NBU6 Maintenance Packs / Automatic Patching

[Colin_North]

Hi Guys,
I haven't yet upgraded to NBU6 but went on the Symantec training course a couple of months ago. On the course they never mentioned automatic patch management for NBU6. Does anyone know if there are any plans to include a live update feature or something similar to SUS/WSUS at some stage in the future as this is now a Symantec product?

As I mentioned I haven't yet upgraded to NBU6 from NBU5 MP4 as I keep hearing views from people who have had issues following their upgrades, and they say to wait until NBU6 MP3 or even MP6 (which surely won't be released until the end of this year?). Does anyone have any views on this?

Thanks in advance, Colin.

[Deepak_Bhalwank]

HI,
I do not think it is desirable to introduce the automatic update feature in NetBackup.
The Maintenance Pack actually replaces the binary files which requires stopping services
and I guess it is not suitable to critical application like Netbackup. Some fixes like VSP
ones may need reboots.


Br,
Deepak.

[Stumpr2]

I guess it could be done on those windoes boxes. Not much to downloading, self extracting and running.
Problem is that sometimes the READMEs contain extra configuration that needs to be done in order to use the patch correctly. Also OS patches are sometimes required.
I guess the biggest gotch is that VERITAS use to sneak in new untested features in the patches that have caused a whole lot of people grief.

[AKopel]

I think this would be a good idea AS LONG AS I control the deployment of the MP's/Patches.
I have found myself wanting to deploy Maintenance Packs in mass to clients after I have done the proper testing. I would not want them forced down directly from Symantec.
I also would probably still patch my master and media servers manually....

[Stumpr2]

Another gotcha is the api/db options also need to be patched and they are in a separate bundle.

[Deepak_Bhalwank]

Yes I want to say the same

[AKopel]

Separate bundle only for Unix/Linux. The windows client includes most options within the base client.

[Stumpr2]

I am corrected.
Good catch Aaron!

[Colin_North]

Thanks to everyone for their replies ref automatic patch management. I guess in the NBU world and remembering what NBU does it's better to sort this out manually.

But ref my other question - does anyone have any advice on when to upgrade to NBU6? E.g. wait for MP3 or wait even longer? I'd appreciate some experienced views.

Colin.

[Stumpr2]

wait for MP3 to be out at least 1 month, then upgrade to 6.0 and immediately upgrade to MP3 before doing any backups.

[AKopel]

See This:
http://forums.veritas.com/discussions/thread.jspa?threadID=64549&tstart=50

and This:
http://forums.veritas.com/discussions/thread.jspa?threadID=62834&tstart=25

Like Bob said, bottom line, wait at least until MP3.

[Colin_North]

Bob,
Thanks for the info - my plan was to upgrade in the following order:

1) Upgrade my live Master Server to 6.0 and MP3
2) Upgrade my live Media Server to 6.0 and MP3
3) Upgrade a few test servers to 6.0 and MP3
4) Over a week or so monitor the results of upgrade
5) If OK then upgrade the rest of my test servers
6) Upgrade my production servers

[Stumpr2]

Please be sure to read all of the following:

VERITAS NetBackup (tm) 6.0 Release Notes for UNIX and Windows
http://support.veritas.com/docs/279259

VERITAS NetBackup (tm) 6.0 Release Impact Bulletin
http://support.veritas.com/docs/278132

VERITAS NetBackup (tm) 6.0 Release Notes Known Issues Documentation
http://support.veritas.com/docs/278130

This is the first release that I have seen from VERITAS Software that requires 3 release notes publications! YIKES!!!!

[Stumpr2]

Oh...one more thing.


Be sure to read the MP3 README when it comes out. No need to read MP2 and MP1 as their contents should be included in the MP3 as patches are cumulative.

[AKopel]

Another good idea (which worked nice for us):
Call symantec support:
Tell them you are planning to upgrade to 6.0 and that you want someone to give you some guidelines.
They will set you up with someone who will walk you through some gothas and checking some basic parameters of your current setup to make sure the upgrade will go smoothly. It worked well for us and they caught some things that may have been a problem had we not called.

[Colin_North]

Bob,
Thanks for the links, I'll have a read through those docs.

Colin.