Upgrade to EV 9.0

[Ghislain_SIBRA]

Hello,

our IT managers want to plan an upgrade from Exchange 2003 to Exchange/Outlook 2010, which must be finished in mid-2011.
We start working on the design phase.

As Exchange/Outlook 2010 are not supported before EV 9.0, we integrate to the plan the upgrade of our Enterprise Vault environment.
We currently used Enterprise Vault 7.5 SP5.

I try to figure how to migrate all servers and clients from our version to EV 9.0.

I already ask our Symantec support for any document on requirements, compatibility charts or upgrade procedure they could have., but unfortunately they have not be able to provide us such documents.
Perhaps here some could give me some tips on the upgrade process.

Our main concern is if we could migrate from EV 7.5 to EV 9.0 directly or not, and in what order (server first? client first?).
As far as I know, clients for EV 8.0 does not allow Offline Vault to work due to internal change leading to Vault cache.
So this implies that we cannot upgrade client EV 7.5 without upgrading first the EV server.

I pretty sure this will be the same for client 9.0 which will not work with Offline Vault.
So my guess is we had to upgrade server to EV 9.0 first then the clients.

But will the EV client 7.5 work with EV server 9.0 ?
Or did we have to plan an intermediate upgrade to EV 8.0 ?

Best regards,
Ghislain

[Mohawk_Marvin]

Hi Ghislain

Offline Vault has been rebuilt and is now Vault Cache. There are lots of improvements here, however if a users has a 7.5 client with an 8 server, they will get Offline Vault function not Vault Cache function. Therefore client upgrade is not a deal breaker as a v7.5 client keeps all the function it had with a 7.5 server, you just dont get new features like Vault Cache and Virtualy Vault. With most clients SYMC try to keep it compatible with the previous 2 versions so it likely that 7.5 will be supported with a 9 server.

For the upgrade path, all EV products need to go one version at a time so 6==>7==>7.5==>8==>9. This is server upgrade.

In the interim I would suggest going to v8 SP4 as it has many new features that are very helpful, like VV and the new console additions! It will also streamline the upgrade path so that you are not doing 2 versions in your upgrade window when v9 is released.

[Ghislain_SIBRA]

hi, and thanks for the tips.

I worry about he support of EV 7.5 client by EV 9 servers because I notice from the EV compatibility chart of April than the next release of EV will only takes into account the client from EV 8 as you could read below:

Compatibility between Enterprise Vault releases
At the next major release, Enterprise Vault server will operate with Enterprise
Vault 8.0 or later clients.
Enterprise Vault clients will operate with Enterprise Vault server 8.0 or later.

By the past, we have been able to migrate from EV 6 to 7.5 directly without any problem. That's why I was willing to do the same from EV 7.5 to 9.
Anyway, I will suggest a two-time upgrade. I hope the management will be okay with that.

Is anyone had information on requirements for EV 9.0 like IE 7, ... from Beta perhaps?

Ghislain
 

[JesusWept3]

why don't you see if you can join the beta
just so you know though Ev9 does *not* offer support for Outlook 2010 as of yet, that is targeted later in the year but again its a date that could potentially change at any given moment.

Typically in the past the clients will be forward and compatible by two versions

(i.e an EV7 client will work with EV5, EV6, EV7, EV2007, EV8)  
      an EV8 client should work with EV7, EV2007, EV8 and EV9)

However from the compatibility charts:

Compatibility between Enterprise Vault releases
At the next major release, Enterprise Vault server will operate with Enterprise Vault 8.0 or later clients.
Enterprise Vault clients will operate with Enterprise Vault server 8.0 or later

 

Meaning that EV9 clients will work with EV8 and EV8 clients will work with EV9 but nothing before EV8

Page 99: Compatibility After Enterprise Vault 8.0
ftp://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/Exchange_Mailbox_Archiving_Unit/276547.pdf

[JesusWept3]

If you look there it has the following minimums

Exchange Server = Exchange Server 2000 SP3 (for Exchange 2010 SP1)
EV Server  OS  =  Windows Server 2003 SP2
Outlook connecting to Exchange 2003 = Outlook 2003 SP2
Outlook connecting to Exchange 2010 = Outlook 2007 SP1
Browser = Internet Explorer 7
ISA Server = ISA Server 2006
SQL Server = SQL Server 2005 SP2 (2000 has been booted out)
Client OS = Windows XP SP2

And as for now the client email would be Outlook 2003, and Outlook XP requires you to use 7.5 client both of which would be unsupported

[Rob_Wilcox1]

Will an EV 2007 client work with an EV 9 server.. probably yes, but it might not be supported (typically only one version back is supported).

Also remember that EV 9 will not support Outlook 2010 - see : https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/outlook-2010

[Ghislain_SIBRA]

Thank you all for the information.

I will have a look at the Beta.

And I will have the joy to announce my management than we have to delay the implementation of Outlook 2010 until full support available with EV 9.0 :D

Best regards,
Ghislain

[Andrew_Clare]

Have you done any planning or testing for your move to EV 9 yet?
How much data is there to move from 7.5?

Best Regards,
Andrew Clare

[Ghislain_SIBRA]

We have only made some draft about the global migration plan.
We will surely use an intermediate step by migrating to 8.0 SP4 before 9.0.
As it is possible than our main Active Directory architecture will also change at the same time than our migration from Exchange2003/OL 2003/EV 7.5 to Exchange 2010/OL2010/EV9.0, we will need to move Archives data from our current EV servers to new EV servers.

First test will occurs at the end of the year (November or December).

Currenty, we have up to 3 To of archived data for 60% of total users being archived.
This is only for our French sites. Others foreign sites are locally managed and have there own architecture.

Regards,
Ghislain