Veeam 12.2 I/O Filter Upgrade Nag Dialogue

[philrandal]

Hi folks,

Every time I open VB&R console it nags me to update the ESXI I/O Filters.

Not now, Veeam, not now! How do I suppress the nag popup?

Especially annoying given that the WhatsNew document states:

"As it comes to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 specifically, it also supports I/O filters of versions 12.0
and 12.1. This allows organizations using backup server versions 12 and 12.1 to upgrade to version 12.2
with no disruption and choose a convenient time for updating CDP I/O filters later."

So why nag us to update immediately?

Cheers,

Phil

[Mildur]

Hello Phil

Yes, it's true that you can run older filters with v12.2. However, that doesn't mean you should delay updating the filters for weeks or months. If we were to hide that message, a backup admin might forget about those old filters. This could eventually lead to upgrade issues with new versions when they are not backwards compatible anymore.

Instead of hiding the message, I strongly recommend scheduling the update of the filters for the next possible maintenance window.

Best,
Fabian

[philrandal]

The button you click doesn't give any hint that anything will be scheduled, or that you will be given an option to schedule it.

The problem is that if the popup is displayed every time, someone is going to accidentally click on the apply button when they shouldn't.

[veremin]

Hi, Phil,

On one hand, what you said is valid. On the other hand, the situation where user skips the message and forgets about upgrading the filters forever looks even worse.

Having said that, we will consider how to improve informative messages regarding filter upgrades in future product releases.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

@veremin does the Apply button immediately initiates the upgrade (thus putting production ESXi hosts into the maintenance mode)?
If yes then we should remove this in the immediate patch, because such UX is akin to tying a grenade to a steering wheel by the pin
Only a matter of a short time when someone will set one off...

[veremin]

It depends on DRS configuration.

During filter upgrades, if DRS is not configured on the clusters, the client needs to manually put the hosts into Maintenance Mode before the upgrade.

If DRS is configured, the hosts will be automatically put into Maintenance Mode during I/O filter upgrade. This is more of an implementation of the filter upgrade by VMware rather than our own.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Yeah I get that difference. But DRS is likely to be configured for most customers who need CDP-level protection for their top tier workloads. So please make sure the Apply button is removed from the dialog as soon as possible, and also reduce the dialog frequency to once per week (we need to keep nagging but few enterprise customers will need less time then that to plan their next maintenance window).

Also in the dialog lets provide a direct link to the documentation page or KB article that lists all the limitations while they are running in the compatibility mode, as I understand there are quire a few.

[philrandal]

In our situation, we have clustered VMs with RDMs, which don't automatically move off the host with DRS and require failovers for maintenance, requiring delicate negotiations with our client as to scheduling and failover of these critical systems, so it can be weeks rather than days before we can update.

With the time-bomb prompt nagging us to apply every time we open the backup console. One day, someone will press the wrong button. I know things will eventually time out but even so, it could cause issues.

[veremin]

Before we change the UI logic, let me remind you that we already have a message warning users that upgrading filters will trigger maintenance mode on the specified clusters. The message appears when the user clicks Next. In other words, accidentally clicking OK and impacting the infrastructure is not possible; the user needs to explicitly agree to this action. Doesn't it seem like everything we need is already present in the product, and no additional changes are required?

Thanks!

[Gostev]

OK, then the answer to my question is different - no, clicking the Apply button does not immediately initiates the upgrade.

Given that this explicit warning already exists, I'd say let's simply reduce the nag frequency to weekly and call it a day. @philrandal fair?

Oh and add the KB article with limitations like this:
Proceed with the upgrade now? If you postpone, the [following limitation] will apply.
(link to the user guide page about compatibility mode limitations)

[veremin]

Given that this explicit warning already exists, I'd say let's simply reduce the nag frequency to weekly and call it a day.

I'm not sure if this is easily achievable because the wizard that notifies the user about expired components is universal and applies to all components as a whole. This means that either we would need to develop additional logic to handle I/O filters outside of the general mechanism, or we would have to display the upgrade wizard for all components no more frequently than once a week.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Right - this thought below applies to updates of all components, not just CDP. If they did not update some remote components immediately after upgrading the backup server then it's safe to say they had a really good reason not to do this, so it's extremely unlikely that they will do this when they open the console again in 1 hour - so there's no reason to bomb them each time. Besides, as far as I remember our product makes it clearly visible when some component require updates in any case, as they appear in the dedicated bold "Out of date" management tree node?

reduce the dialog frequency to once per week (we need to keep nagging but few enterprise customers will need less time then that to plan their next maintenance window)

[veremin]

Understood, we will discuss the idea with the R&D team and see what can be done in the near future. Thanks!

[veremin]

It seems that in the next minor product release we will be able to reduce frequency of component update wizard display and show it once a week to each backup server user (once per user), instead of bombarding them with constant reminders.

Thanks!