Migrating from Veritas 5.1 to Symantec 7.1

[Sudheer22]

Hi All,

We have windows 2003 server which is installed with VERITAS NetBackup 5.1. Now, we are planning to migrate the server Windows 2003 to winodws 2008.

We reached supporting team to install VERITAS NetBackup 5.1 on Windows 2008. The challenge is "They stopped supporting for VERITAS NetBackup 5.1".

can we migrate VERITAS NetBackup 5.1(windows 2003) to Symantec NetBackup 7.1(windows 2008) without business impact ?

If we can migrate share with me the procedure.., Thanks in advance

Regards,

Sudheer

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

Your upgrade path will be long and challenging....

Upgrade path: 

1. Upgrade NBU 5.1  to version 6.5  (Current NBU Master: W2003 )    
   (Run for ± 1 week to ensure stability)
2. Upgrade to 7.1 and patch to 7.1.0.4    ((Current NBU Master: W2003 )            
3. Migrate to Windows 2008 using catalog backup and restore.           

The 1st challenge will be to get the nbcc binaries to ensure catalog consistency before the upgrade to 6.5. 
You will have to log a Support call just to get the old nbcc version and explain nicely to Support that you realise 5.1 and even 6.5 are out of support, but you are now doing the upgrade and need their assistance.

2nd challenge will be to get license key for the master for 6.5 and for 7.1.
If you do not have these license keys from previous upgrade notifications, you will need to contact Symantec Customer Care (not Support), explain your current and planned situation and ask for these license keys.

Once you are on 7.1, you can migrate to W2008 using this procedure:
Using catalog backup and recovery to transfer NetBackup catalogs between Windows master servers as part of a hardware refresh
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH77447 

PLEASE schedule upgrade to 7.6 or 7.6.1 ASAP after the migration.
You never again want to get yourself into a situation where you are this far out of support...

ANOTHER possibility:

Start with clean installation on W2008, upgrade clients and start fresh.

Just get a list of Assigned tapes from old master along with expiration dates and keep them separate.
Either import all of them in new environment or import only when needed for restore. 

If you only want to import when needed for restore, you will need to keep old master around to query catalogs for media id and then import on new master.

Good luck!!!

[jmontagu]

Hi Sudheer:

According to the NBU 7.1 installation guide, p. 68 you cannot upgrade 5.1 directly to 7.1. You must upgrade to 6.0 or 6.5 first:

"Upgrades from 5.x versions If you currently use NetBackup 5.x versions, you cannot upgrade directly to 7.1. You must first upgrade to NetBackup 6.0 or 6.5."

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC3647

The problem with this upgrade path is that we no longer support any of the 6.x versions and you cannot get the software for download. Our recommendation in this situation would be to install a new version of 7.5.0.7 on your new Windows 2008 Master server and import the images from your 5.1 version.

[sclind]

This is what we did; its a lot less painfull.

ANOTHER possibility:

Start with clean installation on W2008, upgrade clients and start fresh.

Just get a list of Assigned tapes from old master along with expiration dates and keep them separate.
Either import all of them in new environment or import only when needed for restore. 

[Sudheer22]

Hi All,

Thanks for the response with suggestions.

I approached client with the two options.

1) Step by step upgradation ( 5.1 --> 6.0/6.5 --> 7.1 )

2) Fresh clean installation

Client shown interest on second option. 

Once again thanks to everyone. If i face any challenges i'll be back to clear.

Regards,

Sudheer