CommServe Rebuild/ OS Upgrade Guide

Considerations on CommServe Reinstalls:

  • If the IP address is NOT the same, you WILL need to get a new license for this new IP address. Your permanent license is bound to IP of the original server, so you will need to get a CSID change license for the new IP before you can perform the reinstall. The CommServe services will not start if the IP is different from the one in your license.
  • If the name (client name or domain) of the server is changing, the OS must have the correct name BEFORE the CommServe software is installed. You must follow the procedures below and make sure to only install the CommServe, restore the database, submit a name change and then install any other components or agents.

Section 1: Preparing for a rebuild or upgrade.

The first step to rebuilding or upgrading your CommServe starts with gathering information on your current setup. You should run a CommCell summary report for your CommServe or look at the properties page – version tab and make a note of the patches on the machine (or print the report). This list of patches will be referred to as the “patch level” of the CommServe.

Once you have the current information about the CommServe, perform the following steps:

  • Kill any running jobs in the CommCell Console.
  • Disable activity by going to the Activity Control tab of the CommCell properties and selecting disable data protection and data recovery operations.
  • Perform a CommServe Disaster Recovery Backup, and make sure you put this CS DR backup in an accessible place. You will need a CommServe Disaster Recovery Backup to restore your CommServe.

Your Disaster Recovery backup will also contain your Firewall Configuration files (FWHosts.txt, FWpeers.txt & FWports.txt) so that they can be copied to the new machine during the rebuild process.

If the CommServe is also a Media Agent:

  • Unload all tapes from the drives of any attached libraries
  • Stop the Galaxy services using the Services Control Manager.

If you are planning on rebuilding the CommServe, you should also go into Add-Remove programs and see what agents are installed. You will need this information for section 4 below.

Section 2: Rebuilding the CommServe.

Follow the steps below to rebuild the CommServe. You should read all of these instructions first before you attempt this procedure.

  • Install the OS on the new system, making sure that you have the same partitions and drive formatting as the previous system.
  • Install any necessary patches and drivers and verify that all hardware is working properly.

Procedure for Installing the CommServe:

Run the Setup off the Galaxy CD and install the CommServe softwareONLY. Do NOT install any other components or agents at this time.(Note: The CommCell Console and Java will be automatically selected when the CommServe is selected and this is fine.)

The Simpana 8.0 installer allows you to supply it with an existing database during the installation, or you can choose to create a new database and then follow the steps in Section 3 to manually restore the database.

To have the installer restore the database for you, copy your Disaster Recovery backup to a drive local to the new CommServe, then choose “use an existing database,” and browse to the .DMP file to restore:

If your CommServe’s IP address is changing and you need to supply a new license file, you should check the box that says “apply a new license.” You will be asked to browse to the license file on a later screen.

When asked for the Server Disaster Recovery Path, enter the destination path where you would like to send your Disaster Recovery backups. Note that if you chose to create a new database, these settings will be written to the new database. When you restore your Disaster Recovery backup and overwrite the database created by the installer, these settings will be replaced with the settings that were contained within your old CommServe database. If you chose to restore an existing database, these settings will be set in the restored database for you.

If you chose to apply a new license to the existing database, you will see the following screen where will browse to the new license file. This only needs to be done when the IP address of the new CommServe will be different:

If you chose to create a new database on install, make sure to choose an Evaluation License (Your permanent license is contained in the CommServe DB and will be restored with the Database in Section 3 below):

Once the CommServe has been re-installed, the latest Service Packs and updates should be reapplied and the CommServe Database can now be restored (if you chose to create a new database).

Section 3: CommServe Disaster Recovery Restore.

If you chose to allow the installer to restore an existing database, you can skip this section, as the installer should have already restored the database for you.

Restore the disaster recovery backup either from tape or locally stored copy. You must put this file on a local drive on the CommServe (mapped drives and UNC paths will NOT work due to SQL restore limitations). The folder must also NOT be read-only or the restore will fail (which is why this does NOT work off of a CD or DVD).

  1. Navigate to the C:\program files\CommVault\Simpana\Base directory (change drive letter appropriately) and run the CommserveDisasterRecoveryGUI.exe. (note: in Galaxy 5.0 and below this was called the CommServeERRecoveryGUI.exe)
  1. Next select the dump file to restore as seen in the screen below. You can use the browse button on the right to locate the .DMP from your DR backup set.
  1. Restore the database by clicking on the OK button. It will read the restore path from the database if you keep the default to restore to original paths.
  1. If you wish to restore to a different path, Browse to therestore path where you want to restore thedatabase. Change the SQL install paths if necessary and select yes then click OK to restore database. (These paths will be read from the database and you will see where the previous database resided. If the SQL instance path has changed, you must change these paths below so that it points to the current SQL instance location that you selected during the CommServe install.)

  1. Once the database has been restored, proceed to click on the Name/License Change tab.
  1. Please click on the CommServe name change box and make sure that the names that populate the field are the same. If they are not exactly the same, you MUST submit a name change. If they match you can uncheck the box, and go to the next step.
  1. If you need to apply a license, such as a CSID change license if the CommServe IP has changed, you would do this now. Check the Activate License button and browse to your license file and hit OK.
  1. After you perform the CommServe Disaster Recovery restore (all of the steps above) you can close the DisasterRecovery tool and then you MUST Install all Galaxy patches tobring the new CommServe to the same patch level as it was before. If you don’t know the previous patch level, apply the latest service pack. The latest service pack can be downloaded from Maintenance Advantage at .

Once all of the above steps are completed, including installing the Galaxy updates, you can start the Galaxy Services and verify that your CommServe is restored properly.

If your old machine was ONLY a CommServe you are finished. If are not sure, you can check within the CommCell Console to see if there is a client or MediaAgent with the same name as the CommServe.

Section 4: Install other agents if necessary.

If the CommServe computer was also a MediaAgent or had any client agents installed (such as the Windows File System iDA), Install these now.

Please perform the following steps:

  1. Reinstall the MediaAgent, and any other agents that were installed from the CD (you can select all the appropriate agents in the platform selection window). (Note that if you are reinstalling a MediaAgent its recommended to just exit out of the Library and Drive Config window that comes up at the end of the MediaAgent install as this step will be performed later on)
  2. Once the install of the agent(s) is finished, you MUST reinstall the Galaxy updates to bring the MediaAgent and any other agents installedto the correct patch level.
  3. From within the CommCell Console, verify that all libraries and drives are properly detected and configured in the Library and Drive Config Tool. If needed, run a detection and reconfigure the hardware.

You have now completed the CommServe Rebuild Procedure. You should now enable activity from the Activity Control tab on the CommServe Properties if you disabled it earlier.

Section 5: Updating the Clients with the new CommServe name.

If you had to submit a name change in Section 3, Step 6 you must now inform the clients of the name change.

In the Control Panel open up Name Management

Check the radio button for update CommServe for clients post Migration or Split

Select the old commserve hostname

Select all the clients and click Finish