IBM Spectrum Protect backup clients can now be upgraded transparently through the Spectrum Protect backup server.  If you would like to request automatic upgrades for systems that utilize our Data Backup service technology, IBM Spectrum Protect, please email backups-help@umd.edu. In general, backup service engineers will stage upgrades in two upgrade windows that will be communicated at least two weeks prior to the first upgrade window.  Clients who have been identified as being part of window one will be upgraded, followed shortly by the window two client candidates.  Systems that were identified as manual-upgrade candidates will not be staged for auto-upgrades.  

Note, the following client requirements that DIT will help ensure are met as we identify clients that can be upgraded through the ISP server.

Client requirements

IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive clients that you plan to update through the Spectrum Protect server must meet the following requirements:

• The PASSWORDACCESS option must be set to GENERATE.
• 32-bit backup-archive clients are NOT supported. If a 32-bit backup-archive client is detected on a 64-bit operating system, it is upgraded to the 64-bit version.
• The client scheduler must be running.
• The client system must be running and the client must have connected to the IBM Spectrum Protect server at least once.

Top

Microsoft Windows clients must meet the following additional requirements

• The client scheduler must be started as a Windows service and not from the command line.
• To minimize the chance of a restart, the scheduler service is shut down before the new client is installed, and restarted after the installation.
• If the scheduler is not running as a Windows service, a restart is required when the client is updated.
• The command-line version of the Windows registry utility (reg.exe) is required. This tool is generally installed as part of the operating system installation on supported Windows operating systems.

Top

Restrictions

You can schedule only backup-archive client updates. Updates for other client types must be manually installed, e.g., TDP for SQL , TDP for Oracle. Microsoft Windows cluster services environment is NOT supported.

DIT cannot issue automatic client deployments to systems that have any of the following applications installed on them.

• IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments.
• IBM Spectrum Protect for Databases.
• IBM Spectrum Protect for Mail.
• IBM Spectrum Protect for Enterprise Resource Planning.

You can schedule updates to existing clients only. You cannot use the the IBM Spectrum Protect server to install a new client.

Top