Moving Agents between versions and physical servers

[BobMc]

Hi all,

We currently run Back-up Exec 2012 on a back-up server, which then backs-up all of the data on our other 4 servers onto tape.

As it looks like the hard drive on the back-up server is on its way out, and we have have a better spec server doing nothing, we are going to move Symantec across to the new server.

My questions are -

Question 1

We currently use Back-up Exec 2012 Service Pack 1, but the new servers installation already has SP2 installed. I am thinking of updating this to SP3 to fix another issue we have as well, which is supposed top be fixed in SP3. If I take a copy of the back-up jobs from the server we are currently using, and copy them across to the new server, are there any issues with the fact that one server ran SP1 and the other runs SP3 or will the jobs run fine?

Question 2

The agents installed on the 4 servers who's data are backed-up point to the original server. How do I change it so that they point to the new server?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[Siddhant_Saini]

Hello Bob,

The simplest way to perform a migration is by referring to the following articles: 

How to move Backup Exec from one system to another with the same or different computer names 
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH67296

How to use BEMIG to manually upgrade the Backup Exec database from a previous version
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH50537

With that being said, we suggest that you keep both the versions on the same level i.e. the Service Pack level on both the servers needs to be the same. 

For the Remote Servers to detect the changes, all you need to do is to run a Push Installation again. It would make the required changes on the Remote Server automatically (Refer to http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH179142 ). 

[BobMc]

Hi Sidd,

Thanks for your reply.

Are you saying that if I take a copy of the .bak file which is a copy of the jobs carried out, that as its currently running on SP1, that they wont work on SP3?

Also, will the push installation remove the existing agents, overwrite them or what?

Thank you

[CraigV]

If you need to do this, install the new media server with the current version of the BE 2012 SP you are running...move the BEDB and bring up the server as you need too, and then upgrade the SP to SP3.Push-installing the agents will re-establish a trust between them and the media server.

Thanks!

[BobMc]

The issue I have is that Back-up Exec 2012 SP2 is already installed on the new server so I cannot downgrade it to SP1 (I believe...) so that it is the same version as the original server?

Thank you

[pkh]

What you should do is 1. Upgrade both servers to SP4 which is the latest. 2. Copy the Data and Catalog directories over to the new server. 3. Push out the remote agents from the new server. You need to upgrade the remote agents anyway and this will make them point to the new server

[BobMc]

Morning,

Thanks for the replies so far.

Please can you confirm if you can upgrade straight from SP1 and SP2 to SP4? Or do you have to go SP1, SP2, SP3 and then to SP4?

I cannot find anything on the Symantec site regarding updating Back-Up Exec?

Kind regards,

[CraigV]

...you can jump from SP1 to SP4 if you want. SP4 includes all updates in the previous SPs with patches post-SP3.

Thanks!

[BobMc]

Thanks alot for the speedy reply.

Final question if I may please ...

Should a back-up job created in SP1 carry across to SP4 ok?

[Siddhant_Saini]

Yes, it would be fine..