Migration of 2012 to another server on a different OS Version

[Aces_and_Eights]

I am looking to Migrate our Backup Exec 2010 to a new server. I know the title says 2012, wich is the final version I would like to be on with the new server when it is all said and done. For that, I was planning to upgrade the current install to 2012 (currently on a Windows 2008 32-bit box), then migrate everything to the new server (which will be on Windows 2008 R2). I have read through several older articles on migration, but one thing they all had in common was that the envirement needed to be the same (down to the location of the data and catalog folder).

Any advice? If there is a better way, I would be interested in hearing it.

[pkh]

You can migrate to a server with a different OS. Why do you want to change the part of the Data and Catalog directories

[Aces_and_Eights]

If anything, it is the location of them. To start with, the drive letters would be different. I can change that manually if needed, so that isn't to big. The only other change to the path would be the install path. Right now, it is installed on a seperate drive from the OS.

A thought I had was to have the catalog and data folders on the seperate drive and the application on the OS drive (if that is at all possible). If not, then I could install it the same, but would like to use a different path then what was orginally done.

[pkh]

When you install BE on the new Windows 2008 R2, just use all the default values, then use the procedure in this document to move the existing BE to this new installation.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH129826

This means that BE will be on the C: drive, along with the Data and Catalog directories.

You can move the Data and Catalog directories to a different drive later, but this is not necessary unless you don't have sufficient space on the C: drive.  Moving the Data and Catalog directories will also slow down the recovery of the media server.  With these directories on the C: drive, when you do a recovery and restore the C: drive, BE would be restored.

[VipulK]

Hi, 

May be this is more information than what you need. Please follow the tech note: 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH67768

[Aces_and_Eights]

One part that might complicate things is that the old 2010 is not installed on the C drive. The engineers before me installed the software on another drive. I am not sure if this will affect the way I need to install it or not.

If that isn't a big issue, then I think the link you provided would work. I am planning to do the install the same way (the other drive is a SAN drive), but it might not be the same drive letter as the old one. Some of the other articles I read talked about it being on the same drive/path as the old one, that is why I was concerned.

[pkh]

Any particular reason why you are installing BE on another drive?  As I said before, this will prolong the recovery if your media server goes down.

[Aces_and_Eights]

The drive it is on is a SAN drive. Since it is a SAN storage, there is more reduancy compared to the internal hard drives, we can add more IOPS and/or space if needed. The SAN is connected by fiber to the server (it is not a direct attach SAN).

Past that, I am not sure why it was installed directly onto the other drive. It could be that one of the folders BE uses is in it's program folder and cannot be changed from within the application (I believe it is the Data folder as you can tell it where the Catalog goes). Plus you have the database as well, which will be needed to get a new server running again.

Now, if there is a way to have the software on the C drive, and all of the important data (data folder, database, catalog, and anything else needed to rebuild BE) on the other drive, that would be ideal. I would just need to stand up a replacement media server, point the drive to the new server, and configure it to use the data from my SAN drive.

[pkh]

Here you are assuming that you still have your SAN.  What about the situation where you have to go to a DR site and there is nothing?  You have to bring up BE to start the recovery of your other servers and possibly the SAN.  If you have the BE data on your SAN, you would not be able to bring up your existing BE media server easily.  You would still have to bring up a media server which contains everything on it.

[Colin_Weaver]

The only limitations I am aware of for keeping the drive letters the same are:

a) if you change the data folder path then existing job logs will not open in the BE Console because their paths are hard coded to the DATA folder (new job logs created after the drive letter change will be visible) This is kind of cosmetic as you can still review the unformated old job logs directly from their XML files.

b) do not change the paths of B2D storage devices that hold incremental or differential GRT backups (or the fulls that are directly related to them)

c) if a deduplication folder exists then this may have path limitations

I am not aware of any limitation relating to the catalog folder paths needing to be the same.

[Aces_and_Eights]

So, if I keep all of the paths the same on both servers, I should be able to just move the data and catalog folder over to the new BE 2012 on my new server (the old server is currently on 2010).

It sounds like I would just need to recreate the jobs in the path is not the same (which is an option as well, need to adjust them anyways). The biggest part is that I can use the new BE 2012 to recover from tapes that have already passed through the 2010 system when needed.

[Aces_and_Eights]

Would there be any issue using a Soft Link to redirect the folder? Basically, put the soft link in the Program Files and have it point to the installed folder on another drive. This will still allow it to use the old path, but I can have it on a hard drive that I can add more storage to if needed.

I have done something like this with my Windows 7 install and a SSD.