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Multiple questions regarding EV migration/refresh

durtynacho
Level 3

I am getting ready to upgrade EV 9.0.2 to version 10 while refreshing our entire environment, and wanted to run a few goals by everyone and obtain some feedback.

 

Current environment:

EV 9.0.2 on a Windows 2003 x64 virtual server. All vault stores and indexes on a SAN using SAS disks (we have some SAN contention). About 10TB of vaulted data.

Discovery Accelerator on a Windows 2008 R2 virtual server.

 

Future environment:

EV 10.0 on a Windows 2008 R2 virtual server. New server will have fresh LUN's on a new SAN aggregate that the current archives will have to be migrated to. Our vault stores are a mess and are on a x32 aggregate, so our desire here is to migrate them to a x64 aggr and standardize/clean the layout in one swift action.

Discovery Accelerator 10.0 on a Windows 2008 R2 physical server using local storage (15k RPM SAS disks), along with the EV index task. The idea is to offload the index I/O from the SAN, getting it onto a dedicated physical machine so it has dedicated resources. Adding the Discovery Accelerator role to the same server as the index task is just so searches are local to the machine and have the best performance possible.

 

Migration Plan:

Stand up new EV 10.0 virtual server and DA 10.0 physical server. Manually configure both and have them reside in the same site (don't use the migration packager). This means there will be mixed versions co-existing in the same EV site, which I *think* is ok. Create new vault stores on the new LUN's and have them ready to receive data. Create new index on the physical server as well.

All that should be left at that point is to move the archives, and upon moving them we should be able to select a new index location (the physical server), correct? Has anybody had issues moving an archive from 9.0 to 10.0? Upon completing a move for an archive, the new index server should build the index, making that archive searchable, and all archived items should have their shortcut path updated to reflect the new archive location (on the new server), making things transparent to end users, correct?

Any issues with having DA 10.0 co-exist as the index task only? I know it can reside on the same server as an entire active instance of EV, but what about just one task?

Any feedback would be most appreciated.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

AWMorris
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified

The Server Settings Migration Wizard allows you to migrate from version 9 to version10.  Therefore there is no need to stand up another EV 9 server.  I would do the following

 

1.  Build out a new EV 10 SP 1 server.

2.  Run the SSMW on the version 9 server and create the export package.

3.  Attach the LUN's to the new EV 10 SP 1 server.

4.  Run the SSMW and import the configuration package.

 

This way you can do your hardware refresh and upgrade at the same time.  All of the data would need to be made available to the EV 10 SP 1 server before importing the configuration.... IE, simply attach the LUN's to the new EV 10 server and then run the import.  I would suggest taking a look the following

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO42445

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12

LCT
Level 6
Accredited Certified

there's one thing that you have not mentioned is your SQL server? If you are setting up your EV10 environment and using the same EV site, are you using the same SQL server and same directory database? I would setup new SQL server and setup new EV10 and EVDA 10 if you want to clean everything up.

durtynacho
Level 3

Good point; I omitted that because I didn't think it was relevant but here are our SQL plans:

Current SQL database is on SQL 2005 SP3. I would like to create a new SQL DB for EV on SQL 2008 R2, but this requires we upgrade our existing SQL 2008 RTM installation and I am not sure I want to include that in this project (based on the EV compatibility matrix, SQL 2008 RTM is not supported). Either scenerio would support what we are doing, however, with the latter being preferred.

LCT
Level 6
Accredited Certified

I don't see a problem with your plans. There's no right or wrong way, it's what's best for the existing environment and tools you have to work with.

I would get SQL 2008 R2 if you can and setup a new EV directory and EV site, this will give you a brand new and scratch clean new EV environment for the migration.

How many users/archives are there to move? Do you have Journal archiving as well? and last but not least you have thought about how to move the users? i.e. are you using third party software or the inbuilt move archives?

It sounds like this is a major project (if you are not already a professional services company) I would seek advise from one of the Symc Partners professional service for re-assurance.

Hope this helps a little more.

durtynacho
Level 3

We have around 1500 archives, 10TB of data total. I was going to use the native move-archive tool and just stretch it out however long it takes. I was under the impression that I am required to bring the new servers into the same site as our current 9.0.2 servers?

We are archiving the journal, which is responsible for over half of the archvied data (as you can imagine). It will be the last to go.

I appreciate all of your input, thank you so much! Anybody else have anything they'd like to add?

LCT
Level 6
Accredited Certified

You don't need to have the new EV server on the same site. Although moving the journal archive(s) will be a challenge for you if you were to use the in-built move archive. I remember correctly you can't move the journal archive(s) to another EV site, you may need to check that. If you use third party tool then I don't think this will be an issue.

For a large migration such as yours with 10TB, the in-built move archive is not ideal tool, you may need to use third party migration tools such as archiveshuttle, transvault or Evolve but they come at a high extra cost. If budget is an issue then I guess you'll have to use the unbuilt move archive tool.

I am sure there are lots of other consultants on here will give you check lists and advise other than the ones i have already mention.

Good luck with your project,

John_Chisari
Level 6
Partner Accredited

when you say you vault stores are a mess, how are they in a mess?

I wouldn't even bother going down the move archive tool path for 10TB of data - how many archived items is this?, it will not only take a long time, possibly 6-12 months (and thats conservative) but it will cause all sorts of heartache and time to troubleshoot issues with it.

With your plan, you won't be able to add a EV10 server into a EV9 site - it won't work.

If you are looking at swift - I would possibly look at closing the existing partitions, open a new one on your x64 aggregate and have EV9 write use it.  Would also suggest stopping any storage expiry and deletions from archives so nothing will change in the closed partitions.

Then robocopy the closed partitions to the new x64 aggregate - or use SAN copy/replication if you can.

Build a EV10 environment and use the migration wizard to cut across to it.  Before you run the wizard on the EV10 server, move the LUN across to the new server and do a robocopy (SAN copy/replication would be best again) of the Indexes to the new x64 aggregate or wherever you are going to keep them.  

AWMorris
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified

I agree with John.  The Server Settings Migration Wizard will be your best bet.  I have done a number of migrations and have not had any problems.  Just make certain that all of the data is made available to the target system.  If you are concerned about running the wizard you may want to reach out to a Symantec partner.

durtynacho
Level 3

The vault stores are all various sizes, some under sized and some over sized, no consistency. We want to consoladate verything down to one or two vault stores with several partitions under them. I am a little maticulous in when it comes to this kind of stuff, so I understand the argument is weak in this area but this is a must for me. We also want to re-enable SIS within EV as our SAN (NetApp) does a terrible job with SIS on the current EV vault stores.

Anyway, so you guys are telling me to stand up a new 9.0.2 server, use the migration wizard and just detach the existing LUN's from the old server and attach them to the new one, right? We originally were not going to use the wizard because we couldn't get the data over fast enough, and simply moving the LUN's was discuessed within our team but we opted to not do that because we don't want an outage to the current server and we don't want the production EV server to be doing the migrations while trying to perform its normal archiving and indexing duties. With a new server pulling the data, it is sharing some of the load that migrating the stores creates. We want to get to a point where we have our new environment and all that is needed is data migration.

So, with that said, couldn't I stand up a new 9.0.2 server using the same approach I was going to use with the 10.0 server? That is, just prepare it and get the new LUN's and partitions created, then simply do a data migration. We are prepared to use a better tool as eventually a data migratin will come into play because we absolutely have to get the archives over to our x64 aggr.

All of your input is greatly appreciated. I cannot thank you enough for spending time with me on this topic.

AWMorris
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified

The Server Settings Migration Wizard allows you to migrate from version 9 to version10.  Therefore there is no need to stand up another EV 9 server.  I would do the following

 

1.  Build out a new EV 10 SP 1 server.

2.  Run the SSMW on the version 9 server and create the export package.

3.  Attach the LUN's to the new EV 10 SP 1 server.

4.  Run the SSMW and import the configuration package.

 

This way you can do your hardware refresh and upgrade at the same time.  All of the data would need to be made available to the EV 10 SP 1 server before importing the configuration.... IE, simply attach the LUN's to the new EV 10 server and then run the import.  I would suggest taking a look the following

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO42445

durtynacho
Level 3

Thank you for the replies.

The reason I stated I would now consider standing up an EV 9.0.2 server is because I was told that you cannot have two version co-exist. The fact that the migration wizard allows you to upgrade versions proves that they can co-exist. I appreciate all of the feedback and will take all of your advice into consideration.

TonySterling
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

No, the migration wizard is just taking care of the upgrade in the background.  If you use the migration wizard to create the export package on the source server you will notice all the task get disabled.  Once you import the package on the destination server and the directory database is upgrade the source server will not work even if you re-enable the services.

Parveen_Hooda
Level 3

Yes I am Agree with Tony its self disabled the Old EV server I have done  successful migration with EV migration tool its very simple only you just create a export package and build a new EV 10 and just import that on New server.And it works nice.You dont need to do lots of activities ..its simple as its.!!