Veritas NetBackup™ Upgrade Guide

How to plan for an upgrade to NetBackup 9.1

Several factors must be considered when you prepare for an upgrade to NetBackup 9.1.

New to NetBackup 9.1, you can start most of the NetBackup daemons and services as a non-root user. Veritas recommends that you start the NetBackup services as a non-root user. If you decide to use a less privileged user, you must plan accordingly. Ensure that the user account has access to the paths of disaster recovery files, external certificate authority (ECA) files, and temporary files.

On UNIX and Linux, you see a new prompt during the upgrade. The new prompt asks you to provide a service user, preferably a non-root user. You must create this user in advance and the user must have nbwebgrp as the secondary group.

On Windows, you can use the Local Service built-in account as the service account. This option is available in the Custom upgrade path.

The NetBackup 8.1 upgrade includes a rolling conversion of the Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP).

By default, the rolling conversion is performed when the system is not busy. In other words, the conversion runs when backups, restores, CRQP, CRC checks, compaction, etc. are not active. This conversion is not expected to affect normal system operations. After the rolling conversion is finished, there is no difference between the converted system and a new installation. More information about the rolling conversion is available.

See MSDP upgrade considerations for NetBackup 8.1.

See About MSDP rolling data conversion.

If you plan to use role-based access control (RBAC), you must designate a security administrator. More information is available:

See About the NetBackup web user interface.

See NetBackup Web UI Administrator's Guide.

Beginning with NetBackup 8.0, the NetBackup primary server includes a configured Tomcat web server to support critical backup operations. This web server operates under user account elements with limited privileges. These user account elements must be available on each primary server (or each node of a clustered primary server). More information is available:

See NetBackup master server web server user and group creation.

Upgrades of NetBackup 8.2 UNIX clusters with NAT enabled incorrectly identify the NAT state. As a result, NAT is disabled after the upgrade to 9.1. After you complete the NetBackup 9.1 upgrade, you must turn NAT on again. More information is included in the post-upgrade procedure.

See Post-install procedure for upgrading to NetBackup 9.1.

It is not supported the installation or upgrade of the NetBackup database on a btrfs file system. If the NetBackup database resides on a btrfs file system, move the database to a supported file system (such as ext4 or xfs) before you start the upgrade. The database files reside on the primary server in the directories under /usr/openv/db. More information about moving the database before an upgrade is available. See Preinstall procedure for upgrading to NetBackup 9.1.

Starting with NetBackup 8.3, the Java GUI and the JRE packages are optional for UNIX, Linux, and Windows media servers and UNIX and Linux clients.

As with previous releases, the Java GUI and JRE packages are installed automatically on all primary servers because they are required. The Java GUI and the JRE are not part of the default installation on Windows clients. Install the Java Remote Administration Console if you require this functionality on your Windows clients.

The various NetBackup upgrade methods allow the user the choice to upgrade or uninstall the Java GUI and JRE packages. More information about installing or removing the Java GUI and the JRE after upgrade is available.

See Add or Remove Java GUI and JRE after upgrade.

NetBackup uses security certificates to authenticate NetBackup hosts for secure communication. The security certificates conform to the X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) standard. A NetBackup primary server acts as the certificate authority (CA) and issues digital certificates to hosts. NetBackup now supports the following certificate key sizes: 2048 bits, 4096 bits, 8192 bits, and 16384 bits.

With a NetBackup 9.1 upgrade, new root CA with 2048 bit key strength is deployed. To use a certificate key size larger than 2048 bits, set the NB_KEYSIZE environment variable on the primary server before you start the installation.

For example:

NB_KEYSIZE = 4096

The NB_KEYSIZE can only have the following values: 2048, 4096, 8192, and 16384.

For more information about CA migration and certificate key sizes, see the NetBackup Security and Encryption Guide.

Table: Overview of the upgrade process shows the overview of the upgrade procedure.