Although not well documented, it is very important that, as previous posters have indicated, the version/service-pack/patches of the CommServer be equal to or greater than the version/service-pack/patches of the Media Agents, which need to be equal to or greater than the version/service-pack/patches of the clients. This can be represented simply by the following:
CS >= MAs >= clients
HOWEVER, CommVault strongly recommend that the media agents be at the same level as the CommServer, and this shouldn't be too difficult to achieve given that there are usually a lot less media agents than clients. The above formula is therefore adjusted as follows, which SHOULD BE ADHERED TO AT ALL TIMES:
CS = MAs >= clients.
Now when a customer maintains their own service pack levels and post-SP patches, by manually maintaining what is in the "software cache" (called the "updates cache" in version
, this is easy to achieve. You can maintain yourself what is available for distribution to all of your CommCell components (CS, MAs and clients) by use of the program CopyToCache.exe which resides in the CommVault Base folder on the CommServe. Also, in version 9, this task can be achieved by a task from the GUI - it's called "Copy Software", but I prefer to use CopyToCache.exe (because if anything goes wrong with the Copy Software job you have to troll through log files to find out what the problems was, whereas if something goes wrong with CopyToCache, you can see it on the screen in front of you).
To find out where your software cache is, open the Simpana Control Panel then double click Add/Remove Software Configuration. Go to the CommServe Software Cache tab. Look for Cache Directory. This is the top level of your software cache folder (and you can move it using this screen if it gets too big). Then drop to Windows Explorer and have a look at the structure under there. Do NOT go making changes in there, because not only must the files and folders be in a certain format, but a record of what is in there is kept in the CommServe database and you'll mess things up if you manually add/remove files/folders in there. The CopyToCache program drops files in there in the correct format AND updates the database as to what's in there.
Poking around in the cache will reveal what software is in there. Note that the CommVault DVDs can be put in there for installing software/agents, and if you've used CopyToCache (in "packages" mode) to copy the DVDs in there (DVD1 for Windows, DVD3 for Unix/Linux), then they will be under a folder called CVPackages. If there are service packs or patches in there, they will be under a folder called "CVUpdates". Have a look under your software cache and see what's in there.
As implied above, when you run CopyTocache, you need to decide whether you want it to copy packages (ie. the DVDs) or updates (service packs, patches). The default is updates. You should put the DVDs relevant to your site (DVD1 or DVD3) into the cache. These days you get the DVDs from the maintenance advantage web site as .iso files. You must unpack these before you use CopyToCache to load them into the software cache. I've heard of problems unpacking these files with WinZip and WinRAR. What seems to be bulletproof is 7-Zip. I recommend you Google it, download it, and use it instead. When unpacked, run CopyToCache.
Service Packs and individual patches are also downloaded from the Maint Adv web site. These are self extracting EXE files (for Windows) or TAR files (for Unix/Linux). Again, these need to be put into the software cache, but again, these need to be unpacked first. For the self extracting EXE files, just run the EXE file which will unpack it (note that the box to run setup.exe after the unpack is ticked by default - untick that because you just want to unpack the archive, not run setup). Then you can run CopyToCache and point it to the unpacked files. For the TAR files, unpack them with 7-Zip and point CopyToCache to the unpacked files. This will load your service pack/patch into the software cache ready for distribution, which is described in the next paragraph. Note that for Windows, 32-bit and 64-bit service packs and patches are downloaded separately, so you need to run CopyToCache on each separately.
A side note: sometimes the contents of the software cache does get messed up, or the database disagrees with what's in there. If this happens, it won't let you install software or it won't push out service packs/patches. If this happens at your site, you can delete the entire contents of your software cache (everything in and under the folder specified in the Cache Directory field explained above) and use CopyToCache to put it all in there again.
You install new software/agents via the "Install Software" option in the GUI, which reads the DVDs from the CVPackages folder and remotely installs software on the nominated machine(s). You install service packs/patches via the "Install Updates" option in the GUI, which reads the service pack/patches from the CVUpdates folder and pushes them to the nominated machine(s). You can even upgrade media agents and clients (eg. from version 8 to version 9) via the "Upgrade Software" option in the GUI, which will upgrade the software from the CVPackages folder AND apply the service packs/patches from the CVUpdates folder.
ALWAYS apply the rule please - do the CommServer first (CS), followed immediately by the media agents (MAs). Clients can follow later as time permits, although your should strive to have everything at the exactly the same version and patch level. As a matter of interest, I don't update the CommServer itself via this push install/upgrade method. Pushing out installs/upgrades/updates runs a job. The job needs to stop and start the services on the target machine(s) so how can this work on the CommServer, because stopping the services there will kill all jobs? I don't know, but it does seem to work. Scary though. For the CommServer, I personally like to apply updates and service packs manually by logging in to it and running setup.exe myself. Call me old fashioned, but for the CS, I think that's better.
All good so far? Good. Now an irritating problem. Everything I've described above involves manually maintaining what's in your software cache. You know what's in there, you know what's pushed out to media agents and clients. It's static and only changes when you run CopyToCache to update it right? Well introducing Automatic Downloads, which is a job you can run whenever you like (or you can schedule it to run regularly). It's purpose is to get the latest service packs and patches from the CommVault FTP site. What it downloads is beyond your control. It doesn't ask you and you can't tell it, it just gets whatever CommVault have put in there. It downloads things into your software cache for you, so that you don't need to run CopyToCache. Some people like this. Hey why not, get the latest and greatest from CommVault whenever they release something (and sometimes they release things every day, sometimes multiple times a day). This then regularly updates your software cache for you. You can imagine what happens when your manager gives you a new client to backup and you install Simpana on it. It will get the latest service packs and patches from your software cache, and quite possibly it will then break the golden rule above and the version of the new client will be AHEAD of the CS and MAs. Bad. Very bad. Be afraid. Be very afraid. So you need to be careful if you use auto downloads to get patches from the FTP site. One way to make sure you don't break the rule is to coordinate the download with an auto update to the CS and MAs. For example, download patches every Saturday at 3am, and run an auto update to the CS and MAs at 5am every Saturday. That way, clients can't get ahead of the CS and MAs.
But auto downloads are not for everyone. Personally I don't like them. I don't want my site constantly changing. You might have change control issues that don't allow updates being constantly downloaded and pushed out to clients. I like a static stable environment, not a constantly changing one. I like to get my own service packs and apply them when I'm ready. When something goes wrong with any IT system, the first question asked is always "What's changed?". If something was working and then stops, "What's changed?". Well if your system is always changing, then you don't know what's changed do you? If you have ever changing service packs and patches, something might break and you won't know what caused it. Patches do sometimes break things, believe me! Even CommVault patches. My advice? Turn off auto downloads. Don't schedule it and it won't run. Maintain your software cache yourself. But this won't stop you or your colleagues running it manually one day though, and I saw that at a customer site a while ago. A user ran a download software job for reasons unknown. It loaded up the software cache with the latest and greatest from the CommVault FTP site, and they then had a ticking time bomb. The next time a new client was installed, it was way ahead of the CS and MAs and it broke the whole CommCell. So I even recommend disabling the auto download job from running at all! Go to the Control Panel and double click Add/Remove Software Configuration. You'll be at the Download tab. See autoupdate.commvault.com? Change that to some other rubbish, eg. nodownloads.nonsense.com. The job then won't work (if you change your mind later and want to set it back, you can just click Revert to Factory Settings). This way auto downloads will NEVER run, even if someone foolishly tries to run one, and you can maintain your software cache yourself.
Note that CommVault Support strongly recommend that you run auto download jobs (to get the patches) and install update jobs (to push them out) often. They like you to be at the latest and greatest patch levels all the time. They don't mind if your site is constantly changing, having service packs and patches installed across your whole CommCell. Makes their job of support easier. To borrow from Mandy Rice-Davies (look her up), well they would say that wouldn't they?
At your site, please check your schedules to see if/when auto download jobs run. Right click the CS (top left of the GUI) and click View -> Schedules (in version 8 this is All Tasks -> Schedules). Look for a job of type "Download Updates". See when it runs. Understand the issues. See if you have any Install Update jobs scheduled. Which systems will they install to? Double click and have a look. If you're updating some, why aren't you doing the rest?
If you have no download updates job at all, you need to manually maintain your software cache. And if you have no download updates job, there would seem little point in having any install updates jobs running regularly, because they're just going to be regularly installing the same thing from the software cache, ie. doing nothing.
Please note when installing an agent on a client that the default is to schedule an install updates job for that client which runs once a week. If you decide to maintain your own software cache and not run these annoying updates jobs, then you need to remember to untick that box every time you install software. My advice? Look at your CommCell's schedules (as described earlier) and delete all install updates jobs.
I truly hope that's cleared up the issues.
Craig.
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