LiveUpdate Improvements in NBU 7.1

LiveUpdate is a NetBackup feature that allows administrators to quickly and easily upgrade NetBackup clients under central control using a special NetBackup policy. Previous releases of NetBackup offered limited functionality for LiveUpdate, providing only the ability to upgrade to a minor update of the current version (e.g., from NetBackup 6.5.5 to 6.5.6). In contrast, NetBackup 7.1 has the ability to update a client even if it’s running a previous major version (NetBackup 6.5 and later). LiveUpdate operates with any supported NetBackup client system, including UNIX, Linux and Windows machines, and can update a mixture of UNIX, Linux and Windows clients from a single LiveUpdate policy. It’s important to understand that NetBackup LiveUpdate is not the same as the LiveUpdate service that many other Symantec products use. The NetBackup version only runs when the administrator explicitly executes it and it does not pull data from Symantec or any other location on the Internet. All update information is contained on servers that are controlled by the NetBackup administrator. It’s also important to note that other installation methods are still supported; LiveUpdate is an optional tool. If administrators prefer to use the standard NetBackup client installation utilities, they may still do so. In order to use the feature, each client machine must have the LiveUpdate agent installed (this is the default during a client installation). The administrator must designate a LiveUpdate repository, which is a network location that contains the installation files; this may be a network share or an internal web server. When a new version of NetBackup is available, the administrator downloads new update files from Symantec and unzips them into the LiveUpdate repository. A special policy must be created on the master server that includes a list of the client machines to be updated. It’s possible to create multiple policies, each with a different client list. The administrator then launches the LiveUpdate policy when an upgrade is needed. LiveUpdate cannot be run via a schedule; it can only be manually launched. This ensures that it will not execute inadvertently, disrupting operation and possibly changing client systems at an unexpected time. Check out this video for more information on LiveUpdate: