PowerProtect Data Manager 19.16 Deployment Guide

Cluster Shared Volume assets

After PowerProtect Data Manager is updated, any Cluster Shared Volume asset with a backup copy is listed twice in Assets pages, once with a status of Deleted and once with a status of Available. The Deleted entry continues to exist until the backup copy expires.

Memory requirements

An update package accounts for any new memory requirements. If additional memory is required, it attempts to automatically increase the memory that is assigned to PowerProtect Data Manager. If the amount of memory cannot be automatically increased, a precheck warning asks you to manually increase it.

To review memory requirements, see the PowerProtect Data Manager Administrator Guide.

Migrating to SupportAssist

SupportAssist provides automated support capabilities for PowerProtect Data Manager systems. SupportAssist replaces Secure Remote Services.

If you have configured Secure Remote Services previously, the PowerProtect Data Manager system automatically migrates Secure Remote Services to SupportAssist when you update PowerProtect Data Manager.

If Secure Remote Services is not configured, you can configure SupportAssist directly. For instructions on configuring SupportAssist, see Connect to support services through SupportAssist.

System health

For up to a couple of hours after installing an update patch, the Health window displays a score that indicates the system is in poor health. This score and status remains in effect until all post-update activities are completed.

Updating and in-progress backups

If a backup is in progress when an update package is installed, the backup is canceled at the start of the update process. You can perform a manual backup after the update is completed.

Updating and SPBM policy compliance

After updating, a VASA provider might change its status to offline or the Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) policy compliance status changes to ?  Unknown within the vSphere Client.

To resolve the issue, reregister the VASA provider. For more information, see the PowerProtect Data Manager Virtual Machine User Guide.

Updating DD or DDVE

If you are updating DD or DDVE software simultaneously with PowerProtect Data Manager, ensure that the following sequence of events is followed:

1. Disable all protection policies that use the affected DD or DDVE storage systems.
2. If any jobs started by protection policies are running, wait for them to complete.
   NOTE:Any scheduled replication, cloud tier, or extended replication jobs continue to run, and might fail during the update.
3. Update the DD or DDVE software.
4. Enable all protection policies that were disabled.

Updating the versions of TSDM VIB

Versions of VIB are automatically updated with the version of PowerProtect Data Manager depending on the following:

• Installed versions of TSDM VIB on ESXi hosts
• Supported versions
• VIB management enablement status

For more information about PowerProtect Data Manager package updates and the versions of TSDM VIB, see the PowerProtect Data Manager Virtual Machine User Guide.

Updating from version 19.12 and increased heap-memory settings

When updating from PowerProtect Data Manager 19.12 or earlier, increased heap-memory settings of the VMDM service are lost.

To resolve the issue, follow these steps:

1. Create a file named vmdm-env-local in /usr/local/brs/lib/vmdm/bin/.
2. Add the following content to the vmdm-env-local file:

   CUSTOMER_JVM_OPTS="-Xmx1536m"

   NOTE:In this example, replace 1536 with the megabyte value of the heap memory.
3. Run the following commands:

   chown admin:app vmdm-env-local

   chmod g+rwx,u+x vmdm-env-local

4. Run vmdm restart to restart the VMDM service.
   NOTE: Ensure that no other virtual machine operations such as protection or recovery are running.

Updating from version 19.12 and update-package upload times

The upload of an update package can repeat indefinitely when updating from version 19.12. This repetition causes the update process to never complete, making it impossible to update PowerProtect Data Manager. For steps to resolve the issue, see Manage PowerProtect Data Manager 19.12 user-token expiry.

Updating from versions 19.12 through 19.14 and configured SMIS servers

The update package cannot be installed when attempting to update a PowerProtect Data Manager system that is configured to use an SMIS server.

The following error message is displayed when installing an update package:

If you are unable to remove all SMIS servers that are used as asset sources, contact Customer Support.

Updating from versions 19.12 through 19.14 and native reporting

Sometime after the update package is installed, the reporting engine undergoes a maintenance cycle on the reporting database to improve native-reporting performance.

The maintenance cycle takes place according to the following criteria:

• At least two successful server DR backups have been performed.
• It runs at midnight.

Considerations about the maintenance cycle include the following:

• It should only last a few minutes.
• The report browser is unavailable. Reports cannot be generated or viewed.
• Alerts are displayed for the start and stop of the maintenance cycle.
• Any reports that were scheduled to run during the maintenance cycle are delayed and run immediately after the maintenance cycle is complete.
• Once the maintenance cycle completes successfully, it never runs again.
• If for some reason the maintenance cycle has not completed after 50 minutes, it is aborted.
• If the maintenance cycle is unsuccessful or aborted, another maintenance cycle is scheduled for the following midnight.
• If a server DR backup takes place during the maintenance cycle, the backup of the reporting engine fails, but all other server DR data is successfully backed up.
• NOTE:To ensure the successful backup of the reporting engine, do not schedule server DR backups to run between midnight and 1:00 a.m. until after the maintenance cycle completes. Alternatively, after the maintenance cycle completes successfully and the backup of the reporting engine fails, perform a manual server DR backup.

Updating from versions 19.12 through 19.15 and strict REST API validation

It is possible for existing scripts not written to meet strict REST API validation requirements to fail after updating from an earlier version of PowerProtect Data Manager. If you are updating from a version of PowerProtect Data Manager that does not have strict validation enabled, it is recommended to either enable strict validation and test existing scripts before performing the update or disable strict validation after the update. For more information, see the PowerProtect Data Manager Public REST API documentation.

Updating from versions 19.12 through 19.15 and system health scores

Earlier versions of PowerProtect Data Manager did not protect DDMC virtual assets. Now that these assets can be protected, the system health score includes them in its calculation. This change to the calculation can result in a decrease in the health score that is displayed when updating from an earlier version of PowerProtect Data Manager. However, the lower score does not mean that assets that were previously protected are no longer protected. Instead, the lower score means that DDMC virtual assets that could not be protected before but now can be are currently not being protected. To restore the score to the expected value, add DDMC virtual assets to a protection policy.

Updating from versions 19.12 through 19.15 and VM Direct Engines configured with only a hostname

For security reasons, PowerProtect Data Manager does not allow a VM Direct Engine to be configured with only a hostname in any situation. Attempts to install an update package on an older version of PowerProtect Data Manager that has a VM Direct Engine configured with only a hostname fail.

Before installing an update package, perform the following steps on the affected system:

1. From the Infrastructure > Protection Engines window, delete any entries for a VM Direct Engine configured with only a hostname.
2. Add any deleted VM Direct Engine back again using a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or IP address.

Updating from version 19.13 or earlier and nondefault ports

When updating PowerProtect Data Manager version 19.13 or earlier that is configured to use nondefault ports, backup and restore operations might fail with error messages similar to the following.

ABA0009: … Unable to backup … asset … because of an agent host connection or agent service issue.
The protection policy backup was unsuccessful because either the agent host cannot be reached or the agent service is not running.

To resolve the issue, perform the following steps:

1. Install the update package.
2. Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager server console using administrator credentials.
3. Run the command /usr/local/brs/lib/adm/config/configurePortInAllHostRecord.sh.