Slight gotcha - installing updates with a secure linux repo

[IanBolton]

I'm not sure if this was just me missing something, but I found some steps missing, or at least, more steps would have made it easier for us, when installing updates. (First time since our initial deployment)

We were installing P20220302

We upgraded the VBR server. We ticked the 'update remote components automatically' button.
When we launched the console first time, we were prompted for single use creds for the linux repos. (We had to connect via iLO and enable SSH and modify firewall). This was fine.
Initial test backup to disk ran, the backup copy job which copies to the secure repo failed with 'access denied'.

It turns out that we had used different creds this time than when we set up the repo, so the repo directories were owned by that initial user.
When we updated the creds for the repo servers (via Backup Infrastructure, Managed servers, Linux) and specified the same single use-creds as we had done at deployment time (having temporarily re-added this linux user to the sudoers group on the linux repo servers) everything worked fine.

Like I say, I may have missed something, or there might be different instructions for those of us with secure repos, but hopefully this brain dump will help someone else who might be frantically googling like I was yesterday (and I will probably do so again!)

[Mildur]

Hi Ian

Thanks for the post.
Yes, you have to use the same user.
On a Linux hardened repository, the backup files are owned by the user which you provide in the "single use credential step".
If you provide another user, you must change the ownership of the files or you get the error message "Access Denied". I recommend to use the same user.

Thanks
Fabian

[IanBolton]

Oh definitely. It was certainly easier to re-add the previously used user to the suoders group, and then work out how to edit the credentials for the repo and re-add.

On the plus side, lets see this as a learning experience for me - and a chance to update (ie. write) documentation

[Mildur]

True, running into issues is the best learning experience

I will discuss the documentation with the team.
We are planning to optimize the upgrade process in future versions of the product which could prevent such issues. But no ETA yet

[IanBolton]

Another slight issue we had, there was a slight friction with getting the linux servers upgraded, when we were messing with the creds, it looked like the windows servers (other repo, proxies) were upgraded fine, as if it had progressed in the background while we were specifying/testing the linux creds. We had to go 'previous/next' with the wizard to make it retry the linux servers when the creds/ssh/sudoers group was all sorted.

I do have another issue with the upgrade documentation - why do I need to "Close Veeam Backup & Replication processes in the Task Manager" before installing an update - why does the installer not do this itself? For us, we stopped all the VBR services prior to installing the update, but the installer did not start services post-install. We started a few to make the console connect (and once the remote infrastructure components were updated, we rebooted the VBR server to get all the services started correctly), but it's 2022 - users should not need to manually stop/start services when installing updates.

[Mildur]

why do I need to "Close Veeam Backup & Replication processes in the Task Manager" before installing an update - why does the installer not do this itself?

You should only have to close all open Veeam Consoles and Veeam Explorers from each logged-in user to the backup server. No need to stop all Veeam processes in the task manager. We don't close them automatically, that's true.

For us, we stopped all the VBR services prior to installing the update, but the installer did not start services post-install.

That is definitely not a manual step in the process. Under normal circumstances, our installer will stop all VBR services.
If you have any reason to stop the services manually, then it seems like a technical issue which should be analyzed.

[IanBolton]

No need to stop all Veeam processes in the task manager.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

under pre-reqs:
"Close Veeam Backup & Replication processes in the Task Manager"

We only stopped the services as it was a way to be certain that all the processes were stopped

[Mildur]

Thanks for showing me the Helpcenter Link.
I will clarify this. I don't think that's necessary to stop all processes manually.
I'll let you know as soon as I have an answer.