Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent

To upgrade a Hyper-V Agent, first upgrade the Management service and then upgrade all Host services in the Hyper-V environment. See Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Management service and Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Host service.

Note: All Hyper-V Agent services must be upgraded to the same version. Earlier service versions cannot be used with later service versions.

In a Hyper-V environment on Windows Server 2016 or later, incremental backups will reseed in some cases after an upgrade from Hyper-V Agent version 9.00 or earlier to version 9.1x or later:

Backups will reseed for VMs with dynamically-expanding disks. Data will not be deduplicated on the vault after the reseed, and data from the previous Hyper-V Agent version will not be removed from the vault until specified by the retention settings. For example, if you use Hyper-V Agent 9.00 to back up a VM with dynamically-expanding disks and the resulting safeset is 25 GB in size, then upgrade the Hyper-V Agent to version 9.1x and back up the same VM (with no data changes) again, the next safeset will also be 25 GB in size and the pool size will increase to 50 GB.

IMPORTANT: After an upgrade to Hyper-V Agent 9.1x or later, the first backup of a VM with dynamically-expanding disks will be a full backup and may cause temporary billing overages or vault license exhaustion depending on your contract type. If you encounter this issue, please contact Support.
Backups will partially reseed for VMs with fixed disks and user checkpoints.
Backups will not reseed for VMs with fixed disks and no user checkpoints.

You can also move to a newer Agent version when recovering a protected Hyper-V environment after a disaster or when moving to a new Hyper-V environment. See Recover jobs and settings from an offline Hyper-V Agent.

Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Management service

Before upgrading the Management service, make sure that no backups or restores are running, and that the log viewer is not running.

IMPORTANT: You cannot upgrade the Management service to version 8.84 or later if it is installed directly on a Hyper-V host in a Hyper-V cluster. Instead, follow the procedure in Replace a Hyper-V Agent Management service that is installed on a Hyper-V host. You can upgrade the Management service to version 8.84 or later if it is installed on a standalone Hyper-V host, but we recommend replacing it.

After upgrading the Management service, upgrade any Host services to the same version. See Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Host service.

To upgrade the Management service silently, see Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Management service in silent mode.

To upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Management service:

On the server or VM where you want to upgrade the Management service, double-click the Hyper-V Agent Management service installation kit.
In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

A message box warns you to be sure that there are no backups or restores in progress.
In the message box, click Yes.
In the installation wizard, click Next.
On the Installation Completed page, click Finish.

Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Management service in silent mode

To upgrade the Management service in silent mode, run the following command in the directory where the installation kit is located:

installKitName /quiet /S [/L<localeID>] /V"/qn /L*v [\"logFileName\"] "

Where installKitName is the name of the Hyper-V Agent Management service installation kit: Hyper-V_Agent_Management-x-xx-xxxx.exe. x-xx-xxxx represents the Agent version number.

The following table lists and describes command parameters.

Parameter	Description
\"logFileName”	Optional. Specifies the path and name of the installation log file. If the logFileName includes spaces, enclose the value in double quotation marks. Example: \"C:\Logs\My Log.txt\" If you do not specify a logFileName, the installation log is saved in the Windows installer default location (usually the user’s temp directory).

Parameter

Description

\"logFileName”

Optional. Specifies the path and name of the installation log file. If the logFileName includes spaces, enclose the value in double quotation marks.

Example: \"C:\Logs\My Log.txt\"

If you do not specify a logFileName, the installation log is saved in the Windows installer default location (usually the user’s temp directory).

For example, to upgrade the Management service in silent mode, you could run the following command:

Hyper-V_Agent_Management-x-xx-xxxx.exe /quiet /S /L1033 /V"/qn /L*v \"C:\logs\1.log\" "

Replace a Hyper-V Agent Management service that is installed on a Hyper-V host

You cannot upgrade the Management service to version 8.84 or later if it is installed directly on a Hyper-V host in a Hyper-V cluster. Instead, you must install a new Hyper-V Agent Management service on another VM or server and recover jobs and settings from the previous Management service version.

If the Management service is installed on a standalone Hyper-V host, you can upgrade the Management service to version 8.84 or later. However, we recommend replacing it with a Management service on another VM or server.

To replace a Hyper-V Agent Management service that is installed on a Hyper-V host:

Back up Hyper-V Agent logs in the <ManagementServiceInstallFolder>\Data folder.

This folder includes logs from both the Hyper-V Agent Management and Host services. Host services upload logs to the Management service after a process ends.
Uninstall the Management service that is installed on a Hyper-V host in a Hyper-V cluster.
Install the Hyper-V Agent Management service on a VM or server that has local network access to the protected Hyper-V environment. See Prepare for a Hyper-V Agent deployment.
Recover jobs and settings from the offline Hyper-V Agent which you uninstalled in Step 2. See Recover jobs and settings from an offline Hyper-V Agent. Be sure to enter all required passwords, including Hyper-V environment, vault, and encryption passwords.

Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Host service

Before upgrading the Host service, make sure that no backups or restores are running, that the log viewer is not running, and that the Management service has been upgraded to the same version. See Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Management service.

To upgrade the Host service silently, see Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Host service in silent mode.

To upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Host service:

On the server where you want to upgrade the Host service, double-click the Hyper-V Agent Host service installation kit.
In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

A message box warns you to be sure that there are no backups or restores in progress.
In the message box, click Yes.
In the installation wizard, click Next.
On the Installation Completed page, click Finish.

Upgrade the Hyper-V Agent Host service in silent mode

To upgrade the Host service in silent mode, run the following command in the directory where the installation kit is located:

installKitName /quiet /S [/L<localeID>] /V"/qn /L*v [\"logFileName\"] HOST=managementServiceAddress "

Where installKitName is the name of the Hyper-V Agent Host service installation kit: Hyper-V_Agent_Host-x-xx-xxxx.exe. x-xx-xxxx represents the Agent version number.

The following table lists and describes command parameters.

Parameter	Description
\"logFileName"	Optional. Specifies the path and name of the installation log file. If the logFileName includes spaces, enclose thevaluein double quotation marks. Example: \”C:\Logs\My Log.txt\” If you do not specify a logFileName, the installation log is saved in the Windows installer default location (usually the user’s temp directory).

Parameter

Description

\"logFileName"

Optional. Specifies the path and name of the installation log file. If the logFileName includes spaces, enclose thevaluein double quotation marks.

Example: \”C:\Logs\My Log.txt\”

If you do not specify a logFileName, the installation log is saved in the Windows installer default location (usually the user’s temp directory).

For example, to upgrade the Host service in silent mode, you could run the following command:

Hyper-V_Agent_Host-x-xx-xxxx.exe /quiet /S /L1036 /V"/qn /L*v \"C:\logs\1.log\" "