How do I update the appliance?

SUMMARY

This article explains how to access and apply updates to your Unitrends Free appliance.

How to Update the Appliance

Checking for and applying the updates is easy. Just follow these simple rules:
1) Are you copying to a second offsite appliance?

1. The offsite Target appliance must always be updated prior to the local source appliance.
2. If you are coping to an offsite target appliance, follow these instructions to update it first, then update the local source appliance.

2) Once the Target has been successfully updated, reboot the Source, then update it to the current release.
3) Update any Unitrends Client Agents. You can get the latest update from the Download page

To check if an update is available, click on the  Options menu (gears icon) in the Global Toolbar and select Check for Updates. The number of updates available for your appliance displays in the Available System Updates dialog. Click Update to install the updates or Cancel to exit the dialog without updating the appliance.

The Web Administrative Interface will show the following when the update has started, until the update completes.

How to Monitor the Update
QUESTION: How do I know when the update is done?

ANSWER: If you are familiar with the command line interface, you can execute this command to see what processes are running related to the updates...

watch -d -n 5 "uptime;echo "Current Date and Time: `date`";echo "Hostname: `hostname`";dpu asset;dpu version;ps -ae --sort=-command|grep -v grep|grep -v 'idle\|ndmp/ndmpd\|dpuconfig '|grep -i 'yum\|repo\|updates\|xfs_r\|upgrade\|after\|"PID TTY"'"

The output will look something like this:

Any values that turns white means it changed its value since. The portion under the column header (PID TTY TIME CMD) reflects work being done related as part of the update process. As long as there are items displayed under the column header, do not administer nor restart the Unitrends appliance. The appliance is done updating when you see the Version value change the current release AND there are no longer any commands under the column header.

1. The Web Administrative Interface (this article).
2. From the SSH Command Line Interface using PuTTY.
3. Using the Air Gap Offline Update procedures.
4. By Opting-in to the Helix Auto-update for the Unitrends Appliance.