Forum Discussion

DuckTape's avatar
DuckTape
Level 4
8 years ago

Replacing 5220 appliance with windows Lenovo server

I have been trying to find anything showing what is the best windows hardware configuration to replace 5220 appliances. we have appliances ,  master (with 51Tb) and a media server (51tb) on 2.7.3 version.

1.my question is there any documentation showing what is best configuration when wanting to use windows?

2.what is the best way to move data from appliance to windows?

3. any advice from someone who has done that.

i want to ask for the most of everything, (like memory, disk, etc.) so i dont run into pitfalls. all i found was minimum requirements.

  • sdo's avatar
    sdo
    8 years ago

    Various NetBackup Appliance QRC cards can give you a high level view of some of the basic hardware details of the various models and incarnations of the stock PBBA appliances:

    Consolidated List of NetBackup Appliance Quick Reference Cards

    http://www.veritas.com/docs/000023112

    .

    The thing is... an appliance is more than just a piece of tin.  It's a pre-tuned platform ready for NetBackup specific workloads.  If one stops for a moment and thinks about all of the man-hours that Symantec and Veritas have put in to defining requirements, scoping, sizing,  designing, rating components, selecting components, building, basic testing, performance testing, scale-out testing, tuning, tweaking, learning from customer feedback... well that's a lot of work and a lot of lessons learned.

    If one wanted to build one's own NetBackup work-horse, then the first stumbling block is... how would one scale it?  I'd have to ask myself, what I am trying to do?  Build an MSDP media server for 51TB of raw disk, or build an MSDP media server which can scale to the max supported for my own build - which I think is 96TB raw disk on RHEL.  But the 5230 and 5240 PBBA appliances can be larger than this.

    IMO, it's all about the quality of the components.  You certainly need at aleast two separate really good top performance RAID/SAS cards - and believe me, they are not cheap.  One for the O/S and application and MSDP mini catalog, and another the RAID pools for MSDP bulk storage.  Then you have to think about SAS expanders and sourcing your own disk trays.

    Depends on your definition of fun, but maybe this a back-burner idea to research in your own time whilst away from work.  My guess is that you'll spend about 50 to 60 man hours reseraching and acquiring pricing for various components, and still not know whether it will actually all work together, let alone fit together.  And 50 to 60 man hours is a fair amount of FTE cost.

  • I notice that DuckTape has been very quiet... no response to any of the replies?

    Adding to the TN posted by D_Flood - not even Veritas Consulting or Consulting Partner can help with this kind of migration. 
    The Veritas catman tool supports migration TO NetBackup Appliance not FROM it.
    In this instance, only the team who developed the catman tool set - Stone Ram - can assist.
    Tagging StoneRam-Simon

    I am curious about the reason for wanting to move away from Appliances... ?

  • I can't help with the sizing but I can tell you that you will want to replace your Master with something else running Linux/Unix unless you have $$$$ or want to start with a fresh catalog.

    Switching your catalog from the Linux/Unix world to a Windows world is only supported by Veritas Consulting.  You can't do it on your own.

    https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000026956

    Also, unless you stick with Appliances, running a MSDP on a Master isn't recomended.  So you'll end up with three machines to do what you're doing now:  Master and two Storage Servers/MSDP's.

     

    • sdo's avatar
      sdo
      Moderator

      Various NetBackup Appliance QRC cards can give you a high level view of some of the basic hardware details of the various models and incarnations of the stock PBBA appliances:

      Consolidated List of NetBackup Appliance Quick Reference Cards

      http://www.veritas.com/docs/000023112

      .

      The thing is... an appliance is more than just a piece of tin.  It's a pre-tuned platform ready for NetBackup specific workloads.  If one stops for a moment and thinks about all of the man-hours that Symantec and Veritas have put in to defining requirements, scoping, sizing,  designing, rating components, selecting components, building, basic testing, performance testing, scale-out testing, tuning, tweaking, learning from customer feedback... well that's a lot of work and a lot of lessons learned.

      If one wanted to build one's own NetBackup work-horse, then the first stumbling block is... how would one scale it?  I'd have to ask myself, what I am trying to do?  Build an MSDP media server for 51TB of raw disk, or build an MSDP media server which can scale to the max supported for my own build - which I think is 96TB raw disk on RHEL.  But the 5230 and 5240 PBBA appliances can be larger than this.

      IMO, it's all about the quality of the components.  You certainly need at aleast two separate really good top performance RAID/SAS cards - and believe me, they are not cheap.  One for the O/S and application and MSDP mini catalog, and another the RAID pools for MSDP bulk storage.  Then you have to think about SAS expanders and sourcing your own disk trays.

      Depends on your definition of fun, but maybe this a back-burner idea to research in your own time whilst away from work.  My guess is that you'll spend about 50 to 60 man hours reseraching and acquiring pricing for various components, and still not know whether it will actually all work together, let alone fit together.  And 50 to 60 man hours is a fair amount of FTE cost.

      • sdo's avatar
        sdo
        Moderator

        And with a PBBA you get all of the in-built hardware and software monitoring and alerting, and call home, and super easy CLIsh, and hot swap PSU and fans, and dedicated hardware support, and software support (if you renew) for a well defined system which is well known by the vendor support teams.  And a PBBA really is... open the crate, rack it, cable it, power-on, a really quite small amount of config work, and off-you go.

        I'm not poking fun here, really I'm not... this type of question is a bit like asking... I want it now, I want it good, and I want it cheap - and I don't want to put any effort in to it... and I want to be able to go to my boss and say... "Hey Boss!  I have an idea to save loads of money and do something excellent... so... give me an unknown amount of cash, and an unknown amount of time, and I might be able to build you something nearly as excellent as a PBBA - of course I don't know how excellent it will be, but I might get close.  Trust me!  Okay Boss?".

        Un-fun over... and serious now... have you ever seen the "triangle of quality", i.e. the trade-off between "quick" versus "good" versus "cheap"... where...

        quick + cheap = not so good

        cheap + good = not so quick

        good + quick = not so cheap

        ...see here:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_triangle

    • Marianne's avatar
      Marianne
      Level 6

      I notice that DuckTape has been very quiet... no response to any of the replies?

      Adding to the TN posted by D_Flood - not even Veritas Consulting or Consulting Partner can help with this kind of migration. 
      The Veritas catman tool supports migration TO NetBackup Appliance not FROM it.
      In this instance, only the team who developed the catman tool set - Stone Ram - can assist.
      Tagging StoneRam-Simon

      I am curious about the reason for wanting to move away from Appliances... ?

      • StoneRam-Simon's avatar
        StoneRam-Simon
        Level 6

        Thanks for the mention Marianne.

        As Matianne correctly stated, migration from an Appliance is not a supported route by Veritas, but it is possible, and we have done this for a few partners.

        By the description you not only want to migrate the Catalog but also the backup images held in MSDP.  There is only one viable option to do this when you are changing underlying operating systems.

        Demote old master during migration to be media server and then duplicate the images from appliance diskpool to new diskpool on the new master.

        We would be happy to discuss this further if you feel you still want to take that approach.

        Kind Regards

        Simon Brown