Data Domain and DDVE: How to Upgrade the Data Domain Operating System

This article was created to assist Dell Technologies customers with upgrading their Data Domain.

Many of the links and references below are accessible only over the Dell Support website.
Log in to support.dell.com before reading further.

• This is only for DDOS and DDVE upgrades. This is not valid for a DDHA upgrade.
• For DDHA upgrades browse DataDomain: OS Upgrade Guide for High Availability (HA) systems (Login required)
• For DDVE deployed in the Cloud (Azure, GCP and AWS), the DDOS .rpm file required to upgrade the code is the same that is used for the hardware models. It can be downloaded from Support for DD OS.
• If this Data Domain is part of an IDPA, it should be upgraded within the IDPA upgrade and it can NOT be upgraded separately.
• You must check the compatibility between your Data Domain required version and other integrations in your environment. Check the compatibility guide using the E-Lab Interoperability Navigator.
• Check the simple code matrix in the notes section in this document to determine how many steps are needed. There should be at least 24 hours between each upgrade step, unless upgrading from 6.2.x to 7.0.x, then no cooling period is required.
• You can find the upgrade path from the release notes of the version that you are upgrading. Reference PowerProtect and Data Domain core documents for a list of Data Domain documents.
• To check whether MDU is needed, reference Data Domain: DDOS 7.x Minimum Disruptive Upgrade (MDU) and DDOS 7.2 Compatibility (Login required).

Process 1: Downloading the code version that you are upgrading to

1. Go to the support website (Support for DD OS) and sign in. Alternatively, you can go to Data Domain: DD OS Software Versions and download from there (Login required).

2. Choose the code to upgrade to.

   Note:
   LTS releases:

   • General Availability releases have completed Data Domain Internal QA Testing and are available for installation in production environments.
   • Long-Term-Support releases have unique characteristics different from the latest feature releases.
     • Are targeted for customers who adopt a standard version across their data centers and remain at that version for a year or more.
     • Are made available every year simultaneously.
     • Are proactively maintained and updated through Maintenance Releases on a regular cadence.
     • Are declared as LTS at the time of release with no vetting period.
     • Have an offering of 36 months of software issue remediation and root cause analysis.
     • Replace the Target Code concept.

3. Under the resources pane, select Downloads & Drivers.

4. Click Data Domain Operating System [VERSION]

   Note: [VERSION] = The version of the download

5. Read the document and then click I Accept on the last page.

6. Read the document and then click the .rpm file to start the download.

Process 2: Uploading the code to the DD system:

1. Open the Data Domain System Manager (For example, this is accessed from either https://hostname/ddem or https://IP/ddem).

2. Log in as sysadmin.

3. Go to the Maintenance tab.

4. Click Upload Upgrade Package and then select your file.

Process 3: Pre-check steps

1. Log in to the Data Domain server.

   1. Open an SSH session.
   2. Type the IP address or hostname.
   3. Log in as sysadmin user.

2. Validate the serial number and the hostname of the Data Domain to ensure you are on the correct server.

   1. system show serialno
   2. hostname

3. Confirm that you have the correct IP address.

   1. net show settings

4. Confirm that your Data Domain is not part of an IDPA. If you see avamar-, and three esxX-logs, or if you see the presence of management VLANS such as ethMa.121, ethMa.123, then this may indicate this is part of an IDPA. If you are unsure, contact the system administrator for your organization.

   1. mtree list
      
      Figure 1: Example of a potential DD with IDPA output

5. Confirm that the Data Domain is not DDHA. Do NOT proceed if this is a DDHA as it has a different upgrade procedure.

   1. ha status
      
      Figure 2: Example of DDHA

6. Check the current code version installed (check the matrix to confirm if this is a single step or multistep upgrade).

   1. system show version

7. Check for alerts and determine if the alert can be cleared or needs an action to be taken. Check the DD Error Message Catalog. If you are unsure or if there are hardware issues, do NOT proceed. Engage the Dell Technologies support team.

   1. alerts show current

8. Check the file system status and confirm that it states the filesystem is enabled and running.

   1. filesys status

9. Check the space and confirm that the post-comp partition has at least 10% free space.

   1. df
   Note: If you have Archive Tier/Extended Retention, you cannot upgrade to DD 7.x version as archive tier is no longer supported in DD 7.x version and causes the upgrade to fail.

10. Check if the cleaning process is running. If yes, stop it before proceeding.

    1. filesys clean status
    2. filesys clean stop

11. Check if the cloud tier is enabled. If yes, stop any data movement before proceeding.

    1. data-movement status
    2. data-movement stop all
    3. cloud clean status
    4. cloud clean stop

12. Check the replication configuration. Check the CTX column. If you ever see it showing 0, it means its Collection Replication (Mirroring), this is rare, but when you have this type of replication it means that both servers must be upgraded simultaneously.

    1. replication show config

13. Check if any replication jobs are running or initializing. If initialization is in progress, it must be stopped before proceeding with the upgrade. Sometimes it can take a long time to stop replication initialization. If replication is not running, we can proceed with the upgrade normally.

    1. replication show stats
    2. To stop replication, reference the Data Domain: Replication initialization is in progress and upgrade cannot proceed.

14. Check for disk reconstruction or failed disks. Ensure that there are no Failed (F), Reconstructing (R), Copy (C), or Absent Disks (A).

    1. disk show state

15. Perform a disk reliability check. Confirm that the last line shows X drives operating normally. Check the reallocated sectors column, if the count is 2000+, the disk may need to be proactively replaced prior to the upgrade.

    1. disk show reliability-data

16. Check the network traffic.

    1. system show stats interval 2 count 10 OR iostat 2

17. Check for running NFS or CIFS jobs. If yes, stop them before proceeding.

    1. nfs show active
    2. cifs show active

18. In the case PCR is enabled and in use, reference Data Domain: Upgrade Instructions for PCR/PCM enabled DD.

19. If integrated with Avamar and upgrading to 6.1, reference Avamar-Data Domain Integration: After upgrading Data Domain to 6.1.x, Avamar snapshots don't expire on Data Domain (Login required).

20. Check the current method used for AutoSupport delivery.

    1. support notification method show

21. Check that the upgrade file is correctly placed in /ddr/var/releases/ directory.

    1. se ls -l /ddr/var/releases
    2. priv set admin

22. Proactively reboot.

    1. system reboot

23. You can monitor the system by pinging the IP address by using Command Prompt. Open Command Prompt and then type:

    1. ping -t [DD IP address]

Process 4: Upgrade

1. When the host is back online, relogin to the Putty session.

2. Run the pre-check steps 7, 8 and 9 to confirm that the system is state is healthy after the reboot.

3. List the content of /ddr/var/releases/

4. Start the upgrade pre-check. Do NOT run the upgrade if issues are detected.

   1. system upgrade precheck <filename.rpm>

5. Start the upgrade.

   1. system upgrade start <filename.rpm>

6. The server reboots automatically. You can monitor the system by pinging the IP address by using Command Prompt.

Process 5: Post-check steps

1. When the host is back online, relogin to the Putty session.

2. Monitor the upgrade.

   1. system upgrade watch

3. The upgrade is completed when the message "Upgrade successfully completed" is displayed.

4. Run the pre-check steps 6, 7, 8 and 9 to confirm that the system is state is healthy after the upgrade.

5. Check the current method used for AutoSupport delivery. If changed post-upgrade from connectemc to email, reference Data Domain: SRS connect home stops after DDOS upgrade to 6.1.x, 6.2.x, or 7.1.x (connect in still works) (Login required).

   1. support notification method show

6. Check Replication Status.

   1. replication show detailed-stats all

7. Check NFS, CIFs, and VTL status.

   1. nfs status
   2. cifs status
   3. vtl status

8. If DDBoost was disabled preupgrade, reenable it.

   1. ddboost enable

9. Check if the password expiry days must be increased.

   1. user password aging show
      Note: If you see "Maximum days between change" is set to a small value (for example, 90), change it to a higher value (for example, 99999):
   2. user password aging set <ddboost username> max-days-between-change 99999