Scheduling and prioritizing upgrades in a data cluster

A method for managing upgrades of backup agents in a data cluster, comprising:

• identifying, by a data protection manager, a backup agent upgrade event associated with a backup agent type of backup agent types and a data cluster comprising a plurality of production hosts, wherein the plurality of production hosts comprise virtual machines (VMs);
• in response to identifying the backup agent upgrade event:
• obtaining production host information associated with the plurality of production hosts;
• obtaining protection policy information associated with the plurality of production hosts;
• generating an upgrade schedule specifying a portion of production hosts of the plurality of production hosts associated with backup agent upgrades of backup agents of the backup agent type using the production host information and the protection policy information by:
• filtering a list of production hosts of the plurality of production hosts to include production hosts that exceed a VM asset threshold associated with the backup agent type;
• filtering the list to include production hosts that exceed a VM asset size threshold associated with the backup agent type;
• and
• initiating performance of backup agent upgrades on the portion of the plurality of production hosts based on the upgrade schedule.

A method for managing upgrades of backup agents in a data cluster, comprising:

• identifying, by a data protection manager, a backup agent upgrade event associated with a backup agent type of backup agent types and a data cluster comprising a plurality of production hosts, wherein the plurality of production hosts comprise virtual machines (VMs);
• in response to identifying the backup agent upgrade event:
• obtaining production host information associated with the plurality of production hosts;
• obtaining protection policy information associated with the plurality of production hosts;
• generating an upgrade schedule specifying a portion of production hosts of the plurality of production hosts associated with backup agent upgrades of backup agents of the backup agent type using the production host information and the protection policy information;
• and
• initiating performance of backup agent upgrades on the portion of the plurality of production hosts based on the upgrade schedule.