NetVault Installation and Upgrade best practices. (4036991)

For more information on this topic, please see the Administration Module 1 Introduction to NetVault Backup-Web-based Training

Here are some steps to make the install process a bit easier for you to accomplish.

• The most important is to ensure that your current Operating System that you intend to utilize is support by the NetVault Software product.  Review the NetVault compatibility list to ensure the OS is supported with NetVault before trying to attempt install.
• Determine if the Operating System, Windows, Linux/Unix are running 32 bit or 64 bit OS versions. This will guide you to what download package is needed.
• There is no set amount of minimum Memory or hard disk space is needed. With that stated, it would be recommended to have a larger hard disk if you are going to save Backups on tape for long periods of time. The NetVault Database stores indexing and this can grow with each interaction of the backups.  Ensure that you have several 100GB of disk space available to accommodate this long backup life. Also if keep in mind that with the Netvault Server processing backups to devices it might have attached, it is wise to have a sufficient amount of system memory on your  Windows and/or Linux/UNIX machines for install. 16GB, 32GB or more is the new Server norm at this time. This is subject to change.
• Where to place the installation file on OS to start successful install?  The install file itself is not very large in size. It is recommended to place the zipped install file in either the C:\  location itself on Windows or within the / directory in Linux and Unix. This will ensure a few things.
  1. You will have the zipped install file copied over to the actual machine you intend to install upon and avoid any corruption in copying over an unzipped install folder across the Network.
  2. Placing the install file in the root / or C:\ and unzipping it into a simple directory called, "NV", and root of Linux/UNIX '/' will ensure that the path the install file have to travel during the install script will not traverse multiple directory layers to the temp or tmp directories in the OS, and then on to the actual NetVault install directory to place the files.
  3. Example: It is better to have the install file copied and unzipped into the C:\ on Windows, for example C:\NV and run the install from this small directory structure. Rather than have the install file copied on the desktop in: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop
  4. Use a folder to unzip the NetVault install file that is named some other than NetVault. reason behind this is that the install file has a script that goes out and looks for a presence of a Netvault directory. So to avoid it running into the actual (install file) when it is seeking the Install directory, name this folder something other than NetVault. (For example in previous comments a dir simply named (  NV  ).
• Upgrades.  
  1. Back up the NetVault Database: The first step in preparing for an upgrade of NetVault Backup Server is to perform a backup of the existing NetVault Database. If an upgrade is unsuccessful, you can reinstall the previous version of NetVault Backup and recover the NetVault Database to enable troubleshooting of the failed upgrade without interfering with an existing backup schedule. For more information about backing up the NetVault Database with the Plug-in for Databases, see Quest NetVault Backup Built-in Plug-ins User’s Guide. 
  2. Same principals apply to the upgrades as far as where to place the zipped install file.
  3. Ensure that your OS is supported with the newer version of NetVault you are to upgrade to.
  4. Ensure that you have the NetVault Services stopped to proceed with upgrade.
  5. Allow the upgrade to complete, do not abort the upgrade in any way.