Can't upgrade from BackupExec 2010 R3 to 2012 due to deduplication option

[GAG]

Hello,

I'm triying to upgrade my Backup Exec 2010 R3 server to Backup Exec 2012.

Upgrade installation fails beacuse I have installed "Deduplication option" so I must uninstall it first (in fact I've never used this option, I've just installed it for testing purposes).

The problem is that I can't uninstall this option. It appears ticked (installed) but I can't uninstall it in order to launch the upgrade process.

Any ideas ?

Thanks in advance

[ZeRoC00L]

How do you mean, cannot remove the deduplication option ?
Do you receive an error during uninstall of the dedup option ?

Do you still have a deduplication folder configured ? Can you remove that before uninstall ?

[GAG]

Hi,

As you can see in the attached image, I've installed deduplication option as "60 days test option".

It shows installed but now, I can't uncheck it.

I've never used this option.

[ZeRoC00L]

Just tested it myself, you cannot de-install an agent/option untill you have a valid license key entered....
Strange but true.

I think you don't have much options left, other than complete remove BE and install it again....

[Colin_Weaver]

Hi ZeRoC00L - does that mean you added an Evaluation option for Dedup on your test and then added a BE 2010 Serial number for DeDup to remove it?

[ZeRoC00L]

Correct.

[GAG]

I'm afraid I agree with you Zerocool and don't see any options but complete uninstalling Bexec 2010 and reinstalling 2012.

Such a strange bug isn't it ?

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi in this case please complete the install of be2012 with dedup in trialware and once installation is done you can uncheck dedup option and continue install and that should resolve the issue Thanks

[pkh]

It may not be bug, but was done this way deliberately so that users cannot just deselect and select the option again to being a new trial.  Just guessing.

[Colin_Weaver]

A colleague has mentioned that when he saw a similar issue, taking the complete 2010 Install back to trialware by removing all the serial numbers but otherwise leaving 2010 installed allowed the upgrade to 2012 to take place. (Even if 2010 has gone beyond the 60 day expiry)

[M_Strong]

I had the same exact issue.  However, I had never installed a trial of dedup in previous versions and still was presented with the above issue, checkbox grayed out and not de-selectable.  I found this answer in another thread and it worked for me:

Fire up Regedit and delete the key [HKLM\Software\Symantec\Puredisk] and all subkeys.
(Export a backup of the key first...)

Then re-run the setup.  You should not be prompted with the error.

Hope it helps...

[GAG]

Sorry guys, I've been on holidays.

After succesfully installing Bexec 2012, I uninstalled it and installed again 2010 R3.

Bexec 2012 seems too new for me and quite different from 2010. After playing with it for a couple of hours, I didn't feel confortable with the new GUI, and prefered switching back to 2010. I'll try the new version on a test server.

Thanks for your help.

[BWells64]

I ran into the exact same issue today.  I tried deleting the registry key as mentioned in this article: http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/howto-upgrade#comment-6824421

However, this did not resolve the issue for me.  The suggestion made by Colin Weaver did the trick.

1. From the Backup Exec 2010, Select Tools | Install Options and License Keys on this Media Server...
2. Remove all the license keys to convert the installation to trialware, click "Next"
3. In Configure Options, you can now uncheck the Deduplication Option
4. Complete the installation of these changes to Backup Exec 2010

After this completed, I was able to successfully run the Backup Exec 2012 installation.

Thank you for your help.

[thecurtis]

Neither solution worked for me. Upgrading from 2010 R3 SP2 to 2012.

I removed the license keys from the list in 2010 and was informed that my 60 day trial had ended and all jobs would be suspended, and I was not given the option to click "Next".

Also, the registry modification did not work. I'm stuck.

[BernardJL]

This is really frustrating.  We scheduled the Backup Exec 2012 upgrade and cannot get passed the "Deduplication Option is no longer licensed in this upgrade....."

We are on Backup Exec 2010 R3 with all the updates.  We never used deduplication, it is not checked on our current installation configuration.

So why is it talking about this?

The "Deduplication Option" is neither licensed nor selected for "trialware"on our current installation period.

How do you do an upgrade from Backup Exec 2010 R3?

[BernardJL]

OK, we followed what the error message said to do.  It said to make "Deduplication" a "trialware" and that would fix the problem.

So we re-configured "Backup Exec 2010 R3" and checked the "De-duplication" under "Available for 60 day trial."

No go.

For some reason now it  is complaining about "Desktop and Laptop Option" and can not continue.  We had turned that one off earlier.  Not clear how that got back on.

So we re-configured "Backup Exec 2010 R3" and removed the "Desktop and Laptop Option". 

No go.

We are now back to the "De-duplication" problem.  But we now have a check box on "De-duplication" in our Backup Exec 2010 R3 installation as trial-ware.

Which is what the upgrade message said to do. 

What is going on with this software?.  We have wasted a number of hours now trying to upgrade the software and did what the warning message told us to do.  And messing around with an option we never used, tried, or purchased. 

Any ideas what is going on here? 

Thanks in advance for any help here.

[BernardJL]

This definitely does NOT work.  As outline in a post here, we did just that since that is what the error message said to do. 

And then it complained about "Desktop/Laptop Option".  Suggesting we removed it.

When we removed that one (which we did have a license for) it took us back to the "deduplication" problem.

This is a mess.

[jtb1965]

Can't believe that no one at Symantec attempted to upgrade SBS 2010 to SBS 2012!

[BernardJL]

Well we remain stuck with this problem. 

Has anyone been able to complete an upgrade after this "error" condition?

We appreciate any help.

Jtb1965, we are wondering the same thing.

[BernardJL]

Just to close this off, we had a support call on this issue.  The technician knew about the problem and did the install WITHOUT serial numbers.

So the procedure was to start the Backup Exec 2012 install, and when it asked for serial numbers, remove all the serial numbers.

Then click on the blue link below the box of serial numbers.  The link says something like "Install as trial software."

So you end up installed a complete "trial" version. 

After the install when you start up Backup Exec 2012, you can then enter the serial numbers and remove the dedup feature.

Hope that helps someone else.  There really should be a "knowledge base" article on this.