This guide goes through some noteworthy changes with V9 and best practices with regards to preparing for a smooth transition.

A minimum of 8.21.x must be installed in order to use the upgrade wizard and migrate the configuration to V9.

License Key

Prior to upgrading your VM Backup installation to V9, be sure to have a valid Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA), or a Subscription license.

If you have a currently SMA, you will be entitled to a free upgrade to V9.

• If you're using Subscription Licensing, you're automatically entitled to V9
  
  

• If your SMA has expired, please contact your Partner or contact altaro_renewals@sales.hornetsecurity.com to renew it before upgrading.
  
  

• Click here for instructions on checking your SMA status

Storage space

V9 introduces a new backup format that is able to optimize disk space utilization and will now automatically reclaim freed space on disk. Alongside other improvements that will allow fully concurrent offsite repository retention and robust, scalable auxiliary databases.

In light of these improvements, fresh onsite and offsite backup sets (replication too) will be required.
For more information on VM Backup V9 improvement, read this KB article.

Notes for MSP's

For you MSP's, especially those leveraging the Offsite Backup Server - you will be able to run V8 and V9 Offsite Servers side-by-side in order to be able to slowly update your client's main VM Backup since both sides need to be running the same version in order to connect successfully.

This will allow you ample time to perform seed-to-disk exports and imports for your customers, and to stagger the rollout of V9 to your customers at your own pace. Take note that you will also be required to restart replication jobs as well.

It's recommended that you migrate your clients one-by-one or in smaller batches, this will especially make it easier in terms of storage space management since a new full offsite copy will need to be taken after upgrading to V9. You can follow this guide here in order to manually delete older backup data once you're happy with the new backup sets taken on V9.

Your V8 offsite backups will continue working as long as the client's VM Backup install is still running V8. You can find full instructions on upgrading your Offsite Backup Server as part of our upgrade guide.

New ports

VM Backup V9 makes use of a different set of ports, which is specifically important for users leveraging the Offsite Backup Server as these ports need to be updated on any configured firewalls.

36000, 36001 and 36100 are the new ports required for offsite backups/replication to an Offsite Backup Server.

If you were previously throttling your bandwidth for Offsite Backups / Replication, you will also need to update the necessary firewall rules accordingly. For more information on Bandwidth Throttling for Offsite Backups / Replication, read this KB article.

Antivirus 

If you are running an Antivirus software or a file-scanning software, ensure the below directories are excluded from scanning:

• C:\ProgramData\Hornetsecurity on the Management and on the Hyper-V hosts
• C:\Program Files\Hornetsecurity on the Management and on the Hyper-V hosts
• all onsite backup drive directories
• all offsite backup drive directories

Other points

• Since the first backup after the upgrade to V9 will be a full backup, we recommend performing the upgrade and kicking off your backup jobs on a Friday to allow some more time for them to run over the weekend.
  
  
• Take note of your license key prior to the upgrade, you can find it here.
  
  
• Be sure to go through the full list of system requirements for VM Backup V9.
  
  
• ESXi 5.0/5.1 are no longer supported with V9.
  
  
• .NET Framework 4.8 is required on the VM Backup management console as well as Hyper-V hosts, so ensure you have it installed prior to upgrading.
  
  
• Services have been renamed
• Event logs source names have been updated to "VM Backup"

Help!

As always our support team are here to assist if you have any trouble upgrading, so please feel free to get in touch if you need us! Our contact details are at the bottom of this page.