cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Migration Strategy from 32-bit Windows2003 NBU 7.0 to 64-bit Windows 2012 NBU 7.6

Courtenay_Jones
Level 3

Our current backup environment is a physical HP server hosting a 32-bit Windows 2003 O/S (believe me, not my choice!) running Netbackup 7.0.  There is 1 master server (not acting as a media server) and 4 additional media servers.  All have identical builds.

 Yes, yes, I know it is dreadfully out of date, but it has not been under my administration for the past few years until now.

 

My end goal is the following:

 

1. Virtualize our master server with VmWare.  The O/S would be 64-bit Windows 2012, Netbackup 7.6.  Assume hostname, ip, physical disk structure remains the same.  The challenge here is that we are changing O/S type, bit flavor, Netbackup version, and physical to virtual.

2. We are purchasing two new appliances from Symantec to replace the 4 media servers.

 

In order to achieve #1, I believe the following steps have to occur in this specific order based upon the different documents I read here:

 

1. Build a Windows 2008 vm with the same exact drive structure as our 2003 Master Server.

2.  Install 64-bit NBU 7.0 on the Windows 2008 virtual machine.

3.  Perform a catalog recovery. (The catalog disk is all SAN-attached so we considered simply swinging the LUNS that host the catalog, but this seemed the less-risky route.)

4.  Upgrade Netbackup to 7.5.0.6.

5.  Upgrade Windows 2008 to Windows 2012.

6. Upgrade to Netbackup 7.6.0.1.

 

Any insight, suggestions, information would be greatly appreciated!

 

Regards,

 

CJ

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Because NBU 7.5.x server is not supported on W2012, I would replace steps 5-6 as follows:

4.  Upgrade Netbackup to 7.5.0.6.

5.  Upgrade to Netbackup 7.6.0.1.

6. Upgrade Windows 2008 to Windows 2012.

I am not sure if upgrading W2008 to W2012 can be done without formatting OS drives and applications.
If it can be done, there are no guarantees that NBU will still be functional. I believe that NBU 7.6.0.1 server software has different installation binaries for W2012.

So, probably best to perform catalog backup after 7.6.0.1 upgrade, install fresh W2012 Os with same hostname, etc, install NBU 7.6.0.1 and recover catalog.

I would also allow +- 1 week between steps 4-6 to ensure all is working fine after each upgrade.

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Because NBU 7.5.x server is not supported on W2012, I would replace steps 5-6 as follows:

4.  Upgrade Netbackup to 7.5.0.6.

5.  Upgrade to Netbackup 7.6.0.1.

6. Upgrade Windows 2008 to Windows 2012.

I am not sure if upgrading W2008 to W2012 can be done without formatting OS drives and applications.
If it can be done, there are no guarantees that NBU will still be functional. I believe that NBU 7.6.0.1 server software has different installation binaries for W2012.

So, probably best to perform catalog backup after 7.6.0.1 upgrade, install fresh W2012 Os with same hostname, etc, install NBU 7.6.0.1 and recover catalog.

I would also allow +- 1 week between steps 4-6 to ensure all is working fine after each upgrade.

Ron_Cohn
Level 6

When upgrading to NBU 7.5 from NBU 7.0, there is a hefty database conversion.  Then there is a database engine upgrade when going to NBU 7.6.  For what it is worth, SKIP the NBU 7.5 step and go directly to NBU 7.6.  From my memory (and forum reports), the database conversion in NBU 7.5 was extremely buggy.