Upgrading Veeam Backup & Replication Servers

In Veeam Service Provider Console, you can initiate upgrade of Veeam Backup & Replication on client computers without accessing the managed backup servers.

How Upgrade of Veeam Backup & Replication is Performed

The upgrade procedure works as follows:

1. Veeam Service Provider Console periodically connects to the Veeam Installation Server (over the Internet), and checks whether a new Veeam Backup & Replication version is available.
2. If a new software version is available for managed Veeam Backup & Replication servers, Veeam Service Provider Console displays message next to these servers saying that an upgrade is available.
3. A backup administrator instructs Veeam Service Provider Console to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication on a remote computer and configures upgrade settings.
4. The Veeam Service Provider Console management agent obtains the Veeam Backup & Replication setup file from the Veeam Installation Server (over the Internet) or from the remote file share and uploads this file to the remote computer.
5. The management agent on the remote computer triggers the upgrade with the configured settings.

Required Privileges

To perform this task, a user must have one of the following roles assigned: Service Provider Global Administrator, Service Provider Administrator, Service Provider Operator.

Prerequisites

For details on system requirements for Veeam Backup & Replication servers, see the Upgrade Checklist section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.

In addition to requirements listed in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, consider the following:

• Make sure you have additional free space on the system disk on the machine on which you plan to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication. Veeam Service Provider Console will need extra space to download and unpack Veeam Backup & Replication setup file. You can check the setup file size on the first step of the wizard.

• Make sure you have local administrator credentials for the machine on which you plan to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication.

• If the Veeam Backup & Replication server you want to upgrade is managed by Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager, make sure to upgrade Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager before upgrading Veeam Backup & Replication. For details, see section Upgrading to Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager 12 of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager Guide.

Before You Begin

Before you start the upgrade procedure:

• Stop and disable all active jobs and finish all restore processes.
• Close the Veeam Backup & Replication console on the servers which you want to upgrade.

Upgrading Veeam Backup & Replication

To upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication server:

1. Log in to Veeam Service Provider Console.

For details, see Accessing Veeam Service Provider Console.

2. In the menu on the left, click Discovery (for Service Provider Global Administrator, Service Provider Administrator) or Managed Computers (for Service Provider Operator).
3. Open the Backup Servers tab.
4. Select the necessary computers in the list.
5. At the top of the list, click Server Actions and choose Upgrade.

Alternatively, you can right-click the necessary server, choose Server Actions and select Upgrade.

Veeam Service Provider Console will open the Upgrade Backup Server wizard.

6. At the Source step of the wizard, specify location of the Veeam Backup & Replication distribution:

• To use a latest distribution from Veeam License Update server, select the Download the backup server setup file from a Veeam web server option.
• To use a distribution stored on a remote file share, select the Use the backup server setup file from the remote file share option and specify remote file share location and credentials of an account that Veeam Service Provider Console will use to connect to the file share.

7. At the Account step of the wizard, specify service account credentials. The account must have local administrator permissions on the remote computer.

8. At the Setup Options step of the wizard, click Browse and specify path to an XML configuration file.

To create a configuration file, click Configuration File Sample to download the file template and fill in the necessary installation parameters. For details on configuration parameters, see Configuration Parameters.

9. At the Schedule step of the wizard, specify deployment schedule:

• To upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication immediately, select Upgrade now.

If you select this option, any previously scheduled update will be canceled automatically.

• To postpone upgrade, select Scheduled upgrade and specify date and time when Veeam Backup & Replication will be upgraded.

You will be able to reschedule or cancel the upgrade using the link in the Scheduled Updates column on the Backup Servers tab.

• If you want Veeam Backup & Replication to automatically stop active backup jobs, temporarily disable scheduled jobs and close Veeam Backup & Replication console, select the Terminate all activities automatically before install check box. After the upgrade is finished, scheduled jobs will be enabled automatically.

Restore activities will not be affected. Note that some jobs cannot be gracefully stopped automatically.

• If you want to reboot remote computers automatically during Veeam Backup & Replication upgrade, select the Reboot automatically if required check box. If you do not select the check box, you may need to reboot the backup server manually to complete installation. For details, see Rebooting Veeam Backup & Replication Servers.

10. At the Summary step of the wizard, review upgrade settings and click Finish.

Checking Upgrade Results

To make sure that Veeam Backup & Replication upgrade has completed successfully, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to Veeam Service Provider Console.

For details, see Accessing Veeam Service Provider Console.

2. In the menu on the left, click Discovery (for Service Provider Global Administrator, Service Provider Administrator) or Managed Computers (for Service Provider Operator).
3. Open the Backup Servers tab.
4. Find the necessary computers in the list.
5. Check the value in the Update Status column.

If installation was successful, the Update Status must be Success.

6. Click a link in the Update Status column to display session details of the installation procedure.

If you want to cancel Veeam Backup & Replication upgrade, click Cancel Update. If the upgrade was canceled and the Update Status is Failed, click Clear Logs to update the status.

Configuration Parameters

The configuration file contains the following parameters:

• ACCEPT_EULA — specify "1" to accept Veeam license agreement.

• ACCEPT_LICENSING_POLICY — specify "1" to accept Veeam licensing policy.

• ACCEPT_THIRDPARTY_LICENSES — specify "1" to accept the license agreement for 3rd party components that Veeam incorporates.
• ACCEPT_REQUIRED_SOFTWARE — specify "1" to accept all required software license agreements.
• VBR_LICENSE_FILE — path to the license file. If you do not want to change license on the upgraded server, leave this parameter unchanged.

If you want to install VCSP Pulse license on the upgraded server, specify empty value or disable the parameter. After the upgrade is complete, navigate to the Configuration > Licensing > Veeam Backup & Replication tab to install a new license. For details, see Installing Veeam Backup & Replication License.

• VBR_LICENSE_AUTOUPDATE — specify "1" to enable automatic license update and usage reporting. Specify "0" if you want to update the license manually. For NFR licenses, specify "1". For licenses without ID information, specify "0".
• VBR_SERVICE_PASSWORD — password for the account under which the Veeam Backup Service is running. This parameter is disabled by default. If you do not want to change the password, leave this parameter disabled.
• VBR_SQLSERVER_PASSWORD — password to connect to the SQL Server. This parameter is disabled by default. If you do not want to change the password, leave this parameter disabled.
• VBR_AUTO_UPGRADE — specify "1" to enable automatic upgrade of existing components in the backup infrastructure. Specify "0" if you want to upgrade the existing components manually.

Note that you must specify "1" in ACCEPT_EULA, ACCEPT_LICENSING_POLICY, ACCEPT_THIRDPARTY_LICENSES and ACCEPT_REQUIRED_SOFTWARE parameters to proceed with the upgrade.