KB263: Ensuring V5 clients can backup to a V6 Storage Platform

Description

All V5 clients has the ability to backup to a version 6 Storage Platform and will be auto-updated to V6 if auto updates are enabled.  There is however one scenario where a V5 client will NOT connect to a V6 Platform (not even to auto-update) and that is when the 'Disable SSL Encryption' option has been manually checked in the SE client or applied with profiling.   In such a case the SSL handshake will fail and absolutely no communications between the client and SP will be possible at all.  The client will abort any backup with the following error:
'Remote host closed the connection during handshake'

Note that this is a restriction in .Net and it is not possible to lower the security settings in order to allow SSL communications without encryption.

There are several options to avoid or resolve this issue and these are outlined below.

Option 1

The safest option is to load SP 5.1 update 4 and ensuring auto updates are enabled long before upgrading to V6.  This will ensure all clients auto update to V5.1.3 where the 'Disable SSL Encryption' option is ignored even if it is set.  This means that by the time the Storage Platform is upgraded to V6.0 all the Backup Clients are on V5.1.3 so all will be able to connect (and auto-upgrade to v6) regardless of the SSL setting.  Note that it requires all backup clients using this particular SSL setting to backup at least once to the V5 Storage Platform where the updated is loaded in order to upgrade.
This option is particularly useful for ISP's where the SP administrator has no control over client side settings.

Option 2

Use profiling to set Disable SSL Encryption=false for every group on the Storage Platform - thereby overriding any client side SSL settings.  This may be a tedious excercise on a Platform with many groups, in which case option 1 is more suitable.  It will again require that every backup client backs up at least once to the V5 Storage Platform before the SP is upgraded to V6.

Option 3

Ensure all backup clients use SSL encryption when connecting to the SP.  Do this before upgrading the SP to V6.  This can be done by manually ensuring each backup client has the 'Disable SSL Encryption' check box cleared.  
This option is useful in corporate environments where the SP administrator has full control over all clients or knows that all backup clients use the default options.

Option 4

Do nothing and just upgrade the SP.  Then afterwards manually clear the disable the 'Disable SSL Encryption' check box for each Backup Client that fails to backup.  This option is not possible if the 'Disable SSL Encryption' option has been set with profiling.  In such a case all V5 clients will have to be manually upgraded to V6 in order to be able to back up again.