Upgrading Remote Agents (RALUS and RAWS)

[mkmaster78]

I have a general question involving agent upgrades that I have yet to find a definitive answer for.  I recently upgraded my server from Backup Exec 2010 to 2010 R3 and need to upgrade the agents on Windows and Linux servers.  My question is this, does upgrading the agents (the Windows ones use AOFO) require a reboot of the servers? If so, is it the RALUS, RAWS, or both that do?  I would appreciate any help or advice anyone can offer on this.

Thank you.

[AmolB · Accepted solution]

Reboot is not required after upgrading RALUS.

For Window a reboot is required if you are installing AOFO along with the remote agent.

After installation you will get a prompt to reboot the server, if there is no prompt then no need to 

reboot.

[mkmaster78]

Will a reboot be required on AOFO agents if it already has a previous AOFO installed?  Or does that not matter and all AOFO agent installs/upgrades require reboot?

[AmolB]

All AOFO agent install requires reboot. Its not a forcefull reboot you may delay it, backups will still work.

[mkmaster78]

Thank you for your help, I appreciate it.

[Nick_Elmer]

Just wanted to add a few comments about reboots and AOFO. Hope this helps.

AOFO is only installed on a few platforms with Backup Exec 2010. Primarily Windows XP, and Windows 2000. If you install on either of these platforms, and select to install "AOFO", then a reboot will probably be required. This is because the AOFO option lays down a filter driver, and that filter driver only gets loaded during OS startup. Therefore, it usually requires a reboot.

In addition, if your system does not already have .NET 2.0 or MSXML installed, then a reboot may also be required. The reboot will be determined at install time by the .NET and MSXML installers. If they cannot replace files (because they are in use), then a reboot will be required. The RAWS installer will give you a prompt if a reboot is required, and you can do it immediately, or you can postpone it to a later point in time.

We do our best to minimize reboots in the install. However, there are some conditions we cannot avoid.

Hope this helps.
Nick

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