Netbackup migration and upgrade from 6.5.6 32bit to 7.1.0.4 64bit

[SUBHADIP]

Hello,

I have 2 master servers out of which 1 is having 1 media server. All are in Windows 2003 R2 32 bit OS and running NB version 6.5.6

We are planning to upgrade the master and media servers to 7.x version but as 32 bit is not supportable in future versions so management has approved for 3 new servers having Windows 2008 64 bit OS.

Now how can I upgrade these servers to 7.1.0.4 as these environments having VM backups and as per one technote 7.5 is still having some issues regarding VStorage backups in its latest version. So, we are planning for upgrade it to till 7.1.0.4 which is relatively stable version.

I understand that I need to install NB in these new servers till 6.5.6 and migrate it first before going for upgrade to 7.1.0.4.

Can someone please help me out with the steps I need to follow while doing this migrate->upgrade and is there any concern/suggestion regarding this upgrade ?

Thanks.

[Marianne]

Migration steps are detailed in this TN: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH77447 

I would personally upgrade the current master servers first, then migrate.
My reason for this is because W2008 R2 master is only supported as from NBU 7.x. 

No special steps to migrate a media server to new hardware since all catalogs reside on the master.
Simply install 7.1 on new media server and patch to 7.1.0.4 after master has been upgraded.
It may be a good idea to first delete devices for old media server since device mappings will change on new server, then run device config wizard once devices have been connected to new server.

NBU 7.x upgrade portal: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH74584

[SUBHADIP]

Is there any issue then upgrading or migrating to Windows2008 machine ?

One symantec engineer suggested to migrate 1st.

[Marianne]

As I've said - upgrade and then migrate would be my personal choice because of W2008 R2 compatibility.

If you plan to migrate and then upgrade shortly afterwards, there should not be any issues.

[SUBHADIP]

Thanks Marianne.

I read in a technote that Windows 2008 is supported from NB 6.5.4 onwards.

Also My old machine is 32 bit where new server will be 64bit, so will there be any issue in catalog conversion or migration ?

Thanks

[Marianne]

Apologies for only responding now - for some reason I've missed your last post.

You are correct about Windows 2008 support.
I was referring to Windows 2008 R2 support. Most people go for R2 these days...

If you use catalog backup and recovery to migrate there will be no issues with 32-bit to 64-bit migration/conversion. Details in TECH77447 (link above).

Hopefully you have migrated and upgraded by now?