Rapid Recovery 6.5 - Installation and Upgrade Guide

Rapid Recovery release 6.5 is an international release. In addition to availability in English, this release is localized into simplified Chinese, French, Korean, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and international Spanish. When a localized version is installed, you can see or change the current display language set for the Core Console in the general settings for the Core.

To change these settings, see "Configuring Core general settings" in the Rapid Recovery User Guide.

To install the latest version of Rapid Recovery, download the installers as described in the topic Obtaining Rapid Recovery software.

If upgrading from any version of AppAssure, also read the next subsection, Upgrading from AppAssure.

When upgrading from any version of Rapid Recovery to release 6.5, you can perform an in-place upgrade. Always upgrade the Core before upgrading protected machines. If using replication, upgrade target Cores before source Cores.

Upgrading from AppAssure Core

Before upgrading the AppAssure Core to Rapid Recovery Core, verify if you have any custom binary patches applied, and note the patches used. On the Core machine, access the Programs and Features control panel, and take note of any custom binaries (identified by the letter P, a dash and six digits; for example, P-000678). Having this list accessible can increase the ability of Quest Data Protection Support to assist you in the event of upgrading difficulties.

Keep in mind the following:

• If upgrading from AppAssure Core 5.2.x to Rapid Recovery Core, you must use a three-step process. First, upgrade to AppAssure Core 5.3.7. Then upgrade to AppAssure Core release 5.4.3. Finally, upgrade to Rapid Recovery Core release 6.5.
• If you want to upgrade from AppAssure Core 5.3.x, 5.4.1, or 5.4.2, best practice is to perform a two-step upgrade process. The first step is to upgrade to AppAssure Core 5.4.3. As the second step, run the Rapid Recovery release 6.5 installer as in-place upgrade for the Core and Agent components, respectively.
• If upgrading from AppAssure Core 5.4.3 to Rapid Recovery Core release 6.5, you can obtain the new Rapid Recovery Core release 6.5 installer, and run it on your 5.4.3 Core as an in-place upgrade. You can also perform in-place upgrades from AppAssure Agent release 5.4.3 to Rapid Recovery Agent on Windows machines.

In all cases, before upgrading the version of the Agent software on protected machines, verify that the operating system on each relevant machine is still supported. For supported operating systems, refer to the relevant matching edition of the Rapid Recovery System Requirements Guide.

When upgrading the Agent software on Linux machines from any AppAssure release to Rapid Recovery Agent, first remove the old Agent software version. When removing AppAssure Agent on Linux machines, the preferred process is to use the shell script in the original installer. However, a process is included to manually remove the Agent if necessary. For more information, see Uninstalling the AppAssure Agent software from a Linux machine.

Then, perform a clean install of Rapid Recovery Agent. When upgrading the Agent software on Linux machines from Rapid Recovery Agent release 6.0.1 or later, you can use the appropriate package manager for your distribution of Linux. For more information, see Uninstalling the Rapid Recovery Agent software from a Linux machine. You may need to remove the local software repository. This requirement is included in upgrading steps.

Additionally, be aware of the following information when upgrading from AppAssure 5.3.x and later:

• Recovery points are represented differently in AppAssure release 5.4.x and later, as part of the changes made to improve application performance. When upgrading from AppAssure 5.3.x to AppAssure 5.4.x, existing recovery points are converted to the new representation, which is not backward-compatible. You cannot downgrade an AppAssure release 5.4.x installation to 5.3 (or a Rapid Recovery release) unless you recreate your repository.
• When launching the Core for the first time after upgrading from versions prior to Rapid Recovery 5.4.1, the conversion of existing recovery points will take approximately twice as long as loading the same recovery points under previous versions. After this initial conversion, however, loading recovery points will be significantly faster than with previous versions.

  NOTE: When upgrading from AppAssure 5.3.x to 5.4.x, ensure that you factor extra time for converting recovery points into your planning before your upgraded environment is ready for use.

• After upgrading from versions prior to Rapid Recovery 5.4.1, if you attempt to set up a retention policy on a replicated target Core that differs from the replication policy on the source Core, you will first be prompted to perform a repository Integrity Check Job. The same requirement applies if you want to set up a custom retention policy for a replicated agent. Running this job can preemptively identify inconsistencies in replicated recovery points, providing the opportunity to replace those with error-free recovery points.

  Caution: Running the Integrity Check Job is expected to take an extended period of time. The time required differs for each environment, based on the quantity and type of data in your repository and also based on the underlying storage system. While the job is running, no other transactions can be performed in that repository, including transfers (snapshot and base image backups, and replication), nightly jobs, and so on. Ensure that you factor extra time for completing a lengthy Integrity Check Job into your planning if these situations apply to you.