To ensure data protection and backup with Commvault, it is important to systematically perform updates across the entire infrastructure. But specifically, what needs to be done? What tasks are necessary to check and carry out everything?

First of all, it is important to make a distinction: There are major versions (platform releases) and minor versions (maintenance releases). As can be seen, the former concern important and big updates (e.g., version 11.42), while the latter are minor updates to fix bugs (e.g., 11.42.29). Major releases tend to come out every six months or so, while minor releases come out every month.

Let's now look at how to proceed with this activity and what the key steps are:

<<<<<STEP 1 - PLANNING

-To perform the upgrade, you need to schedule a time window in which to carry out the entire process, because during the update, all backup and recovery operations must be stopped. For how long? It depends on several factors, one of which is the size of the infrastructure.

-At this stage, it is also recommended to check the hardware and OS prerequisites for the new version in the official Commvault documentation to ensure that there are no compatibility issues or other problems

-Download the complete Commvault package from cloud.commvault, which we will install on Commserve. With this package, we will manually update Commserve from the server itself. As for the other entities (Media Agent, Client, etc.), we will use the "push install" option from the console (which uses the packages contained in the software cache).

PS: For Major upgrade, it is recommended to update Media Agents directly locally, as done for Commserve.

<<<<<STEP 2 - PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS

We can now proceed with some preliminary checks and operations, specifically:

-Perform DR Backup: https://documentation.commvault.com/v11/software/performing_disaster_recovery_dr_backup.html

This is to enable recovery of the CSDB (Commserve Database) and therefore Commserve operations in case of problems during and after the update.

-Check that all the updated installation packages are present in the software cache. As mentioned above, this will be necessary in order to update the various entities that make up the infrastructure.

<<<<<STEP 3 - UPGRADE

We can now proceed with the upgrade, specifically:

-Suspend or kill any jobs currently running on the job controller. -Disable the scheduler to prevent further operations from starting. -Run the installation package on the Commserve server. A wizard will start to guide you through the upgrade process. -Once the update on Commserve is complete, We can proceed with updating the Media Agents. To do so, it is recommended to create an ad hoc package with the correct roles (Media Agent specifically) and perform the update directly on the server (remembering, before performing the upgrade, to put the Media Agent into maintenance mode directly from the CV console). https://documentation.commvault.com/v11/software/putting_mediaagent_into_maintenance_mode.html

we can reopen the Java Commvault console and run the updates for the media agent(s) and all the various clients from there(with push install). -Finally, verify from the Commvault console that all entities are updated to the new version.

<<<<<STEP 4 - Post check and Backup DR

Once the upgrade is complete, it is necessary to reactivate the scheduler and operations on Commvault, performing at least one backup and one restore test if possible. We perform the DR backup again to have a backup of the CSDB after the update, in case it is needed.

I hope this brief guide has been clear. Obviously, we haven't gone into detail about the software and backup technologies, but we will explore these topics in future articles.

Thank you for your attention.