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NetBackup 7.6.1 / 2.6.1 - MSDP Conversion

SYMAJ
Level 6
Partner Accredited

After going through the 'pain' of MSDP conversion when moving appliances from 2.5.x to 2.6.0.x, whereby I saw conversion taking anywhere from 4hrs to 27hrs, I was surprised to see the conversion is required AGAIN when moving from NBU 7.6.0.3 to 7.6.1.  

I have only performed this upgrade in my test lab which has very little data in the MSDP pool, and is WIndows based NOT an appliance - but I am assuming this will also be the case when moving the appliances from 2.6.0.x to 2.6.1.

Has anyone moved an appliance to 2.6.1 yet, and if so is the MSDP conversion a similar duration to that when moving from 2.5.x to 2.6.0.x ?  As I mentioned my MSDP pool is tiny in the lab and conversion only took a minute or so.

Thanks,

AJ

11 REPLIES 11

chashock
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

This MSDP change is nothing at all like the 2.5-2.6/7.5-7.6 and has to do with the MSDP components, not the data itself.  You should not see anything out of the ordinary in upgrading an appliance to 2.6.1.

SYMAJ
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Chashock,

That's great to hear !  So irrelevant of the amount of data in the MSDP pool the MSDP conversion process should be very quick ??

Thanks,

AJ.

chashock
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Larger MSDP pools might take more than a minute since it will be dealing with more data in the mini-catalog, but nothing like the hours experienced with the upgrade to 7.6.  I've had a few customers do this already and they reported the time taken was more like 2.6.0.2 -> 2.6.0.3 than 2.5.4 -> 2.6.0.1.

Hope that helps.

daza
Level 4
Partner Accredited

SYMAJ,

According to the 2.6.1 Release notes:

■ If you are running NetBackup Appliance 2.6.0.3 or earlier and do not plan to upgrade to version 2.6.1 within the first calendar quarter of 2015, Symantec recommends that you upgrade to version 2.6.0.4 to take advantage of the latest bug fixes and compatibility features. In this scenario, the supported upgrade path from NetBackup Appliance 2.6.0.4 is to a release in the NetBackup Appliance 2.6.1 maintenance line (triple-dot) available in the first calendar quarter of 2015. Symantec will publicly declare the maintenance release that provides the recommended upgrade path when that software is released to manufacturing (RTM). Please check the following tech note periodically for updated information: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH225488

■ If you are running NetBackup Appliance 2.6.0.3 or earlier and plan to upgrade to version 2.6.1 within the first calendar quarter of 2015, then Symantec recommends that you do not install the NetBackup 2.6.0.4 maintenance release in your environment.

daza

Dangerous_Dan
Level 5
Partner Certified

Hi AJ,

Daza is correct. anything 2.6.0.3 and below should be ok to upgrade to 2.6.1 but you will be risking hell if going from 2.6.0.4 as I'm guessing a lot of binaries were modified in the version - which will be regressed when installing 2.6.1 and will very likely cause some unwanted issues.

and another thought - I think you will have to ask yourself at this point what is important - additional functionality (2.6.1) or stability (2.6.0.4) ...... doing 70% reactive work, 30% project I know which one I would go for :)

 

Hope this helps

Dan

SYMAJ
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Thanks Guys.

Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not planning on upgrading any of my production environments yet - I was just concerned about the possible conversion nightmare when I do perform the upgrade (after waiting until 7.6.1.1 I guess).

I came accross this when moving by lab environment to 7.6.1

Thanks again,

AJ 

elanmbx
Level 6

We recently upgraded one of our appliances to 7.6.1 (5220 with 64TB MSDP).  The pool was ~75% full and the conversion took ~90 minutes.

I am currently in the midst of a support issue on my 2nd appliance upgrade in which the MSDP conversion failed during the upgrade.  This one is taking alot longer since we can't get it to start...

Hoping that my 3rd appliance goes more smoothly than this 2nd one.

elanmbx
Level 6

Update: 2nd appliance MSDP (5220/64TB MSDP/87% full) conversion: ~90 minutes.  It seems that this is *directly* related to the number of entries in the "mini catalog" on the appliance.

TimWillingham
Level 5

I've heard 2.6.1.1 is due in March 2015.  I upgraded to 2.6.0.4 because I was completely unaware 2.6.1 was being released, so we are waiting on 2.6.1.1 for all fixes including the most recent "GHOST" vulnerability and AD fixes.

elanmbx
Level 6

Update: 3rd appliance took ~60 minutes for conversion.  For reference:

1st appliance: 90 minutes

        "POs": 479912
        "RefDBs": 11268

2nd appliance: 75 minutes

        "POs": 404907
        "RefDBs": 13785

3rd appliance: 53 minutes

        "POs": 272616
        "RefDBs": 11948

These stats came from the /msdp/data/dp1/pdvol/log/convert/conversion_statistics.json file on each appliance.

SYMAJ
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Thanks for the update.

AJ