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Installing NetBackup 7.7.1 on Red Hat 7.9

serg2002
Level 3

Hi,

I am migrating NetBackup 7.7.1 to new hardware and then planning to upgrade NetBackup.

I am planning to install Red Hat 7.9 on the new server. I am confused with Veritas SORT note: "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Update 5 and later support began in NetBackup 7.7.3 ". Does that mean that NetBackup Master and Media servers will not work properly on RH 7.9 or NetBackup will not be supported if it's installed on RH 7.9?

Thank you

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Nicolai
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What I would do:

  • Create new master and media servers with RH 7.9 (it unsupported but may work)
  • Copy everything from the old master/media server to the new platform. You will have to re-use the old master server name, so ensure the new environment host cannot resolve the live environment.
  • Do no move production load from old setup
  • Quick regression test that Netbackup on the net platform work (again make sure client and master/media server cannot resolve the "live" environment).
  • Test the upgrade to Netbackup 8.X / 9.X (it will not go smooth first time)
  • At the big day perform everything above again - except regression test. Sync IP and hostnames so new environment  takes over the old environments IP.
  • And if everything blows up during upgrade at the big day - you still have the original environment untouched.

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12 REPLIES 12

StefanosM
Level 6
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there is not information about redhat 7.9 in 7.7 compatibility list as end of support for 7.7.x start at 2019-05-05.
The latest release for Redhat back then was 7.5 and was supported with 7.7.3.

I guess that 7.7.1 will not play well with 7.9. You may have some chances to work with 7.7.3 if you upgrade netbackup.

I suggest you to go with the later supported redhat

Nicolai
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What I would do:

  • Create new master and media servers with RH 7.9 (it unsupported but may work)
  • Copy everything from the old master/media server to the new platform. You will have to re-use the old master server name, so ensure the new environment host cannot resolve the live environment.
  • Do no move production load from old setup
  • Quick regression test that Netbackup on the net platform work (again make sure client and master/media server cannot resolve the "live" environment).
  • Test the upgrade to Netbackup 8.X / 9.X (it will not go smooth first time)
  • At the big day perform everything above again - except regression test. Sync IP and hostnames so new environment  takes over the old environments IP.
  • And if everything blows up during upgrade at the big day - you still have the original environment untouched.

Hi @serg2002 

I'd approach this a different way. 

I would upgrade the existing master server to an intermediate version supported by my existing OS and also the new OS. This keeps everything in a supported configuration and if you run into trouble you will have a better support experience than attempting to run an unsupported configuration. Then once the migration is completed to the new hardware upgrade to my final version.

Cheers
David

Hi Nicolai,
Thank you for the answer. I would like to ask you more questions if you don't mind.
- "Do no move production load from old setup". Do you mean do not run any backup jobs? All our backup jobs start at night time, so it should not be a problem.
- "so ensure the new environment host cannot resolve the live environment." As I mentioned all backup jobs start at night, so I guess even if both old and new server will be online, client will still not try to contact backup server. Please correct me if I am missing anything.
- "Quick regression test that Netbackup on the net platform work". I didn't understand that. What exactly did you mean? What needs to be tested? Just a quick test of basic NetBackup functionality? Is anything in particular I need to test to be sure NetBackup functioning properly? Our set up is pretty basic. One master server, one tape library, just standard backups from NFS shares, no NDMP, no attached storages.
- "Test the upgrade to Netbackup 8.X / 9.X (it will not go smooth first time)" Why will it not go smooth?
- I know about keeping the same hostname, but I think IP address can be different, correct?
Thank you

Hi David,
Thank you for the reply
That is a good option, I was thinking about it. But what confuses me is if anything goes wrong with upgrading the current old version, I can be in a big trouble. Old version will be ruined, and I am not sure if I get any support since I will upgrade from not supported version. And I will finally need to install and recover old version.
I actually like Nicolai's idea of migrating the existing version to new hardware and upgrading it right away.
Do you think if will not work? Thank you

Hi @serg2002 

I understand you concern and it is valid one - if you have sufficient hardware you could clone the current master to new hardware and test with that.

My concern with @Nicolai 's plan is that is running on an untested configuration. It may well work and is worth testing. 

To answer some of your questions to Nicolai

  • Correct don't run backups from the new environment.
  • Add a host entry in the local hosts file for the master server name - the IP can (and should) be different to the live master. You are trying to avoid the master contacting clients and media servers - using a different IP should prevent any unwanted connections happening.
  • Regression testing - what I would be doing is trying to verify that NetBackup works and the master knows things it should - e.g. policies, images, EMM working and correct
  • Upgrade not going smoothly - experience tells us that it doesn't always go as expected
  • IP address for master can change (name resolution needs to match between master and media/clients - although in this case you don't want it to so the testing master doesn't affect the live environment.

David

Nicolai
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Hi @serg2002 

First thanks to @davidmoline for clarifying. Couldn't do it better myself :)

Let me know if you have more questions Serg . You can tag people in a post by typing @ and then the user name as displayed. A tagging will notify the user a new comment has been added to a thred.

And by the way, the command you are looking for copy data from old to new environment is called rsync. Please take notice of the --delete option.

Have a great day !

Thank you Nicolai and @davidmoline

Sorry for having more questions.
- "Copy everything from the old master/media server to the new platform.", "the command you are looking for copy data from old to new environment is called rsync". Do you mean rsync the whole /usr/openv folder to the new machine? I was going to install a fresh NB copy, restore catalog and then copy some files that are different (touch files, notify scripts if they are different) from old server to new one.
- It looks like our old server was installed with at least version 7.0 initially, maybe even v.6
I've found the log file for v.7. For the master server name it has string: "Would you like to use "servername" as the configured name of the NetBackup server? [y,n] (y) y"
I tried to do a test NB install and v.7.7.1 during installation uses domain name by default and the same string looks like: "Would you like to use "servername.domainname.com" as the configured NetBackup server name of this machine? [y,n] (y)"
Do I need to answer No in the question above? Will it be a problem if I answer Yes? Or domain name doesn't matter at all? If I run hostname command on the old server it gives me servername.domainname.com
- "Upgrade not going smoothly - experience tells us that it doesn't always go as expected". As a first step I was thinking it would be better for me just upgrade to version 7.7.3 to match NB version and supported OS version. And after a while upgrade to higher version. Will upgrading from 7.7.1 to 7.7.3 also can potentially cause problems or it usually goes smoothly?
- Will it be better to upgrade to v.8.1 first and then, having Veritas support, upgrade to v.9.1? Maybe I am wrong, but I just think that 7.7.1(3) -> 8.1 is theoretically safer for upgrade than 7.7.1(3) -> 9.1
Thank you.

Hi @serg2002 

My responses:

  • Rsync - first install NetBackup (to the same location), then use rsync to replicate the entire /usr/openv folder. The install is required to populate the RPM database to allow you to then upgrade.
  • For the servername you should use the same (with respect to FQDN or not), but as you will be rsyncing the entire /usr/openv folder, this is less important. If you were doing a catlog backup recovery, then the servername must match.
  • For the upgrade from 7.7.1 -> 7.7.3, this does not involve much in the way of changes, so should go smoothly. 
  • I would suggest upgrading via an intermediate version such as 8.1 which is the version that introduces secure communications and certificates. It is technically possible to jump direct from 7.7.1 to 9.1 in one go, but I wouldn't suggest doing this.

Cheers
David

Hi David, @Nicolai

- "Rsync - first install NetBackup (to the same location), then use rsync to replicate the entire /usr/openv folder." To be honest, I never thought about this option. Does this mean that I can completely skip running storage device configuration wizard and catalog backup recovery? I guess so, since when I rsync everything, the new machine will have the exact clone on NB and all databases and configs. The only concern if the installation script does any compilation of executables or libraries? Or it just installs pre-compiled modules?

- May I migrate OpsCenter the same way? I mean install it first with ./install and then rsync all folders?
Or it's better to do it this way: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100047057

Hi @serg2002 

The rsync option is a good one and yes does remove the need to configure storage devices and catalog recovery. The one drawback is that you will end up with all the baggage from the past installs etc. rather than a clean install which you recover into. The installation script installs pre-compiled binaries and libraries (as well as setting up the configuration. Of course you will have to have NetBackup shutdown on the source master for the final rsync to enable you to copy the DB files in a sane state. This process is slightly more complicated once you get beyond 8.1 due to security certificates and the web services user, but if done carefully can work. Please note that the official supported way to migrate to new hardware is via the catalog backup/recovery process - so use at your own risk.

I've not tried this with OpsCenter but don't see why it wouldn't work. That said OpsCenter is very simple to migrate to new hardware - all you really need are the database files and there is a documented process to do this). For instance: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/91541840-127431414-0/v91990378-127431414 and https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100047057 

Cheers
David  

Thank you David and @Nicolai