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Flyinraptr's avatar
Flyinraptr
Level 5
11 years ago

Netbackup Migration/Refresh Recommendations?

Sanity check - appreciate any suggestions, advice, gotchas and confirmation before marching down this road ....

 

Existing environment - Netbackup v7.1.0.3 - running on Windows Server 2003 SP3.   Netbackup Masters are running in a 2-node MS Cluster.   Thirteen NB Media servers in three locations.  All NB servers are joined to Active Directory domain "X"

Requirement 1 - Hardware server refresh and migration to Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.   

Requirement 2 - Migrated NB Environment from Active Directory domain "X" to Active Directory domain "Y".

Requirement 3 - Maintain existing NB version during migration to new hardware and AD Domain.  After migration is complete - ugrade NB to the v 7.6.

.................................................................................................................

Current Plan:

The NB Media servers seem to be fairly straight-forward - fresh install of OS / Netbackup on new hardware joined to AD domain "Y".  After moving jobs from existing NB Media servers to the new NB Media servers - retire the existing NB Media servers.

The Master Cluster is a different beast.  The first thought is to retain the virtual Cluster name - in the new W2K8 R2 Cluster in AD domain "Y".   Current idea would be to take the existing Master Cluster offline - build a new W2K8 R2 Cluster using new hardware and using the the existing virtual Cluster name - and pointing to the existing shared cluster LUNs.  After confirmation that everything is ok with the new cluster - retire the existing NB cluster.  Still chasing down differences between clustering with W2K3 and W2K8 R2 at the moment.  

 

Thanks ...

 

 

 

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  • SymTerry's avatar
    SymTerry
    11 years ago

    If you have the time and the hardware, maybe you could just create a whole new NetBackup environment and run the systems parallel till retentions run out on the old system.

    When it comes time to restore an image from the old system, just refer to the old systems catalog to find out which tapes would be used, phase 1 phase 2 import those tapes to the new system, and then perform the restore as a redirected restore.

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  • Flyinraptr's avatar
    Flyinraptr
    Level 5
    11 years ago

    Hi Marriane -

    That is very interesting ... thanks for the input!

    On the nbemmcmd -listhosts -verbose  command  - the virtual master cluster - shows short name - under it is listed "MachineName = shortname"  and FQName = FQDN. 

    I took a look at the Recovery Without Import document -  one of the restrictions listed seem limiting such as:   "None of the tapes being used will be used for backups at the Recovery site"

    Also - under Caveats - it mentions that if you want to permanently move tapes/images - you are looking at a Master Merge - which is a service offered by Consulting Services.

     

    ......  After chewing on this for a few days now - and gathering a little more info - such as the size of our  Catalog DB (1TB - I remember the days where our entire organization backup was less than that) - I'm leaning towards building a "Net new" Netbackup environment and just keeping one of the old Master servers around for Tape lookup.  The main reason is due to the fact we have MS Clustered Master servers - and complications/effort in migrating from a W2K3 Cluster to a W2K8 R2 Cluster - in order to keep the original Master virtual name - we would likely have to build the cluster and migrate in one step.  The other way we can have the new Master Cluster up and running at our discretion.   Still weighing the options though.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    11 years ago

    "None of the tapes being used will be used for backups at the Recovery site"

    Correct - this is why I posted the steps to move Assigned media to non-backup pool and keep an eye on Tape Summary report when images on media expire, after which tapes can be used for backups again.
    In the meantime you will need enough unassigned tapes to perform backups to until previously assigned tapes become available.
     

    nbemmcmd output that shows master server name as shortname says to me that you do not need a consultant to perform a full catalog recovery. The FQDN will automatically be updated.
    The only other requirements are that new master must also be clustered using the same virtual hostname and that exact same mount points / drive letters / installation path be used as on old environment.

    See http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH58358