Implementing Arcserve Backup › Using Best Practices to Install and Upgrade Arcserve Backup › Best Practices for Upgrading Arcserve Backup from a Previous Release › How to Complete Prerequisite Tasks for Upgrading Arcserve Backup

How to Complete Prerequisite Tasks for Upgrading Arcserve Backup

Before you upgrade Arcserve Backup, complete the following prerequisite tasks:

Licensing

Ensure that you have the licenses that you require to upgrade Arcserve Backup.

System requirements

Review the readme file for a description of the system requirements for the computers where you will upgrade Arcserve Backup.

Upgrade requirements

Determine if you can upgrade your current installation to this release. If your current installation does not support an upgrade, you must uninstall Arcserve and then install this release. For more information, see Supported Upgrades and Backward Compatibility.

Note: For a description of supported platforms for all Arcserve Backup agents, see the readme file.

Arcserve Backup database

Determine which application that you will to host the Arcserve Backup database. Consider the following architectural criteria:

• If you are currently using Microsoft SQL Server to host the Arcserve database, you must continue using Microsoft SQL Server.

  Arcserve Backup cannot migrate data from a Microsoft SQL Server database to a Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP1 Express database. Therefore, if you are currently running Microsoft SQL Server as the Arcserve database, you must specify Microsoft SQL Server as the Arcserve Backup database.

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP1 Express Edition does not support remote communication. If your current environment consists of a remote database configuration, or you plan to access a database application that is installed on a remote system, you must host the Arcserve database using Microsoft SQL Server.

Note: For more information about Arcserve database requirements, see Database Requirements.

Arcserve Backup server type

Determine the type of Arcserve Backup server that you require. The installation wizard detects and analyzes your current configuration. Then, based on your current installation, the installation wizard then determines the type of Arcserve Backup server that you should upgrade to and the agents and options that you need to install.

If you plan to add Arcserve Backup servers to your environment in the future, consider the following server installation types:

• Stand-alone server--With a stand-alone server installation, you must install independent, stand-alone servers in the future.
• Primary server--With a primary server installation you can centrally manage multiple Arcserve Backup servers.

  To enable central management capabilities, you must install and license Arcserve Backup and the Central Management Option.

  Note: For more information about the different types of Arcserve server installations, see Types of Arcserve Backup Server Installations.

Attached devices

Ensure that all devices, such as libraries, are attached to the Arcserve Backup servers before you start the upgrade process. The first time the Tape Engine starts after the upgrade is complete, Arcserve Backup automatically detects and configures the attached devices; manual configuration is not required.

In-progress jobs

Ensure that all jobs are stopped before you start the upgrade process. Arcserve Backup detects all jobs with a Ready Status and places them in a Hold status for you. If there are jobs in progress, Arcserve Backup displays a message and the upgrade process pauses until all jobs in progress are complete.