Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale Installation and Configuration Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (3.1)
Platform: NetBackup Flex Scale OS
  1. Preparing for NetBackup Flex Scale deployment
    1.  
      Deployment overview
    2.  
      Deployment options
  2. Configuring NetBackup Flex Scale
    1.  
      Assigning a public IP address to network adapter eth1 of a node
    2.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale configuration methods
    3.  
      Configuring NetBackup Flex Scale using the setup wizard
    4. Configuring NetBackup Flex Scale using a configuration file
      1.  
        YML configuration file for NetBackup primary and media server deployment
      2.  
        YML configuration file for media server only deployment
  3. NetBackup Flex Scale upgrades and patch management
    1.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale upgrades and EEBs
    2.  
      About rolling upgrade
    3.  
      About parallel upgrade and supported upgrade paths
    4. About the pre-upgrade check
      1.  
        Error messages displayed during the pre-upgrade check
    5. Upgrading NetBackup Flex Scale
      1. Performing pre-upgrade tasks
        1.  
          Considerations for upgrade when disaster recovery is configured
      2.  
        Performing an upgrade using GUI
      3.  
        Post upgrade tasks
      4.  
        Performing an upgrade using REST APIs
    6.  
      Installing EEBs using GUI
    7.  
      Installing EEBs using REST APIs
    8.  
      Updating the firmware in NetBackup Flex Scale clusters
  4. Removing NetBackup Flex Scale
    1. About disk erasure
      1.  
        Configuring data erasure
      2.  
        Viewing the data erasure status
      3.  
        Aborting data erasure
    2.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale node factory reset
    3.  
      Performing a factory reset on a node
  5. Appendix A. Installing NetBackup Flex Scale using a downloaded ISO file
    1.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale software installation
    2.  
      Enabling remote IPMI connections
    3.  
      Setting up the RAID configuration on the nodes
    4.  
      Configuring the BIOS settings on the nodes
    5.  
      Downloading the product installer ISO
    6.  
      Mounting the ISO file on the nodes
    7.  
      Installing NetBackup Flex Scale using the ISO
    8.  
      Installing hardware vendor packages
    9.  
      Installing Emergency Engineering Binaries (EEBs)

Updating the firmware in NetBackup Flex Scale clusters

Use the hardware vendor tools to deploy and update the firmware of the cluster nodes. Before you begin the firmware upgrade process, ensure that all the nodes in the cluster are up. Veritas recommends that you install firmware packages that are downloaded from the Veritas website. Ensure that the firmware version of the appliance components is updated to the latest versions as listed as on the https://sort.veritas.com/acl website.

During the firmware upgrade, the node is restarted twice. The node is restarted using the media that contains the firmware update package and again after the upgrade is complete. All the infrastructure components in the cluster must have the same firmware version. When you upgrade the firmware, ensure that the node that you upgrade has joined the cluster and the data rebuild is complete.

Alerts are generated when any component has unsupported version installed. If the firmware version is older but ACL supported, an alert is not generated.

You can upgrade the firmware using the rolling or parallel method. In a rolling firmware upgrade, firmware on each node is upgraded successively. In a parallel firmware upgrade, firmware on all the nodes is upgraded simultaneously.

To upgrade the firmware using the rolling method:

  1. Use any one of the following options to log on to the NetBackup Flex Scale UI:

    • Use a user account with both Appliance Administrator and NetBackup Administrator role, or a user account with only an Appliance administrator role to log on to the NetBackup Flex Scale web interface https://ManagementServerIPorFQDN/webui where ManagementServerIPorFQDN is the public IP address or the FQDN that you specified for the NetBackup Flex Scale management server during the cluster configuration, and then in the left pane click Cluster Management > Infrastructure.

    • Use a user account with an Appliance Administrator role to log in to the NetBackup Flex Scale infrastructure management UI https://ManagementServerIPorFQDN:14161 where ManagementServerIPorFQDN is the public IP address or the FQDN that you specified for the NetBackup Flex Scale management server during the cluster configuration, and then in the left pane click Monitor > Infrastructure.

  2. Shut down the node for which you want to update the firmware. Click the Actions menu (vertical ellipsis) from the right side of the row in the UI and click Shutdown node.
  3. When prompted for confirmation, click Shutdown node.

    Wait for the shutdown process to complete.

    The task is shown completed in Recent activity.

  4. Log on to HPE-Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) remote console.
  5. In the left navigation pane click Remote Console & Media.
  6. Click HTML5 Integrated Remote Console.

    In the remote console, verify the host name of the node that you want to upgrade.

  7. Return to iLO remote console and upload the ISO file that you want to use to upgrade the node. In the console, multiple messages are displayed. Wait until no messages are displayed and the screen is blank. Select the firmware package, and then restart the node.

    To upload the file, click the Disk icon on the top of the screen, click CD/DVD > Local *.iso file and select the ISO file.

    Ensure that the media is uploaded successfully.

  8. Reboot the node. Click the iLO icon and click Power > Momentary press.
  9. From the Smart Update Firmware Boot Menu utility, click Automatic Firmware update mode.

    This option is selected by default if you don't select any option.

    Note the flashing firmware image in the iLO.

    During the upgrade, several components are upgraded. Several times, the GUI reports that the firmware update is complete but wait till all components are upgraded. At one point the iLO firmware is upgraded and you are logged out and you need to log in to the iLO again.

    You can monitor the progress in the remote console. Ignore the status in the main ILO screen. At a few points during the upgrade an option to reboot the node is shown. Do not reboot the node.

    Continue to monitor the progress in the remote console.

    It takes approximately 40 minutes to upgrade all the components. After the upgrade is complete, the remote console shows the logs momentarily before rebooting the node automatically.

  10. Verify the firmware version of the components is updated as per the ACL file. Click Firmware & OS Software tab > Firmware and review the firmware version of the components.

    After the firmware upgrade is complete, the node restarts automatically and rejoins the cluster. Wait for the data rebuilding to complete before you upgrade the firmware of another node in the cluster.

  11. If you don't plan to upgrade to 3.1 immediately, complete the following additional steps to update the ACL file after upgrading the firmware successfully. If you don't update the ACL file, alerts about version mismatch are generated and you will receive email notifications about the mismatched component versions. If you upgrade to 3.1, you can skip this step.

    • Update the acl_info.json file that maintains the firmware versions of each of the components:

      • Log in to one of the nodes using the eth1 IP address to access the node-level command-line interface. For example:

        ssh admin_user@eth1_ip

      • Enter the system software share open command to open an NFS share.

      • Mount the NFS share and copy the acl_info.json appliance compatibility file to the NFS mount path.

      • Enter the support acl update command to update the appliance compatibility list file that maintains the firmware versions of each of the components.

      • Enter the system software share close command to close the share.

    • Resolve the alerts:

      • In the NetBackup Flex Scale UI, navigate to Settings > Alerts management.

      • Next to the generated alerts, click Resolve.

To upgrade the firmware using the parallel method:

  1. To shut down all the nodes, log in to the cluster-level CLI by logging into the system using the console IP address with your credentials. For example, ssh admin_user@console_ip and then run the cluster shutdown all command.
  2. Log on to HPE-Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) remote console.
  3. In the left navigation pane click Remote Console & Media.
  4. Click HTML5 Integrated Remote Console.
  5. Return to iLO remote console and upload the ISO file that you want to use to upgrade the node. In the console, multiple messages are displayed. Wait until no messages are displayed and the screen is blank. Select the firmware package, and then restart the node.

    To upload the file, click the Disk icon on the top of the screen, click CD/DVD > Local *.iso file and select the ISO file.

    Note:

    A separate mount point for the firmware package is required for each node. For example, for a four-node cluster, create four different mount points and attach the firmware package separately.

    Ensure that the media is uploaded successfully.

  6. Reboot the node. Click the iLO icon and click Power > Momentary press.
  7. From the Smart Update Firmware Boot Menu utility, click Automatic Firmware update mode.

    This option is selected by default if you don't select any option.

    Note the flashing firmware image in the iLO.

    During the upgrade, several components are upgraded. Several times, the GUI reports that the firmware update is complete but wait till all components are upgraded. At one point the iLO firmware is upgraded and you are logged out and you need to log in to the iLO again.

    You can monitor the progress in the remote console. Ignore the status in the main ILO screen. At a few points during the upgrade an option to reboot the node is shown. Do not reboot the node.

    Continue to monitor the progress in the remote console.

    It takes approximately 40 minutes to upgrade all the components. After the upgrade is complete, the remote console shows the logs momentarily before rebooting the node automatically.

  8. Verify the firmware version of the components is updated as per the ACL file. Click Firmware & OS Software tab > Firmware and review the firmware version of the components.

    After the firmware upgrade is complete, the node restarts automatically and rejoins the cluster.

  9. If you had installed the firmware package that was downloaded from the vendor site, you must complete the following additional steps after upgrading the firmware successfully:

    • Update the acl_info.json file that maintains the firmware versions of each of the components:

      • Log in to one of the nodes using the eth1 IP address to access the node-level command-line interface. For example:

        ssh admin_user@eth1_ip

      • Enter the system software share open command to open an NFS share.

      • Mount the NFS share and copy the acl_info.json appliance compatibility file to the NFS mount path.

      • Enter the support acl update command to update the appliance compatibility list file that maintains the firmware versions of each of the components.

      • Enter the system software share close command to close the share.

    • Resolve the alerts:

      • In the NetBackup Flex Scale UI, navigate to Settings > Alerts management.

      • Next to the generated alerts, click Resolve.