Managing updates

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An IBM Storage® Protect Plus environment includes the IBM Storage Protect Plus server and optionally one or more vSnap servers and VADP proxies. To help ensure that IBM Storage Protect Plus operates normally, all components in the environment must be at the same version level. Review the instructions to carefully plan and complete the update process.

Before you begin

Important: Ensure that all vSnap servers are updated before you begin the IBM Storage Protect Plus server update to a newer version.

Complete the following steps:

1. Plan a maintenance and verification period for the update process. You can estimate the required time based on the number of components in the environment that must be updated.

The process of upgrading an IBM Storage Protect Plus environment depends on the number of components in the environment and network speeds of the locations involved. The following table contains the three IBM Storage Protect Plus components and the average time, in minutes, that it takes to apply the update and successfully restart the system.

Table 1. IBM Storage Protect Plus components and update times
Component Time to update Time to restart Total
IBM Storage Protect Plus server 25 20 45
vSnap server 30-40 10-15 40-55
VADP proxy server 15 Not required 15

2. Gather version information for the components in your environment and determine the version levels for the update process. Determine if the vSnap servers must be updated as part of the update process.

3. Adjust the start times of scheduled inventory or maintenance jobs so that they will run after the maintenance and verification period is concluded.

4. End any restore or reuse jobs, including object storage restore jobs. If necessary, schedule these jobs after the maintenance and verification period is completed.

5. Pause any remaining jobs so that they do not run during the maintenance and verification period.

About this task

The procedure is based on an example environment, which includes the following components:
  • 1 IBM Storage Protect Plus server
  • 4 vSnap servers, with all four servers having replication relationships
  • 2 VADP proxies co-installed with two of the vSnap servers
  • 1 stand-alone VADP proxy

In the following figure, the components are displayed at their respective sites, Location 1 and Location 2:

Upgrade scenario

Procedure

  1. To prepare the system environment for the update process, complete the following steps:
    1. In the navigation panel, click Manage Protection > Policy Overview and then click the Add SLA Policy button.
    2. In the New SLA Policy pane, enter a policy name and click the radio button that includes the word Catalog. Click Save.
    3. Select the Disable Schedule checkbox and specify an appropriate retention period. From the Target Site list, select the site that will contain the catalog backup.
    4. Optionally, specify other options for the backup job. Click Save.
    5. In the navigation panel, click Manage Protection > IBM Storage Protect Plus > Backup.
    6. In the SLA Policy pane, select the policy that you created. Click Save.
    7. The policy is displayed in the SLA Policy Status pane. If it does not appear automatically, click the refresh button.
    8. To initiate the catalog backup, click Actions and then click Start.
    9. Verify completion of the catalog backup job. In the navigation panel, click Jobs and Operations to verify that the catalog backup job was completed successfully.
    10. Pause all scheduled jobs. In the navigation panel, click Jobs and Operations and click the Schedule tab. Click Pause All Schedules. The status for all scheduled jobs will change to Held.
    11. To verify that no jobs are running, click the Running Jobs tab. If jobs are running, allow the jobs to complete processing.
  2. To prepare for updating vSnap servers, review the IBM Storage Protect Plus Blueprints at Blueprints. Each vSnap server in your environment must be updated to the same IBM Storage Protect Plus version level. To update the vSnap servers, complete the following steps:
    1. Follow the steps for updating the operating system for vSnap servers, as described in Updating the operating system for a virtual vSnap server.
      Important: You must rename the downloaded ISO file as described in the procedure and move the file to the /tmp directory on the vSnap server if you wish to update the operating system.
    2. Complete the steps for updating a vSnap server, as described in Updating a virtual vSnap server to RHEL 9.6.
      Tip: After you update a vSnap server, it can take 15 minutes longer than in previous versions to restart the vSnap server. For more information, see Technote 3531159.
  3. Update the IBM Storage Protect Plus server by completing the following steps:
    1. Optional: If the IBM Storage Protect Plus server is deployed virtually, take a snapshot of the appliance in the appropriate hypervisor interface.
    2. Update the IBM Storage Protect Plus server. Follow steps in the Updating the IBM Storage Protect Plus server topic. Do not release the schedule or any jobs that are held as indicated in the last two steps.
    3. Log back in to the IBM Storage Protect Plus server.
  4. Update VADP proxies. After you update the IBM Storage Protect Plus server, VADP proxies are updated automatically. However, the proxies might not be updated immediately. Depending on the number of proxies configured, it might take several minutes to an hour to update all proxies.

    To update the VADP proxies immediately, follow the steps in the Updating VADP proxies topic.

  5. Verify that all components were updated successfully by completing the following steps:
    1. Using the serveradmin account, log on to the IBM Storage Protect Plus administrative console. Follow the steps in Logging on to the administrative console.
    2. Click Product Information. In the table, verify that the following items have the same version level: spp-release, vsnap, vsnap-dist, vadp, and vadp-dist.
    3. Log out of the IBM Storage Protect Plus administrative console.
    4. Load the IBM Storage Protect Plus splash screen by opening a supported browser and entering the following URL: 
      https://hostname/

      where hostname is the IP address of the virtual machine where the application is deployed.

    5. Verify that the version and build on the splash screen match the spp-release that was displayed in the Product Information section of the administrative console.
    6. To verify that a maintenance job can be completed successfully in the updated environment, in the navigation panel, click Jobs and Operations > Schedule. Click the options icon options icon next to Maintenance Job and select Start. Monitor the job progress through the Jobs and Operations pane.
  6. Release scheduled jobs and, optionally, remove the snapshot. Complete the following steps:
    1. Release all schedules. In the navigation panel, click Jobs and Operations > Schedule. Click Release All Schedules.
    2. Optional: If you took a snapshot of the IBM Storage Protect Plus virtual appliance, you can delete the snapshot of the IBM Storage Protect Plus server by using the hypervisor interface. Follow the instructions in the hypervisor documentation.

What to do next

If necessary, restart any jobs that were stopped or paused during the maintenance and verification period.