What is the best way to migrate EV 9.0.4 into 10.0.3 with minimal downtime

[John_Santana]

Hi All,

Can anyone please assist me in providing a high level overview what is involved in migrating the existing EV 9.0.4 (Win 2003) into EV 10.0.3 (Win 2008R2) both as virtual machine ?

[JesusWept3]

Set up Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 with the correct pre-requisites
(IIS, MSMQ, Outlook 2007 SP3 etc)

Install Enterprise Vault 10 SP3 but don't configure it

Download and install the server settings migraiton wizard on your old EV9 Server
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO42445

Put enterprise vault in to backup mode.
Backup your Audit, Directory, fingerprint and vault store databases

Run the migraiton wizard on the old server and create the migration package.
Now all services will be disabled.

Move across all the vault stores and indexes across to the new server.
Make sure that the drive letters all match up on the new server
don't forget about things like shopping directory, vault cache etc

Update the DNS alias so that the EV Server alias now points to the new server and not the old server.
Shut down the old server.

Run the migration wizard again, and it will set up EV10 and have it configured.
Start your directory service, await for the event showing that the directory has been upgraded
Start your storage service and await for the event showing the vault store and fingerprint has been upgraded

Start Indexing and Shopping services etc.

EV should now be operable.

Depending on how you have your vault stores and indexes set up and how easy it is to move the drives, then it can take as little as 30 minutes

Also don't forget to upgrade CA and DA to use the same version if you use them.
They will also need to be on Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 and have the EV API installed as well

[John_Santana]

Cool, so in this case the new server must have exact same drive numbers and also the letters as well ?

can I create one big CIFS share to contains the whole EV Vault store instead of the multiple Physical RDM LUN presented to the server ?

the Index partition will be on another CIFS share but in the same RAID group 5 in the SAN.

[JesusWept3]

Well so the thing is, lets say you have

E:\Enterprise Vault Stores\Mail Store\Ptn1\
F:\Enterprise Vault Stores\Mail Store\Ptn2\

If you move it to the new server and have it as like

G:\Enterprise Vault Stores\Mail Store\Ptn1\
G:\Enterprise Vault Stores\Mail Store\Ptn2\

Enterprise vault would be looking in the wrong location and you'd produce a ton of errors.

Your best bet is to match the drive configuration as closely as you can to the old server.
So the vault cache is in the same location on both machines
So the Vault Store Partitions are in the same location on both machines
So the Index Root Paths are in the same location on both machines etc

Then once you've migrated you can move them about afterwards.
You can find a technote about moving vault store partitions here:
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH35742

You can find a technote about moving Index Root Paths here
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH35596

[GertjanA]

Agree, but...

Check this: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/server-migration-wizard-screenshots

I did it in a very simple home-lab environment. During the import, and verification on the target, I got notification that the storage and index location could not be found. In that attempt, it WAS possible to change it on the fly..

Might be worth a try in a lab-environment.

[John_Santana]

Ah ok, so in thisc ase I will have to do the two steps approach as follows:

1. provision same LUN and drives as in the old EV server on the new server
2. once it is successfully migrated, 
3. perform full index over the weekend
4. then create the new CIFS share for the new storage location
5. migrate all of the existing drive content from the newly created drives on step #1
6. perform another full index of all VaultStore content as in steps #3
7. once it is confirmed everything is working fine, then delete the old unused drives.

[John_Santana]

ok, I just got confused and surprised, it seems that I do not have the contiguous space to provision the same number of RDM drives as per JesusWept3 suggest.

Therefore I will need to do the following steps:

1. Turn off the old EV 9.0.4 server
2. re-attach the LUN / RDM from the old server into the new server (hopefully things worked just fine).
3. and then.... what do I need to do to make sure that the new EV 10 recognized the existing index and VaultStore content from the old server ?

[JesusWept3 · Accepted solution]

so it really should be

1. Install Win2k8 R2 x64 and all the EV10 pre-requisites
2. Install Enterprise Vault 10 but don't run the configuration
3. Put Enterprise Vault in to backup mode
4. Backup your Databases
5. Run the migration wizard and let it disable the services
6. Copy the migration package to the new server
7. Shut down the server
8. Disconnect the drives from the old server
9. Connect the drives on the new server ensuring the drive letters remain the same
10. Change the DNS Alias to point from the old server to the new server
11. Run the Migration Wizard with the migration package
12. Start the Admin and Directory Services and wait for the directory to finish its upgrade
13. Start the Storage Service and wait for the vault store and fingerprint databases to upgrade
14. Start the rest of the services
15. Take EV out of backup mode
16. Test Archiving, Retrieving, Restoring etc

If you need to roll back, then
1. Restore the databases if you got past the upgrade of the directory or vault store databases
2. Change the DNS Alias from the new server to the old server
3. Put the drives back on the old server
4. Change the services on the old server to be enabled
5. Start the services on the old server
3.

[John_Santana]

thanks Jesus, that does make sense.

I'll follow that steps.

[Jun1or]

Thanks for this. We are going to upgrade to version 10 from 9 in the next months, this will really help.

[John_Santana]

Yes, Jesus is very great and quick to response !