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DPeaco
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10 years ago
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Netbackup Silent Upgrade ?

I have Linux NBU appliances that are my master backup servers and my media servers. I help support backups for over 4,000 servers with a good mix of AIX, RedHat Linux, and Windows. I'm working a project now to get all the backup clients upgraded to at least version 7.6.1.1

I've automated the upgrade of the Linux boxes and I've done all the masters (86 of them) and all the media servers (36 of them) and now I'm going through the list of backup clients.

I've come to the Windows clients and I'm wanting to know how to upgrade all my windows boxes (32-bit & 64-bit) as well as Windows server 2008 & 2012 with many of the old 32-bit boxes being Windows 2003. What is my best way to upgrade various clients to 7.6x? I have about 1,200 of them to do and they span 6.5x to 7.5x and I am to bring them all up to 7.6x if possible. I am NOT a Windows admin but I'm working to get access to the windows boxes to perform the upgrades.

I'm just looking for advice and pointers at this point in time.

Thanks, Dennis

  • I would recommend LiveUpdate which should involve the least effort for the most success.  If you need ports open across firewall, then you might be able to persuade your security team to open a handful of ports for a few hours at at time across different subnets.  However, if you cannot open the ports required, then you may be able to use the Windows installer itself to push an install to several svers at once, but this could become quite time consuming.  Or perhaps you have  packaging team who can push out via an AD group, or maybe an SCOM team could paxkage and push.  Whichever way will very likely involve ports bing opened, so my advice is to stick with LiveUpdate... your task is exactly what LU is for.

  • I would recommend LiveUpdate which should involve the least effort for the most success.  If you need ports open across firewall, then you might be able to persuade your security team to open a handful of ports for a few hours at at time across different subnets.  However, if you cannot open the ports required, then you may be able to use the Windows installer itself to push an install to several svers at once, but this could become quite time consuming.  Or perhaps you have  packaging team who can push out via an AD group, or maybe an SCOM team could paxkage and push.  Whichever way will very likely involve ports bing opened, so my advice is to stick with LiveUpdate... your task is exactly what LU is for.

  • Does LU require a seperate license key? I am running NBU Enterprise servers/media servers.

  • No separate license key for LU. Simply follow steps in LU manual to download LU files and setup LU server.
  • Hi,

    Try this from Netbackup installation guide 7.6

    Installing NetBackup Windows clients silently
    A silent installation process does not require interactive input. It does, however, require that you edit the silentclient.cmd file before you run it.
    ***Silent installations of NetBackup clients are not supported if you want to run the NetBackup services as a user instead of a local administrator.

    Use the following procedure to perform a silent installation of a local NetBackup
    client.
    To perform a silent installation of NetBackup client software on Windows
    1 Insert the NetBackup installation DVD in the drive or navigate to the location
    where the ESD images (downloaded files) reside.
    2 In a Microsoft Windows Explorer window, navigate to the DVD drive.
    3 Copy the contents of the one of the following directories to a temporary folder
    on your hard drive. For example, C:\temp.
    ■ PC_Clnt\x86
    ■ PC_Clnt\x64
    4 Since the original source files are read-only, change the permissions for the
    copied files on the hard drive to allow the update.
    5 In the temporary directory, use a text editor to edit the silentclient.cmd file
    so the script installs the client software as needed.
    6 Run the silentclient.cmd script.
    7 To verify that the installation was successful, check the installation log file in
    the following directory:
    %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Symantec\NetBackup\InstallLogs

    Referece

    https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.DOC6447

     

  • @shaf - I'm not sure about that process... what you've posted would have to be done at least 1200 times, but probably becomes more like 2400 actions to run 1200 silent client base install followed by 1200 silent client patch install.  Yes, the silent client scripts could be adapted - but the OP still needs a method to somehow automate the action of running those scripts on 1200 clients across many NetBackup domains.  So, how can the OP automate across multiple NetBackup domains, and probablt multiple DNS domains, or more likely lots and lots of small client based private firewalled subnets and hosts files entris for all clients with a separate backup network?

  • I have seen the silentinstall.cmd used in combination with software deployment system like Altiris and System Center Config Manager for distrubited install/upgrade of clients on WIndows. With 1200 Windows machines I would assume your Windows department have some kind of software deployment tools.