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Presented by
Brian Bruno - Subject Matter Expert with Customer Support
Webinar Recap
Keeping your CommCell environment current doesn't have to be a disruptive project. In this Readiverse Academy Tech Talk, Brian Bruno, Subject Matter Expert with Customer Support, shared a practical approach to making upgrades a routine part of operations rather than a reactive effort. The session emphasized the value of staying current with both feature and maintenance releases to improve security, supportability, and overall system health.
A key takeaway was the importance of establishing a repeatable upgrade process. Brian outlined a five-stage framework: Inventory, Target, Stage, Execute, and Validate. He also discussed choosing the right release strategy, with Long-Term Support (LTS) releases recommended for most production environments due to their stability and predictable maintenance schedule, while Innovation releases are better suited for organizations that need rapid access to new capabilities. Through a live demonstration, attendees saw how proper planning, software staging, server groups, and post-upgrade validation can significantly reduce risk and downtime.
Ultimately, successful upgrades are driven more by preparation and operational discipline than by the installation itself. Organizations that maintain a regular maintenance release cadence, validate each deployment phase, and keep clear documentation can transform upgrades from high-risk projects into predictable, repeatable maintenance activities.
Questions from the Community
As with many Readiverse Academy sessions, attendees brought insightful questions based on their real-world upgrade experiences. Here are some highlights from the discussion.
Where can I find the Software Cache in older releases such as 11.36?
For environments running version 11.36, the Software Cache can be found under Manage > System > Maintenance. While the navigation experience differs from more recent releases, the functionality remains available for managing upgrade content and maintenance releases.
How does Commvault test LTS releases before customers deploy them?
Attendees asked about testing processes for Long-Term Support releases, particularly around advanced capabilities such as IntelliSnap, synthetic full backups, and WORM-enabled storage environments.
According to Brian Bruno, Commvault uses extensive lab environments that reflect a wide range of customer workloads. Testing combines hands-on validation with scripted test cases. Given the breadth of supported platforms and integrations, unique customer scenarios can occasionally uncover issues that were not encountered during testing, which is why customer feedback and Support engagement remain important parts of the release lifecycle.
What challenges exist when upgrading isolated or dark-site environments?
One participant noted that downloading and importing software into disconnected environments is often the most challenging part of the upgrade process.
This aligns directly with the live demonstration covered during the Tech Talk, which showed how organizations can download maintenance kits externally and import them into software caches for deployment inside network-isolated environments. Proper planning and software staging play a critical role in making these upgrades successful.
How can organizations achieve near-zero downtime during upgrades?
A common question for enterprise administrators is minimizing operational impact during maintenance windows.
Brian Bruno explained that the closest approach to near-zero downtime is deploying CommServe LiveSync and using a Production Maintenance failover. During this process, a standby CommServe can be brought online in a read-only state, allowing restore operations to continue while the active CommServe is upgraded. Although backup operations remain unavailable during the upgrade, critical restore requests can still be fulfilled when needed.
