Commvult upgrade across site from 11SP16 to 11SP24

@Chitra Saha , ideally you want the MAs and CS to be the same, though the only immediate issue is if the MAs are higher than the CS.

The clients can be updated as time allows.

With that said, I would try and update the MAs as quickly as possible after the CS, then address the clients as you can (but don’t take TOO long).

@Chitra Saha  I was just looking through the reports and I see that your cell is running 2012R2 OS.  While we do support this OS on the Commcell, currently, the End of life is October 2023 from Microsoft.  Just noting that it may be worth an OS upgrade if you have this overhaul planned.  Basically you would follow the steps for a Commcell hardware refresh.

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/4739_commserve_hardware_refresh_overview.html

@Chitra Saha Just out of curiosity but it appears this is a single CommCell or not? Because if it is a single CommCell than what is exactly blocking you from performing a push upgrade of the MediaAgents right after the upgrade of the CommServe component? 

Hi Chitra,

to get back to your initial question: The CommCell Console’s Feature Release compatibility is depending on the CommServe’s Feature Release level only, and not to the MediaAgent’s or Client’s. So, in regards to the CommCell Console compatibility, I’d recommend updating the CommCell Console immediately after you updated the CommServe. It is not required to update the Clients and MediaAgents to support the new CommCell Console version.

If you are using the CommCell Console for multiple CommCells which are not on the same Feature Release, I’d recommend using a separate CommCell Console installation (perhaps directly on the CommServe or as a secondary Commvault instance on the same jump server/workstation) and to use it for the CommServes that were already updated, and to use the “old” Console for old release CommServes until they are all updated to the new release.

Note this is only needed for Feature Release updates, but not required for Maintenance Release updates. You can run a different Maintenance Release on CommCell Console than on the CommServe. However, the Feature Release must be the same on both.

@MarkusBaumhardt, I have a single Commcell console that is connected to several media agent and clients. Commserve database and Commcell is built in the same server. Do I need follow hardware refresh protocol or can I upgrade in the existing server from 2012r2 to 2019?  or is it in-place upgrade not possible from SP16 to SP24?

@Onno van den Berg i tis just because I have several media agent and over 500 servers which will take some time to upgrade across site.

@Jason Duncan Thanks for the response. Is it possible to do an in-place upgrade? Do you have a separate document for in-place upgrade?  

You can just perform an in-place upgrade of SP16 to SP24, it is supported. However I'm not sure if this is being tested and/or performed regularly as it is a big jump. You could consider opening a TR to get confirmation if you are good to go. 

As for upgrading from Windows 2012 R2 to Windows 2019. You can perform an in-place upgrade as it is supported https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/upgrade/upgrade-2012r2-to-2019.

I myself have never done it before on a server system and my recommendation would be to perform a fresh install and an application move to the new server.

Doesn't sounds that big. We have more than 2500 clients and about 50 MediAgents and upgrade the CommServe and MediaAgents during the same maintenance windows after which we start the client upgrade procedure in where we upgrade clients per environment follow DTAP. We just use the built-in push method to perform the upgrade which works well.

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/2177_upgrading_commserve_computer.html

Hi Chitra,

confirming Onno’s statement that in-place upgrade from SP16 directly to FR24 is fully supported. However, you may want to ensure it will succeed without any issue in your individual case. For this I recommend opening a Support Incident, uploading the Commserve database (i.e. DR-Set) and ask for FR24 upgrade test of that database. Support will then test the upgrade for you in the lab and advise what needs to be changed before the upgrade if any issue is found. Just provide the following additional information to the ticket:

• Commvault release and patch level that is installed on your CommServe (SP16 with HotfixPack xx)
• CommServe SQL Server version and patch level (note that SQL Server might have to be upgraded separately before the Commvault upgrade)

OS in-place upgrades are depending on Microsoft support and do not affect Commvault. As a result, OS in-place upgrade is supported from Commvault side as long as it is supported by Microsoft.

However, in order to have a clean setup without keeping the configuration and update garbage of years of operation on the system, and to avoid separate SQL Server upgrade, I’d recommend setting up a new CommServe with a fresh Commvault CommServe installation. Use the “CommServe Upgrade with Hardware Refresh” procedure for this option as described in the online documentation at https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/2224_commserve_upgrade_with_hardware_refresh_overview.html