Administering the Backup Server › CA ARCserve Backup Agent Deployment

CA ARCserve Backup Agent Deployment

CA ARCserve Backup Agent Deployment is a wizard-like application that lets you install and upgrade a collection of CA ARCserve Backup agents on multiple remote hosts simultaneously. Agent Deployment was designed to help you ensure that you are running the most current version of a select group of CA ARCserve Backup agents in your backup environment.

Agent Deployment requires installation files that you can install on the CA ARCserve Backup server. This eliminates the need to provide the CA ARCserve Backup installation media when you run Agent Deployment. However, Agent Deployment requires approximately 1.3 GB of hard disk space, and can significantly increase the length of time required to install CA ARCserve Backup. To eliminate the need to provide the installation media, you must explicitly select Agent Deployment Setup Files when you install CA ARCserve Backup.

The list that follows describes the methods that you can use to deploy agents on remote hosts:

• Automatic upgrade--Lets you upgrade agents on remote hosts that previously communicated with the CA ARCserve Backup server. Agent Deployment automatically detects the agents running on remote hosts that are registered to the CA ARCserve Backup server and lets you upgrade the agents to this release. This method ensures that all agents running in your CA ARCserve Backup environment are the same release as the CA ARCserve Backup server.

  Note: Using Automatic upgrade you cannot manually specify remote agent host names.

  Using this method, you can deploy the agents and components that follow:

  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SQL Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SharePoint Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Open Files
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Oracle
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Virtual Machines
  • CA ARCserve Backup Client Agent for Windows
  • CA ARCserve Backup Diagnostic Utilities

  Note: For information about how to deploy agents to remote hosts using Automatic upgrade see Deploy Agents to Remote Hosts Using Automatic Upgrade.

• Custom deployment--Lets you install agents and upgrade agents on any remote host. Hosts of this type may or may not have a previous version of an agent installed.

  Using this method, you can deploy the agents and components that follow:

  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Open Files
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Virtual Machines
  • CA ARCserve Backup Client Agent for Windows
  • CA ARCserve Backup Diagnostic Utilities

  Note: For information about how to deploy agents to remote hosts using Custom deployment, see Deploy Agents to Remote Hosts Using Custom Deployment.

• Virtual Machine deployment--Lets you install agents and upgrade agents on any VM. The target VMs may or may not have a previous version of an agent installed.

  Using this method you can deploy the agents and components that follow:

  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Open Files
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Virtual Machines
  • CA ARCserve Backup Client Agent for Windows
  • CA ARCserve Backup Diagnostic Utilities

  Note: For information about how to deploy agents to remote hosts using Custom installation, see Deploy Agents to VMs Using Virtual Machine Deployment.

Review the considerations that follow before you use Agent Deployment:

• Agent Deployment lets you deploy the CA ARCserve Backup products that follow:
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SQL Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SharePoint Server
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Open Files
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Oracle
  • CA ARCserve Backup Agent for Virtual Machines
  • CA ARCserve Backup Client Agent for Windows
  • CA ARCserve Backup Diagnostic Utilities

  Note: If Agent Deployment detects an agent on the remote host that not listed above, Agent Deployment terminates.

• You should not use Agent Deployment to install the Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server on Exchange Client Access Servers and Hub Transport Servers.
• Agent Deployment requires you to specify the host names of the target systems. CA ARCserve Backup does not support specifying IP addresses when you are deploying agents to remote systems.
• Agent Deployment installs the agents into their default installation path. For example, Agent Deployment installs or upgrades the Client Agent for Windows in the path that follows (x86 systems):

  C:\Program Files\CA\ARCserve Backup Client Agent for Windows
  

• You must log in to your computer with an administrative account or an account with administrative privileges to deploy agents to remote hosts.
• You should ensure that the administrative share on the remote hosts (for example, C$, Admin$, and so on) is accessible from the server that pushes the agents.
• You should ensure that the firewall exception rule for File and Printing Service on the remote hosts is enabled. You must complete this task on Windows Server 2008 systems because, by default, Windows Server 2008 firewall policy blocks File and Printing Service communication.
• To prevent the Windows firewall from blocking File and Print Sharing communication, you should use Domain level group policy to enable an exception to File and Print Sharing communication on all servers in your backup environment.
• You must disable simple file sharing on Windows XP systems to ensure that you can successfully install agents on remote hosts. Use the steps that follow to disable simple file sharing on remote hosts:
  1. Log in to the remote Windows XP host system.

     Double-click My Computer on the desktop.

     My Computer opens.

  2. Click Folder Options on the Tools menu.

     The Folder Options dialog opens.

  3. Click the View tab.

     Locate Use simple file sharing (recommended).

     Clear the check box next to Use simple file sharing (recommended) and click OK.

     Simple file sharing is disabled.