Will upgrading the master NBu server v6.5.6 to v7.1 blow away all policies and settings?

[yvonne_ewry]

Good morning,

I'm getting ready to upgrade our master NBU server from v6.5.6 to v7.1, as well as our end-clients from v6.5.6 to v7.1.  I have all of my NB databases backed up, but I was wondering if when the upgrade completes, will I have to rebuild all of the policies, STU's, volume pools, robotic configuration etc etc, or reimport them from the backed up database or will everything remain in place? 

I guess I would like to know if after when the upgrade installation completes and I launch the Activity Monitor for the first time, will everything still be in place or will I have to 'rebuild' all policies etc etc as if it was a brand new installation?

Thanks for any and all comments back.  I appreciate it.

Thanks,

Y

[MKT]

Everything will remain in place, you only need a copy of of the 6.5.6 catalog if something goes wrong and you need to roll back to 6.5.6.

A lot of information can be found on the 7.x Upgrade portal:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH74584

[Will_Restore]

on all counts by my experience

[yvonne_ewry]

In your experiences, have you guys known for the 6.5.x upgrades to 7.1 to be fairly straightforward, smooth ones with minimal problems or have you have more people complained that it was a PITA and not so smooth and straightforward?

Also, how would you do a restore of the catalog if you have to back out of a failed 7.1 upgrade when, I would think, that your the Activity Monitor would not see any of the connected robots and such?  If the 6.5.x installation is corrupt due to the beginning of the overwrite process from the 7.1 installation upgrade, how would NBU know about the robots and its robotic paths to know where to pull the catalog from off of tape?  Wouldn't barcode rules, STU's, policies and all that be wiped out by then?

[MKT · Accepted solution]

6.x to 7.1 is a smooth upgrade but be aware of this issue:

(ET2334190)  A NetBackup 7.1 upgrade from 6.x Unix/Linux masters may take hours if many policies contain clients with PC hardware for supported Windows operating system versions

 http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH156810

Restore of catalog is the same as if you had a disaster.  Remove NetBackup 7.1, reinstall 6.5 ->6.5.6 and follow the 'How to recover a catalog backup' from Chapter 5 of the troubleshooting guide:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC3683

You will have to make available the media to do the recovery, so yes, there is some reconfiguration if you have lost the entire system due to corruption to make the media/device available to do the restore.  The catalog recovery will replace all those entries with the entries from the catalog when you do the recovery.

[Marianne]

UPGRADE does exactly that - upgrade to new version, keeping ALL existing configuration - policies, Storage units, devices, images, etc....

Please spend a day or two reading all available docs - the Upgrade Portal mentioned above, the Compatibility Guides (http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH59978 ), the upgrade section of the Installation Guide (http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC3648 ) as well as SORT ( https://sort.symantec.com/netbackup ).

As previously mentioned, ensure that you have a hot catalog backup for JUST in case...

Upgrades are successful in 99.9% of all upgrades. Be prepared for the 0.1%.

Backout entails removal of NBU software, reinstall 6.5, patch to 6.5.6, restore catalog backup.

[yvonne_ewry]

Thanks Marianne and MKT,

Yeah, I'll be the 0.1% lol.

Thanks for all for your quick comments/advice and suggestions.  You're the best!

Y