2.1 Before You Upgrade PlateSpin Protect

Before you upgrade the PlateSpin Server software to PlateSpin Protect 11.3, ensure that you prepare your PlateSpin Servers and workload environments to meet prerequisites in Table 2-1:

Table 2-1 Checklist for Preparing to Upgrade PlateSpin Protect

Status

Prerequisite Task

Notes

  1. Pause the replication schedules for all protected workloads, and ensure that no replications are running.

See Pausing the Replication Schedule.

  1. Make a record of any customized PlateSpin Configuration (.config) parameters that control the server’s default behavior. You will need to restore these settings after the upgrade.

  1. Back up your PlateSpin database files.

See Backing Up Your Database Files.

  1. Back up your custom Linux blkwatch drivers. You will need to upload these drivers again after the upgrade.

See Backing Up Your Custom Linux blkwatch Drivers Before Upgrade.

  1. Log out of the Web Interface and close the browser.

You should not attempt to manage protection workloads during the upgrade.

  1. Ensure that your PlateSpin Server host meets the requirements for the upgrade version.

See Table 1-1, PlateSpin Server Host Requirements.

  1. Install any newly required prerequisite software, such as Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2.

See Software Prerequisites.

See .NET Framework 4.5.2.

  1. Ensure that your VM containers are running a supported version of VMware and that you have a paid license for them.

See Supported VM Containers in the PlateSpin Protect User Guide.

  1. Disable the User Account Control (UAC) on the PlateSpin Server host.

See UAC.

  1. Ensure that the person performing the upgrade has sufficient administrative rights for the PlateSpin Server host and the database server in order to update the software and the database schema.

See Credentials.

NOTE:If you select Windows Authentication during the upgrade, the credentials of the logged-in user are automatically populated for the Database Administrator.

  1. Download the PlateSpinProtectSetup-11.3.0.xxx.exe file and copy it to the PlateSpin Server host.

See Starting the Installation Launcher.

2.1.1 Pausing the Replication Schedule

Before you attempt to upgrade PlateSpin Protect, use the following procedure to pause the replication schedules for the workloads protected by the PlateSpin Server and ensure that there are no running replications. You can wait for the in-progress replications to complete gracefully, or abort them.

  1. From the PlateSpin Protect Web Interface, click Workloads.

  2. On the Workloads page, click Select All, click Pause Schedule, and then click Execute to initiate a pause for all scheduled replications.

  3. On the Workloads page, ensure that the Schedule state of protected workloads is Paused.

  4. On the Workloads page, ensure that the Replication Status of each of the protected workloads is Idle. Wait for any replications that are underway to complete, or abort the running operations.

    If you do not perform this task before the upgrade, the upgrade software will automatically detect the running jobs before it executes the software upgrade, and will prompt you to perform the task before you continue. You can proceed with the upgrade process only when each workload’s Replication Status is Idle.

2.1.2 Backing Up Your Database Files

Use the following procedure to manually back up the Microsoft SQL Server database file that resides on the same server as PlateSpin Protect. You can use the backup file if you need to roll back.

  1. On your server host, stop Microsoft SQL services:

    1. On the Start menu, click Run, type services.msc, then click OK.

    2. In the Services window, right-click the SQL Server items, then select Stop.

  2. Copy all *.mdf and *.ldf files to a location outside the product installation directory. The default location of these files is:

    \Program Files\PlateSpin Protect Server\Database

  3. Restart MS SQL services that you stopped in Step 1.

NOTE:This procedure assumes that your Protect database is installed on the same server with your PlateSpin Protect Server. Steps for backing up an external SQL server are similar, although the paths to the *.mdf and *.ldf files are specific to your SQL server.

2.1.3 Backing Up Your Custom Linux blkwatch Drivers Before Upgrade

During the upgrade, the PlateSpin Protect installation program will overwrite custom Linux blkwatch drivers that you previously added to PlateSpin Protect. Consider saving a copy of your custom Linux blkwatch drivers prior to the upgrade.

  1. Log in to the PlateSpin Server host machine as the Administrator user.

  2. Navigate to the PlateSpin application's installation directory, such as C:\Program Files\PlateSpin Protect Server\.

  3. Open the .\Packages\9D470BFF-E30F-4015-83D8-4D308A8C8B1B\ folder and copy the 1.package file out of this folder to a temporary directory.

  4. Rename 1.package with the .zip file extension (1.zip), then extract the contents of the file to this temporary directory.

  5. Save your CustomKernel* content to another temporary location.

Proceed with the upgrade, as detailed in Upgrade Procedure.

After the upgrade, you should upload again any custom Linux blkwatch drivers you need for future migrations. See KB Article 7005873.