Move catalog to its defult location for upgrading Netbackup from 7.7.3 to 8.0

[KelvinHBLi]

Hi,

We are planning to upgrade our Netbackup from 7.7.3 to 8.0, however, there is a problem - the current catalog db is not located at its default location.

A long time ago, we moved catalog db to F: drive. We did this by changing the DATABASE_PATH in Windows registry on the master Server to be F:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\NetBackup\\db (I believe this method is not supported anymore by Netbackup).

Now, the upgrade guide says that the Nebackup catalog must be at its default location for the upgrade to succeed...

According to the technical support, we need to migrate to a new master server, i.e. build a new Server and then, use catalog restore function to migrate the catalog to the new Server. Then we can do the upgrade on the new Server.

However, when I read the notes of "How to use catalog backup and recovery to transfer Netbackup catalogs between Windows master servers as part of a hardware refersh", it has the below statement:

"Ensure the installation is made to the same path as the one used on the old master server (a catalog backup made from C:\program files\veritas\netbackup cannot be restored to E:\program files\veritas\netbackup)."

Since our catalog is stored on F: drive, it can only be restored to F: drive on the new build Server, which again, isn't its default location. It seems we are in a catch-22 situation ?

Is there any other way of moving the catalog back to its default location on our master Netbackup Server ?

For example, can we not just simply change the setting of registry back to C:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\NetBackup\\db ?

Our Netbackup envirnoment has one Windows 2008 R2 master Server and one Solaris media Server.

Thanks,

Kelvin

[J_Huggins]

Hi!

If you move the Catalog to F: make sure you also have a partition F: in your new Server where you want to restore the catalog. It is not necessary to make some changes to registry. Already done with this and it works.

Thanks and best regards!

[davidmoline · Accepted solution]

Hi Kelvin
If you follow the catalog recovery process, this will involve building a new server and a fresh install of the same version of NetBackup (this is also a good chance to upgrade to a new Windows version - 7.7.3 restricts you to 2012 unfortunately). When you install NetBackup on the new server, the registry will point to the correct path location for the database. When you restore the catalog, the recovery will then be to the C: drive (as AFAIK the resgistry is not updated). You then have a new master server with everything in the correct location ready for an upgrade to the version of choice.
Make sure the new server has a sufficiently large C: drive to accommodate the catalog from F: drive.
Consider upgrading to 8.1.2 or even 8.2 rather than 8.0 (unless there is a specific reason to stay at that level).
Good luck
David

[KelvinHBLi]

Hi David,

Thanks for the info. I'll try it.

BTW, we choose 8.0 instead of 8.1.2 or 8.2 is because we have a few very old (but very important) 7.5 Solaris clients that are only compatible with 8.0 master Server, and a 7.7.3 Solairs media Server, all of which will need to be upgraded at the same time if we go higher version with the master Server.

However, its problem is, our upgrade/maintenance window will be relatively short, so my plan is to bring the master Server to 8.0, get it up and running as quickly as possible, then we will have plenty of time to bring those old Solaris clients and the media Server to 8.0. After that, we will plan another upgrade to bring the Netbackup to 8.2 

Cheers,

Kelvin

[KelvinHBLi]

Thanks!