Topics | How To | Related Topics
Methods for Installing Updates and Service Packs
Tracking Multi-Platform Updates During Platform Installs
Getting Information on Installed Updates
Uninstalling Updates/Service Packs
Updates and Service Packs are used to address specific problems in the product and improve the overall performance of the product. While updates are patches that address a specific problem in the product, service packs are a collection of updates that are released on a periodic basis to address a wide variety of problems in the product.
Service Packs can be downloaded and installed while installing CommCell components, e.g., iDataAgents, MediaAgents, etc. The following covers additional methods involved in installing updates and service packs in a CommCell.
Once you have updated the CommServe Update Cache, you can install updates and service packs using the following methods:
| If you are installing a service pack on a computer that has both the Data Classification Enabler and other components installed, you may have to stop Data Classification services before you install the service pack for the non-Data Classification Enabler components. |
The Automatic Update feature allows for the quick and easy installation of updates in your CommCell, ensuring that the software is up-to-date. See Automatic Updates for detailed information on this feature.
Interactive updates is the process of manually installing an individual update or a Service Pack. To install, refer to Install an Individual Update.
32-bit:
INTEL32\Bin\VCRedist\x86\vcredist_x86.exe
X64:
AMD64\Bin\VCRedist\amd64\vcredist_x64.exe
IA64:
INTEL64\Bin\VCRedist\ia64\vcredist_ia64.exe
32-bit Components on a Microsoft Windows x64 Platform:
INTEL32\Bin\VCRedist\x86\vcredist_x86.exe
Silent updates provides the facility to manually install the updates from the command line in a non-interactive mode from the client computer.
This is not to be confused with QCommand automaticupdate provided by the Command Line Interface, which is exactly the same as running Automatic Update from the CommCell Console.
Usage: InstallUpdates -silent [-vm <instance name>]
Options:
-vm is the name of the instance to which updates should be installed
Description: This command initiates a silent install of individual updates manually from the command line in a non-interactive mode. This command must be run from the client's <service pack/update/update pack> directory.
If –vm is not specified and only one control set exists, the installer completes successfully on the existing node. If multiple nodes are found, the installer lists all the nodes and exits with error.
Diagnostics: Possible exit status values are:
0 - Successful completion.
1 - CLI usage failures, due to the use of an unsupported option or missing argument.
2 - Any other failure.
Options:
–rebootreq
-vm
-nostartsvc
-startsvc
-help
Description: This command initiates a silent install of individual updates manually from the command line in a non-interactive mode. The command must be run from the client's <service pack/update/update pack> folder.
–rebootreq will reboot the machine if the update installation requires a reboot (e.g., for driver updates)
-vm is the name of the instance to which updates should be installed
-nostartsvc will not start the services after silent installation. This can be useful to run additional silent installations on a non-cluster installation.
-startsvc will start the services after silent installation.
-help will display the Help
Diagnostics: Possible exit status values are:
0 - Successful completion.
1 - CLI usage failures, due to the use of an unsupported option or missing argument.
2 - Any other failure.
Options:
–rebootreq
-vm
-undo all | bin | db
-nostartsvc
-startsvc
Description: This command initiates a silent uninstall of individual updates manually from the command line in a non-interactive mode. The command must be run from the client's Base folder.
–rebootreq will reboot the machine if the update uninstall requires a reboot (e.g., for driver updates)
-vm is the name of the instance from which updates should be uninstalled
-undo will reverse the uninstall of one or more updates per the indicated value. Value all will reverse the uninstall of all the updates on the client; value bin will reverse the uninstall of the previous (most recent) update; value db will reverse the uninstall of the previous (most recent) SQL database update on the CommServe.
-nostartsvc will not start the services after silent uninstall. This can be useful to run additional silent uninstalls on a non-cluster installation.
-startsvc will start the services after silent uninstall.
Diagnostics: Possible exit status values are:
0 - Successful completion.
1 - CLI usage failures, due to the use of an unsupported option or missing argument.
2 - Any other failure.
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For Unix and Windows (but not for NetWare) platform installs, when an update applies to multiple platforms, the update will be registered with the CommServe, and the entities that will need the update will be tracked. As a platform is installed for which this multi-platform update is applicable, it will be noted that the update should be applied to the platform. This notification will be provided immediately after you select the platform for install (see an example of the update-related screen: Windows/Unix). Generally, you are advised to either apply the update at this point or proceed at your own risk and then apply the update once the install is completed.
For Windows platforms, if you leave the Start Services option selected, an attempt will be made to start the services once the installation completes. If you deselect the option, services will not be started when the installation completes.
In any case, if services are running, the Event Viewer will eventually display events indicating that the client is partially patched and that certain updates will need to be installed.
The updates found in the CommServe Update Cache directory are considered the baseline for the updates that should be distributed throughout the CommCell environment. Maintaining update consistency will prevent potential software conflicts. The CommCell Browser displays the update status for each client computer in the Update Status column. The possible values and their descriptions are provided below.
| Update Status | Description |
| Unknown | The software is not able to determine if the client computer meets the baseline level of updates due to an error or an uninstalled client still showing in the CommCell console. |
| Has Diagnostic | Diagnostic updates have been installed on the client computer. |
| Needs Update | The client computer must be updated to meet the baseline level of updates. Check the Client Computer Properties (Version) dialog box to verify the updates that have already been installed as well as those required to meet the baseline. Configure Automatic Updates for this client so that it is properly updated. |
| Up To Date | The updates in the client computer match the baseline. |
| Ahead of Cache | The client computer exceeds the baseline level of updates in the CommServe Update Cache directory. Check the Client Computer Properties (Version) dialog box to see the status of updates. |
The CommCell Configuration Report that is generated with the Update Service Pack Information option enabled includes information about the updates that are installed on your computer. For information about the CommCell Configuration Report, see CommCell Configuration Report. This report updates the CommServe database with the most current update information for your CommCell computers.
The Version tab of the CommServe, Client, MediaAgent or Agent includes information on the post-release Service Packs and/or additional updates installed on the appropriate computers in a CommCell. See Version for detailed information on the Version tab.
The Patch Expiration feature is used to free up space on any client computer by removing the old versions of binaries for an update. When an update is installed, the old version of the binary is replaced with a new one. When there are many updates or Service Packs installed on the computer, these old binary versions may take up a large amount of space on the computer. Hence, to clear up space on the computer, you can expire the updates using the dUPDATEEXPIRY registry key. When the update is expired, it becomes permanent on the computer and the old binary versions are deleted.
To expire the updates, you need to set up the dUPDATEEXPIRY registry key with a number that corresponds to the number of days the update can exist on the client. When the defined number of days has passed, the update is automatically expired during the next update installation or removal process. If the defined number of days has passed and there are no update installations or removals taking place, the update will not get expired until an actual install/removal happens.
Note that this feature is supported only on Windows platform.
| Once an update has expired, it can never be removed and will be permanent on the computer. |
If a computer requires updates, the appropriate warnings will be displayed in the Event Viewer.
You can check the log files to verify that status of an update job.
To see if a download of updates from the FTP site for downloading updates is running correctly, refer to:
<software installation path>/Log Files/DownloadUpdates.log
To see if a scheduled update is running correctly, refer to:
<software installation path>/Log Files/DistributeUpdates.log
To see if updates were installed correctly, refer to:
<software installation path>/Log Files/UpdateInfo.log
For more information about log files, see Log Files.
If you apply an update to an AIX, Linux, or Solaris platform where CXBF drivers have been installed and CXBF devices have been configured, you must reboot the system after the update is applied in order to activate the CXBF drivers.
Consider the following for applying updates in computers with the Content Indexing Engine software:
To allow individual database updates to be installed without stopping software services, create and enable the nForceApplyDBUpdates registry key. This is especially useful in a clustered environment.
NOTE
This key (even when enabled) does not have an effect on non-database updates.
You can uninstall the following:
For step-by-step instructions on uninstalling updates, see the Deployment section in Service Pack documentation.