How i can correctly decommision a media server?

[Mehul_Pal]

How i can correctly decommision a media server & assign those media's with a new media owner?

I gone through some docs but they seems to be old

One of the link is :

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000034618

I would like to know the proper procedure in order to do it ?

for both format windows & linux, aix

[Marianne]

nbdecommission is still relevant as per the intro paragraphs of the TN that you found.

Another TN:  

About decommissioning a media server 
http://www.veritas.com/docs/000044907 

Follow the links at the bottom of this TN: 

The following topics provide more information and provide guidance for the entire process.

See About decommissioning limitations

See Before you decommission a media server

See Decommission actions

See Post decommission recommendations

See Previewing references to a media server

See Decommissioning a media server

[Mehul_Pal]

Hi Marianne,

I have a question regarding nbdecommission command

as per articles which i have seen they say that you dont have to run any other command other than this one

nbdecommission -oldserver <hostname>

        [-list_ref | -newserver <hostname> [-file <op_dump_file>]]

        [-M <master_server>] [-reason "<reason>"] [-v]

For ex:

# nbdecommission -oldserver bkup101 -newserver bkup103

But in some articles I see

determine which tapes have images that are not expired.

we use bpmedialist -mlist -l -h

we get the output of tapes and then we send those to another media server using :
    bpmedia -movedb -allvolumes -oldserver -newserver

or in some it's mentioned

Move to standalone (let's say i dont have any other library) and mentioned as Update the bp.conf and vm.conf files on the master server and all media servers so what is the correct procedure?

[Mehul_Pal]

Hi Marianne,

I have a question regarding nbdecommission command

as per articles which i have seen they say that you dont have to run any other command other than this one

nbdecommission -oldserver <hostname>

        [-list_ref | -newserver <hostname> [-file <op_dump_file>]]

        [-M <master_server>] [-reason "<reason>"] [-v]

For ex:

# nbdecommission -oldserver bkup101 -newserver bkup103

But in some articles I see

determine which tapes have images that are not expired.

we use bpmedialist -mlist -l -h

we get the output of tapes and then we send those to another media server using :
    bpmedia -movedb -allvolumes -oldserver -newserver

or in some it's mentioned

Move to standalone (let's say i dont have any other library) and mentioned as Update the bp.conf and vm.conf files on the master server and all media servers so what is the correct procedure?

[PatS729]

Hi Mehul,

Those could be old documents explaining decommissioning procedure for Netbackup 6.x versions when "nbdecommission" was not introduced. We had manual procedure to decommission a media server.

Now, when you run "nbdecommission" it will prompt you to transfer the un-expired tapes to a different media server (bpmedia -movedb does the same thing).

So, if you are planning to decommission a media server, just rely on "nbdecommission" and it will do complete thing for you. Hope that helps.

[Marianne]

Question: 
Is media server to be decommissioned a robot control host?
If not, the reference to other media server drives and media that become standalone, is irrelevant.

You may want to have another look at this doc:

 Decommission actions  

The TN that you found says in the 2 intro paragraphs that nbdecommission is the preferred and recommended way to decommission media servers.

Paragraph 4 says:

If NOT using nbdecommission, the following procedure can be used ...

So, you either use nbdecommission OR the manual steps under the topic To decommission a media server 

[Mehul_Pal]

Hi Pat,

So just nbdecommision will work for everything will that automatically transfer media's to new server?

[Mehul_Pal]

Is media server to be decommissioned a robot control host?

Yes

For an example if i dont have any other media server just want to decommision and assign all media's to master server will this work?

[Marianne]

You need to assign the media to the master or another media server that have access to the tape drives and media in the tape library.

Will you be connecting the tape library and tape drive(s) to the master server?

If so, you will need go through the steps to configure the devices on the master.

Extracts from  ​: http://www.veritas.com/docs/000044948

You may have to connect the tape drive to a different media server and then reconfigure it in NetBackup.

If the old server is the robot control host for a shared library, the drives and media become standalone and unusable. You must reconfigure and re-inventory the library.

[Mehul_Pal]

Hi Marianne,

Thank you for the information.

if the library is not not shared and then we have to assign the tape one by one manually before decommissioning the media server?

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

nbdecommission will assign all tapes to the master server.

In order to access those tapes for backups and restores, you need to physically connect the tape library and drive(s) to the master, followed by reconfigure and inventory.

[Mehul_Pal]

Hi Marianne,

Thank you I think this answers resolves my doubt

[sdo]

@Mehul Pal - you never specified your NetBackup version(s)... nor whether your media servers are also MSDP media servers or not... and so... you may want to be aware of this:

Defects in nbdecommission will result in removal of more credentials than intended when the command is used to remove a media server with MSDP credentials. Storage units may also be removed. EEBs are available.

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000100482

[Mehul_Pal]

Hi Sdo,

There is no MSDP media server(not sure what it is) however NBU version 7.1 for both media & master