer that uploads data to the Metrics Reporting Server. For example, you cannot enable a V11 CommServe computer to upload report data to a V10 Metrics Reporting Server.