Can we import NetBackup 6.5.6 tapes into NBU 7.6

Question

Guys, We are planning to upgrade to NetBackup 7.6 from 6.5.6. Can we able to import NetBackup 6.5.6 tapes into NetBackup 7.6?

Is there any tech note or data sheet in this regard showing what tapes can be imported to which next higher versions of NetBackup.

mph999 · Answer

Yes, NBU images are backwards compatible, so 6.5.6 should import with no problems.

I had a quick search but didn't find a technote that was publically available, Marianne will probably be along in a moment and if anyine knows of one, it will be her (she's not known as 'Marianne the Great for no reason ...).

slim_786 · Answer

I have asked this question before and the response was that older NetBackup images will always be recoverable with the newer versions of NetBackup.

Phase 1 and 2 catalog imports from Tape can easily be done however the main limitation will always be your hardware, specifically your tape drives as they can only read two generations back.

marianne · Answer

I am confused... You are "&nbsp;planning to upgrade to NetBackup 7.6 from 6.5.6."&nbsp;My assumption is that you will upgrade you current NBU 6.5.x to 7.6.x. Is that correct?
So, the 7.6 master will have all the records about previous backups in its catalog.&nbsp;Then, why do want to import the 6.5.x backups?&nbsp;
If you want to import these older version tapes on different 7.7 and 8.0 master servers, I cannot see any issue with that.NBU writes in tar format and remains readable in higher versions.As per previous post - just ensure that you have compatible tape drives.
Hopefully the 7.6 upgrade is just an intermediate step before you upgrade to 7.7.x or 8.0?

lowell_palecek · Answer

There is an official policy that Veritas supports NetBackup master servers with clients N versions back, where N is a small number such as 2. If I count feature release versions from 6.5.6, I get 4 or 5: 7.0, (7.0.1), 7.1, 7.5, 7.6. Thus 6.5.6 client with 7.6 master would be out of support even if 7.6 master were still supported.
There are three practical reasons for this policy. First, even so there are a great many server / client combinations for development and QE engineers to test. Second, it would be difficult for support engineers to try to reproduce any problem you may encounter since they would not have such systems in their labs. Third, it would be difficult for us to build and test any patch binaries that may be needed to resolve a problem.
All that said, we don't remove the code in master server processes that supports back-level clients.&nbsp; Protocol from client to server is versioned, and vice versa. When a server sends a message to a client, it always asks first for the client version, so it can use the appropriate version protocol for the client. You can see this in the bprd logs, where the request has a name such as BPRESTORE_7_7. (I just made up this specific example.)
So yes, it probably will work, but understand that a 7.6 master/media server is unsupported and a 6.5.6 client is even more unsupported.
You ask about upgrading the master/media servers to 8.0. I don't know how that would work. Beginning in 7.7.3, I think, the master server requires a certificate to be deployed on the client. I don't know whether a 6.5.6 client would know how to do work with certificates. I doubt that it would.

arshad_khateeb · Answer

I tried too but haven't got any such technote either. Does anyknow something on this? We need to send our 6.5.6 tapes to other sites for testing and they have NetBacup versions of 7.7 and 8.0.

Forum Discussion

Can we import NetBackup 6.5.6 tapes into NBU 7.6

6 Replies

Related Content

Netbackup 6.5.6 Image Import

Import KMS-files to a new NetBackup Master Server with already imported old catalog (NetBackup 8.2)

Netbackup 6.5.6 Catalog Backup Errors

NetBackup 8.2 RBAC import/export?

Netbackup 6.5.6 nbemm not starting