Question about moving from 10 D to 12 D and viability of catalog data

[rgoelz]

My director has indicated that he wants to move away from our mixed environment (two BE 10D servers and one 11D server, all running Windows Server 2K3sp2) and into a standard environment with all servers running 12 D. I am ecstatic about this, but all servers will also need to be rebuilt to a current standard image as the server builds are all over the place.

Long story short, I need to find a way to export the catalog files, job history, etc., before I can rebuild these servers. Mostly I'm concerned about having to re-catalog all of my tapes. My goal is a rebuilt server with a freshly installed copy of 12 D, that I can import my catalogs into. Furthermore, I need the server to recognize all of the tapes in the attached HP MSL6000 tape library as being part of the catalogs that were imported, otherwise the whole thing is useless to me.

 

I have used the BEUtility program in the past to export the files, but with mixed results -- I was able to get all of the catalogs back, but my newly rebuilt server didn't recognize the tapes in my tape library. This was going from 10D to 10D, so I'm sweating what will occur when I move to 12 D.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. We're planning on beginning rebuilding the first server this Wednesday 10/15.

[Steve_W_]

Please take a look at the document below.  This should allow you to accomplish what you are trying to do. 

http://support.veritas.com/docs/287063

[rgoelz]

sw-symc,

  Thank you for your response. This looks a lot more involved then what I tried last time, so that gives me hope.

  As I said, we're rebuilding and upgrading the first server on Wednesday, so I will try this then and let you know. Thanks!

[rgoelz]

sw-symc,

The change control for this one got pushed back until tomorrow morning, so I will try and have a response up by tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again!

[rgoelz · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately this was not sucessful, as the article fails to mention that the new server needs to be retain the same name as the old server.

When I tried this with a newly rebuilt and renamed server, the BackupExec services would not startup, due to "schema errors." Even after trying to correct the error with BEUtility I still experienced problems. Symantec phone support basically told me tough luck.

FOR ANYONE ELSE WITH THIS ISSUE:

Upgrade to 12 before you do anything. If you have 9 or 10, you need to upgrade to 10d or 11. 10d and 11 will upgrade directly to 12.

Once you upgrade and move the database files off the server, you can rebuild the server using the same name and move the files back. Once you've done this, running the commands in the article should work. I am trying this on another server now to verify.

DO NOT RENAME THE NEW SERVER! Retain the same name. You can change the name later and use BEUtility to fix the database, but if you rename it during the rebuild and before reimporting the database information you will be stuck like I was this past weekend (which is to say rebuilding BackupExec and all jobs from the ground up)!

Message Edited by rgoelz on 10-23-2008 03:20 PM

[Forrest]

I inherited a Backup Exec 10d server that's been used for a long time - we want to upgrade it to 12.x.

From what I'm reading here, I may need to upgrade to 11.x then to 12.x?  I'm concerned about the existing catalogs and data being retained properly.

Will this be doable, or am I in for a really bad software update ride.

Thanks.

[rgoelz]

Forrest,

  I feel your pain --that's essentially the same story on my end. It's taken me over a year to get out of the 10d/11d nightmare on my servers. 

  As I understand, the upgrade process depends on the version you have.

  If at all possible, I would skip 11. It's a piece of garbage by all respects that I can see (policies don't work, jobs don't run when scheduled, etc., etc.). 12 seems to run much better.

  The upgrade can be done straight from 10.1 (a.k.a. 10d). If you have 10.0 then I would upgrade to 10.1 and straight to 12. In my experience this won't affect the jobs or the catalogue.

  The one trick is that once you upgrade to 12, you need to reinstall all of the Remote Agents on any boxes that you are backing up. I was somewhat successful with Remote Servers with version 11 agents running on them, but version 10 agents and version 12 BackupExec do not play nice.

  If you need any other questions answered, or moral support, drop me a line.

robgoelz[@]gmail[dot]com

Message Edited by rgoelz on 10-23-2008 03:20 PM

[rgoelz]

Forest,

  I was able to get my server to upgrade and I was even able to rebuild it without too much trouble. Here is a brief update:

• I upgraded 10d to 12

• Once the upgrade was completed and all jobs were running, I stopped all services, including the SQL BKUPEXEC service as indicated in the link above.

• I moved all Catalog data and everything in the Data folder off of the server (all databases essentially)

• I then rebuilt my server, installed 12 and updated everything.

• Once everything was installed and the library was up and running, I stopped all services again and moved everything back.

Note: I chose to save the existing data in the Data folder, putting it in a sub-directory, rather than overwriting the existing database files with the files I was moving back.

• After I moved everything back to the server I restarted the services and fired up the BE 12, and everything came back! I have all of my jobs, catalogs and best of all, all of my tape settings!!

I'm now going through and verifying selection lists and job criteria, but everything looks good. I hope this helps you. :)

~Rob

Message Edited by rgoelz on 10-24-2008 08:07 PM