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Upgrading NB4.5GA to NB5.1 questions

USS_XOG_Unix_Su
Level 3
Good day,

I am interested in upgrading my Netbackup environment to NB5.1. Here is my environment as it stands today;

Master Server
E450
Solaris 8
NB 4.5GA
Vault 4.5GA
Advanced Reporter 4.5GA

And here is the future configuration;

Replacement Master Server
E450 (same hardware configuration as current)
Solaris 9 (fresh install)
NB 5.1 (fresh install)
Vault 5.1 (fresh install)
Advanced Reporter (fresh install)

I will be importing the Catalog from the old Master Server to the New Master Server. Storage units shouldnt be important for this question, but we are using an L700 with 20 LTO1 drives. We are upgrading to LTO2s in the next month or so.

My concerns are related to the actual importing of the Catalog, and whether Vault/Advanced Reporter will work properly after the upgrade.

Is there anyone here with direct experience from upgrading NB4.5GA to NB5.1 ? I would greatly appreciate discussing with you the Pros and Cons of this. Also, whether its a better jump to go from NB4.5GA to NB4.5FP6 instead of NB5.1 altogether.

We have an engineering group who upgraded from NB4.5FP6 to NB5.1 and have only had problems. They did the pkgremove/pkgadd path instead of a clean install with catalog import like I want to do. Not sure if this is the reason they are having problems or not. I plan on visiting them and discussing their issues with NB5.1 later, Im just hoping to get some external feedback from you all.

Thank you for your time today.


MauriceMessage was edited by:
xerox_unix
3 REPLIES 3

Banu_SAHIN
Level 3
Hi ,
Almost six month before we upgraded our 4.5 to 5.1. The environment almost the same with yours (Sun E450 & L700) Upgrade steps are described below. By the way I did not move Advanced reporter's data to new environment. (I prefered this way)

1- Stop all your master & media servers Netbackup and Advanced reporter deamons.
2- Backup your master server old environment with ufsdump. (if possible backup twice).
3- Erase all your drive ,library and storage unit definitions from netbackup. (After the fresh installation some tape drives scsi orders could be different. This action prevents storage unit errors. It is not documented and I think this is best way. )
4- Backup your catalog DB to disk and tape. (with netbackup)
5- Take a second ufsdump backup of all your master server (if possible backup twice).
6- Take a print your netbackup licenses.
7- Stop all your master & media servers Netbackup and Advanced reporter deamons.
8- Install fresh copy of Solaris OS environment.
9- Install recommended Solaris patches.
10- Configure your tape drivers.
11- Install Netbackup 5.1 master server.
12- Install netbackup Advanced Reporter.
13- Install Netbackup MP2 Client pack.
14- Install Netbackup MP2 maintenance pack.
15- Install Vault and Advanced Reporter MP2 pack.
17- Restore your catalog from tape. (bprecover)
18- Check your licenses if not present enter the license keys.
19- Configure your storage devices (Configure Storage Devices menu)
20- Check all your Netbackup Environment.

That's all. I upgraded my environment with these steps. It worked fine.

Emin.

USS_XOG_Unix_Su
Level 3
Thanks for the reply Emin,

over the past 6 months since you upgraded from 4.5 to 5.1, have you experienced a large amount of "new" status codes from netbackup jobs ?

I'm curious because our engineering groups problems. I looked over her activity reports and she is getting tons of status codes 233. I still need to look into it more as I dont know the preceding error codes which would be helpful. She also states they are getting a lot of "hung" backup jobs, mostly NT, but some Unix as well. These are jobs that just seem to hang there not writing any data. They are hanging until she kills them, which may be 9+ hours after starting.

I just want to take the safest course of action with my upgrade, if 5.1 is a problematic version, and 4.5FP6 is more stable, then I think upgrading to FP6 is a better choice for me. I understand our engineering group may be experiencing an isolated problem, and NB5.1 is stable and fine, but I need to be cautious.

Thank you for your time.


Maurice

Banu_SAHIN
Level 3
Hi again ,
Do not forget that Netbackup 4.5 have a lot of bugs. I do not remember status code 233. Think about 5.1 MP2 again. After the upgrade check your ;

1. SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS
2. NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS
3. NET_BUFFER_SZ

parameters.

EspecIally NET_BUFFER_SZ is very important for your backup performance. If you have SSO environment upgrade all your media servers the same time. SSO is very sensitive for version changes. Also Solaris recommended pathes are very important too.

Do not afraid about 5.2 MP2 :)) I'm backing up over 150 clients every night and my backup size is almost 3.5 Tb. I have 12 media servers. I 'm doing all of this with 10 drives.

Emin.