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Moving a tape library to a different media server in the same NBU domain

CadenL
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Hi

I need to move a tape library to a new media server and have a quick couple of questions on the Veritas tech note on how to do this.

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/18716246-126559472-0/v22412656-126559472

From the above the first step is "Determine which tapes on the old_server contain NetBackup images that have not expired."   Do I only need to do this if either media servers are running NBU 6.0 or earlier? I don't see any value in having this information if I'm going to use "bpmedia -movedb -allvolumes -oldserver old_server -newserver new_server" to move the media logically from the old to new media servers in step 3.

Secondly step 5 says to shutdown both the old and new media servers - Is this purely to allow the tape library to be safely unplugged from the old server and plugged into the new server? I can understand this for SAS connected libraries but is it necessary for FC connected tape library. Ideally I want to avoid the need to shutdown either server.

Finally, at no point does it say to delete the tape devices and robot entity from the NetBackup configuration - is this not necessary at all? I know the same tape library will is being used on the new media server, but it will be seen on a different media server and with a different target path  - unless I delete the old server robot and tape devices target won't this still show up as offline in the NetBackup console.

many thanks

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Marianne
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About the STU question - if your SLPs are already going to the new media server, and the STU name did not change (i.e. robot number is the same after re-adding on mew media server), then there is nothing to change.

The robot control host is not part of the standard auto-generated STU name:

<mediasrv>-hcart#-robot-tld-#

If there is a new robot number after re-adding the robot, then it means that the previous robot was not properly removed from the NBU config (normally when NBU was not restarted on all media servers).

If there is a new robot number after re-adding, then you need to find ALL references to the old STU names in policies and SLPs and change to new STU name(s). 

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Marianne
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@CadenL 

Before we try to answer - can you confirm if you want to completely decommission the current robot control host?
Not only move the robot to a different media server, but also completely remove the server as media server? 

CadenL
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Hi Marianne

Yes - the media server will eventually be decommissioned as second phase to this piece of work, Currently I just want to move the robot and media to be controlled by one of the other media servers within the environment (same master server)

many thanks

sdo
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Does the media server losing its tape library perform any other NetBackup function ?  (MSDP?, VMware backup host? DDBoost?)

CadenL
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Hi

No - the backups to this media server have already been redirected to the new media server. Some backups go direct to tape using the old media server and others go to disk first (on the new media server) and are then duplicated to tape using an SLP.

thanks

Marianne
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If you are still using the old media server and only want to move robot control to the new media server, then none of the bpmedia commands are necessary.

The section in the manual seems to be from ancient NBU versions and not updated to reflect newer NBU versions.
If the robot is connected via SAN and new media server can see the robot and tape drives at OS-level, there is no need to shutdown or reboot any of the servers.

I would delete all tape drive and robot config in NBU.
Restart Media Manager on all media server accessing tape drives in this robot. 
Start the device config wizard and only select the new robot control host.
Complete device config and restart Media manager. Skip the STU creation, as you want to keep STU names the same (hopefully the TLD(#) and density will be the same as before. 
Start the device config wizard again, this time selecting all other media servers. 
Skip STU config. 

Double-check STU config - ensure all attributes are correct.

When you are ready to decommission the old media server, look into nbdecommission command :

About decommissioning a media server 
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/18716246-129889741-0/v95673631-129889741



CadenL
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Hi Marianne

Thanks very much for your reply

If the old media server will be decommissioned quite soon after will I need to run the bpmedia commands? I'd rather run that as part of this phase if that will make the decommissioning a simpler process. Will I just need to run the bpmedia -movedb -allvolumes -oldserver old_server -newserver new_server command and not worry about the bpmedialist command?

There are SLPs used in the enviornment so am I right in thinking that if I leave the STU in place and, once I've run the device configuration wizard (for just the new media server and newly added robot), I can reconfigure the STU to point at this robot on the new media server and I won't need to reconfigure any SLPs?

kind regards

Marianne
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Please use nbdecommission rather than bpmedia command.

There is a LOT more to removing a media server than just media/image ownership. 

Please go throught the online doc that I posted - including 'More Information' :

About decommissioning limitations

Before you decommission a media server

Decommission actions

Post decommission recommendations

Previewing references to a media server

Decommissioning a media server

Especially reading all the things that 'Decommision actions' do. 

 

Marianne
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About the STU question - if your SLPs are already going to the new media server, and the STU name did not change (i.e. robot number is the same after re-adding on mew media server), then there is nothing to change.

The robot control host is not part of the standard auto-generated STU name:

<mediasrv>-hcart#-robot-tld-#

If there is a new robot number after re-adding the robot, then it means that the previous robot was not properly removed from the NBU config (normally when NBU was not restarted on all media servers).

If there is a new robot number after re-adding, then you need to find ALL references to the old STU names in policies and SLPs and change to new STU name(s). 

CadenL
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Brilliant - thanks Marianne

I wasn't suggesting I would use the bpmedia command instead if nbdecommission  - I was asking if I should only run the bpmedia command at the time I decommission the old media server or if I can actually run it at the time of moving the robot across?

Does it just change the ownership of the tape media from the old medis server to the new media server? If it does then I'd like to run that command when I move the robot rather than to leave it until I decommission the old media server - if that's possible.

many thanks

CadenL
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Hi

I'd just like to make sure I completely understand the bit about moving the media ownership from the old to the new media server.

In this environment, the master server is a windows server and both the media servers are NBU appliances. If I understand correctly the tape media will be currently owned by the appliance that has the tape library connected (the old media server) even if the backup policy SLP first does a backup to the MSDP on the new media server. correct?

When I move the tape library from the old media server to the new media server I can (optionally??) run the bpmedia command  bpmedia -movedb -allvolumes -oldserver <old_server> -newserver <new_server>  which will modify the netbackup image database to replace all references of the old media server only with those of the new media server. correct?

Will I also need to add a media server override for the old media server to the new media server for restores?

kind regards