I have been newly tasked by my boss to research on upgrading our existing EV 6.0 to 8.0 SP2. We have multiple archiving and journaling servers and a DA environment. I have read the upgrade documents and there seems to be a strange suggestion of upgrade from 6.0 to 7.0 to 7.5 (2007?) to 8.0 sp2, is this true? Does that mean I have to run four upgrades on every server we have? Seems like I'll need 3 to 4 days to do this. Also, does this apply to DA as well? (DA is also 6.0 client).
I noticed on the of tasks to upgrade from 7.0 sp3 to 8.0 sp2. Little confused on going from 7.0 to 2007.
Also, are there any tasks list for upgrading 6.0 to 7.0?
Sorry to be a burden but trying to get my hands around this project.
They may be compatible but functionality would be diminished. It is better to bring the client up to the same version of the EV install that way you decrease the chance of issues with compatibility.
Better safe than sorry :)
Whichever version you stop at at each stage of upgrade upgrade the clients to the same version
My guess is that you can do this upgrade in two stages 6 -7 -2007 in one day
The following weekend go from 2007 - 8 SP3
I would forget about SP2 as SP3 will be released this Friday
Yes
you must upgrade from 6 to 7 to 2007 to 8, so that you can perform the configuration on each step which updates the database schemas in the backgrounds
It is possible to go straight to EV8 and run a set of SQL statements, but is entirely unsupported
Also keep in mind that with DA you have an additional step because DA you need to go 6 - 7 - 2007 - 8.0 SP1 - 8.0 SP2 because there is an issue with going direct from DA 2007 to 8.0 SP2 you need to go through 8.0 or 8.0 SP1 first
It is a long process to do all the upgrades. You can do more than one step each day like 6 - 7 - 2007 this will all depend on the size of your databases as it will take time to perform the schema changes on the databases in each step and also you will have to take backups before proceeding to the next step
Ok I think we have an idea of the upgrade path. Couple of other questions -
1. When upgrading, do we go the lash SP on that version. (eg. Upgrading from 6 to 7, do we upgrade to EV 7 SP5, then to EV 2007 SP5, then to EV 8 SP2.)
2. We are rolling out exchange 2007 with EV 8. While upgrading, would we neeed to upgrade any of the client extentions, OWA configures, etc. until we move to EV 8 SP2, where we would configure our exchange 2007 CAS server to be the gateway for all OWA connections? In other words, do we need to configure OWA, client extentions on 7 or 2007? I would think we would only install the binaries and configure the backend application and wait until the final upgrade to EV 8 SP2 before we upgrade any OWA or client extentions. Is this a correct assumption?
Yoo should be ok to go the the latest SP of each version as part of the upgrade
You will need to upgrade the client extentions at the end of each phase so lets say you upgrade today from 6 - 7 - 2007 you will need to push out the 2007 client extentions to ensure that your users keep functionality.
When you later upgrade from 2007 - 8 - 8 SP3 you then push out the SP3 extensions
BTW SP3 was supposed to be released today but it has been delayed until Friday and I also hear that the new Move Vault feature wont be included as hoped
The upgrade compatibility chart and couple of comments on this forum state that EV 6 client extentions are compatible with EV 2007. Thus would I really have to install the EV 2007 client extentions, or just wait for the final upgrade to EV 8 sp2 back-end and install then install the EV 8 client extentions on all clients?
I personally would upgrade the clients to 2007 once you have upgraded the backend to v7.0, yes it means another upgrade for the clients to then get to 8.0. But an 8.0 client is not support on a 7.0 server and a 6 client is not supported on an 8 server
here is compatibility guide ...page 9
http://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/Exchange_Mailbox_Archiving_Unit/276547.pdf
They may be compatible but functionality would be diminished. It is better to bring the client up to the same version of the EV install that way you decrease the chance of issues with compatibility.
Better safe than sorry :)
Whichever version you stop at at each stage of upgrade upgrade the clients to the same version
My guess is that you can do this upgrade in two stages 6 -7 -2007 in one day
The following weekend go from 2007 - 8 SP3
I would forget about SP2 as SP3 will be released this Friday
Thats a tough upgrade path that scanner001 is suggestion. Make sure you take full backups along the way, incase of roll back. I would also advise you iron out any event errors prior to upgrading and following the upgrade steps as detailed in upgradeininstructions_en.htm. I would normally suggest a week between major upgrades to ensure the environment settles down and you get a few good backups/archiving runs under your belt. Why the rush ?
As for 8.0 I too would suggest going to 8.0 sp3 client and server, but believe the public release is next weeksometime, but always subject to last minute change.
I always advocate backups. They are a must between each version upgrade
As for SP3 I have heard a rumor it was supposed to be released today but it has been delayed until Friday
If what you say about next week is true then it looks like they delayed it again. Sounds like they are having issues hiding the Move Vault feature
