IHAC who currently has their Commserve on v11 SP13 and a number of other components on SP11. They are aware that some of their MediaAgents which are running Win 2k8 R2 are unsupported if they try to upgrade beyond SP11 but they are asking whether they can upgrade the Commserve and some of the other (supported) MediaAgents to a newer SP. Table attached shows components and versions. Please advise.
Hi
It is best practice to update the Commserve and maintain infrastructure clients at the same level.
As you mention, from SP12, support for existing Win 2008 R2 installations is discontinued, so these MAs should really be updated to an operating system and Commvault version within support: https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11_sp12/article?p=1479.htm.
To have MAs running different service pack versions in the same environment is not recommended. Especially not with the quantity differences between SP11 and later releases, bearing mind the latest Feature Release is now 22, representing nearly 3 years worth of updates and enhancements above SP11.
Please also be aware that the 5 most recent service packs, now termed Feature Releases are within support in addition to the Long Term Support releases, SP16 and FR20.
So, to bring the environment within support, I recommend SP16 at the least, which as an LTS release is supported until June 2024:
https://ma.commvault.com/ESD?fv=11.0
Thanks,
Stuart
To date, I’ve kept all Windows 2008 R2 environments at or below SP 11 FR20
In one case, going to FR20 on the media agents caused ‘issues’ - but these Media agents were performing IntelliSnap, 3DNFS, Cross Mount Path Sharing, between media agents etc
The issues were solved by adjusting CommVault Stream levels and concurrency levels that were passing through the media agents.
I had read somewhere that Windows 2008 to Windows 2012 has higher performant networking (IP Stack code) and the latest media agent code - not having to be compatible with Windows 2008 has taken advantage.
That would certainly explain my experience.
Though Overall - at FP20 (CommServe and Media agents), once past the niggles experienced is now running fine; though I will not be progressing beyond FP20 until the Operating System upgrade/replacements take place
https://commvault-eu.insided.com/technical-q-a-2/using-server-2008r2-as-a-media-agent-after-fr22-3-update-216
I had read somewhere that Windows 2008 to Windows 2012 has higher performant networking (IP Stack code) and the latest media agent code - not having to be compatible with Windows 2008 has taken advantage.
That would certainly explain my experience.
Though Overall - at FP20 (CommServe and Media agents), once past the niggles experienced is now running fine; though I will not be progressing beyond FP20 until the Operating System upgrade/replacements take place
Absolutely - socket networking in 2012+ is way more efficient especially for larger commcells. There was also a feature added called “fast TCP loopback” which improves latency and bandwidth for executables talking to each other over the loopback adapter (which Commvault does all day long!).
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