2003 CMS vs. 2008 CPA

[Dan_Davis_2]

Where is the sense in this kind of thing?  "The remote CMS must be Windows Server 2008 to support a Windows Server 2008 Continuous Protection Agent"

We have a Windows Server 2003 Standard for CMS and Media Server with oodles of terabyte storage and oodles of snapshots.  We have mostly 2003 Servers, but have introduced some 2008 Server systems recently.  How am I expected to cover these newer systems?  How can Symantec expect existing systems to protect newer systems?  Buy more servers and more software?  No, I think not.

Even if I thought of upgrading the CMS server to 2008, read the  "Do not follow this procedure if any of the following are true:" section about doing that. http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/319367.htm.  Even if it were possible, do you want to buy me the license and the time requried to perform the upgrade?

I cannot install CMS on another system and have it manage the original backup group either.  So, what am I supposed to do?

[LVCAdmin]

I have the same situation - any resolution out there?  I can't be there isn't a coexistence solution from Symantec.

Thanks,

Dave Miller

[LasseF]

We are in the exact same situation. We are running on Server 2003 on most of the servers but are introducing 4 new servers with Server 2008.

[LasseF]

I solved the problem.......... I bought a license for Server 2008 and upgraded the server and now everything is working :)

[Dan_Davis_2]

You're telling me that you upgraded your CMS, even though the tech article says you can't do it, you shant do it?  Mind telling me if it was as simple as any 'ol server OS upgrade?  What safegaurd steps did you follow to protect yourself in case of failure?

[LasseF]

Hi Dan

I assume you are adressing me with your post. I just read my last post again and it could have been a bit more specific regarding what I did :)

I upgraded our SEPM server from Server 2003 R2 to Server 2008 SP2, without taking any precaution regarding the case of failure. Our SEPM server is more or less dedicated to running SEPM so if I could safe time by doing a on-the-fly upgrade then fine and if not I would have to re-install.
I can't recommend the on-the-fly upgrade because I ran into some problems afterwards, because Server 2003 and 2008 don't use all the same standard paths. I ended up contacting Symantec Support and they gave me the solution which you can find here:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/330221.htm
The Symantec doc was made available the day after I contacted Symantec :)

/Lasse

[joydeepdutt]

Lasse is correct.
Given doc shoudl be of your help
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/330221.htm

I tried to open : http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/319367.htm
This doc which you refered is more related to BE then CMS/CPA

When upgrading from Microsoft Windows 2003 Server to Microsoft Windows 2008 Server that has Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server (CPS) installed, this will cause the Backup Exec Continuous Protection Configuration Writer service to no longer start.  This is due to the folder name changes that are implemented in Windows 2008 and a partial migration of the data from the PROGRAM FILES directory to the new directory name of PROGRAM DATA.

To resolve this, an uninstall and reinstall of the application will be necessary to correct the service not starting since a repair will not correct this.  Follow the steps below as the corrective action.

1.  Stop all of the CPS services on the server that was upgraded to Windows 2008.  If this is not the CPS Management Server, stop the CPS services on that server as well.

2.  Make a copy of the DATABASE folder from within the directory where CPS is installed on that server and the CPS Management server if this is not the same server.

3.  Uninstall CPS from Windows Control Panel.  Make sure to choose NO when it asks if you want to remove all of the files (database, backup sets, etc) during the uninstall.

4.  Reboot server.

5.  Reinstall CPS.

6.  Reboot server.

7.  Confirm that all of the jobs and configurations are still in place and that all of the CPS services are started.