Upgrade Vshpere 4.0 to 4.1 - BE 2010 R2 or R3?

[virtualtechie1]

Hi Guys,

We plan to upgrade our exisitng virtual inf based on vmware to Vshpere5.

We are on 4.0 at the momement, we would like to get to 4.1, 4.1 update 1 and then eventually the new most awated version 5.

We are running BE 2010R2, according to backup exec Software compatibility list for 2010 r2 , we can only upgrade to vshpere 4.1 not vshpere 4.1 update 1 and above..

can someone please confirm if this is true and that i wont have to update any agents or anything for Be 2010 R2 on any of the servers?

it would also be good if someone could shed some light on how does the backup work for BE 2010 R2 for the vmware work through virtual center !

regards

virtual techie

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Yes. You would need BE 2010 R3 to backup vSphere 4.1 update 1.  See Note 4 on page 9 - 10 in the SCL under vSphere

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH137682

To backup vSphere 5, you would need BE 2010 R3 SP1.

You upgrade to BE 2010 R3. Your existing licence keys will work.  You can download BE 2010 R3 from either the fileconnect site or www.backupexec.com. After your upgrade, do not forget to run LiveUpdate to update it to SP1.

[virtualtechie1]

Hi PKH, thanks for the reply,

Can I update to 4.1 without R3 as at the moment we have 2010 R2 and not sure if we are eligible to upgrade .  I am checking that with my Vendor's today.

And when I upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1 (will I need to restart all my windows servers (vm's). ?

Regards

techie

[AmolB]

You can upgrade from R2 -> R3 with the same license key.

BE2010 license key works for R1, R2 and R3

[pkh]

BE 2010 R2 can support vSphere 4.1 WITHOUT Update 1.  If you put in Update 1, then you need to upgrade to BE 2010 R3 first.

You don't have to check with your vendor as to whether you can upgrade to BE 2010 R3.  Your existing keys will work with BE 2010 R3.

when I upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1 (will I need to restart all my windows servers (vm's). ?

This is a VMware question.

[ZeRoC00L]

And when I upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1 (will I need to restart all my windows servers (vm's). ?

This depends on your configuration, if you have multiple ESX hosts and have vmotion configured, you can vmotion the VMs to another host before updating one host.
After the update of one host you can vmotion the VMs back to the original host. You will receive a message that the vmware tools are out of data, but you can update them at a time that is conventient for you (for example during your normal maintenance windows).

[virtualtechie1]

Sorry my question should have been once I have upgraded to BE2010 R2 to R3, then.....

Do I need to restart the windows servers or ESX hosts? First time using BE 2010 for virtual servers backup,

Have been using Vranger and Veeam before.

Any insight into how BE2010 backups the Vmware Vshpere environment would be good too.

Thanks

[ZeRoC00L]

Esx hosts do not have Backup Exec software installed, so they don't have to be restarted.

The RAWS agent on the windows hosts need to be updated, not sure if that requires a reboot.

[CraigV]

...you'd use either RAWS to back up the flat-files, or the AVVI agent to backup the entire VM.

[ZeRoC00L]

correct, but an SQL/Exchange server does need to have the RAWS agent installed, even if you do a AVVI Agent backup.

[CraigV]

...I doubt I said that. Use RAWS if you just want to back up the files on the server (and not talking about application-based servers here that would need the requisite agent)...use AVVI if you want to back up the FULL VM...that's what I'd said.