Moving Networker from one server to a net new server

We are staying on a SUN Solaris platform, going from 32 bit to 64 bit OS.  The current server is running 5.8 whereas the new server will be running 5.10.  We have a HEAT report on the new system done and our Unix support people have applied the appropriate patching.

I opened a case with EMC, got some guy who did not know the difference between Alphastor and Replistor, so let's say he was useless for what we wanted.

We have given our EMC Service Account Manager a heads up that this will be happening as soon as RRSP season is over.  We have asked him to ensure we have a local EMC person on-board who knows our organisation.  We would love to have a 3rd level support person help us out as well.

Over the last 10 years of working with EMC I have found that the professional services folk do not have the skillset to do such a rollover in a timely fashion because they do not understand the organisation, etc.  They are great for net new installs and such, however unless it is a Net New product, we prefer to do these things on ourselves with the help of EMC support over the phone and do some desktop sharing.  Very efficient and it allows the Support Staff at EMC to quickly get answers to "unknowns" which sometimes pop up.

Our only real challenge is the Networker Name change and the implications this will have on the indexes, etc.   I have a "servers" file ready to roll and support staff on-board ready to do the replacements and service restarts.

We have prepared a playbook and have gone over all the required steps.  We have been 99.9% successful on all our changes and upgrades over the last few years because we have our documentation in order, we come to the table prepared, and we are serious about getting this done as painlessly as possible.

We already have all our Auth Codes ready to go.  Just a matter of crossing the last few "T"s and dotting the last few "i"s before reviewing the finalized plan.

If you see any details I have missed please do not hesitate to let me know.  If you have or can provide documentation on the name change I would much appreciate.

Thanks again.

Charles

Oops forgot to mention - if your server IP is changing any static routes, hostfile entries and firewall rules out there in your client network will need to be reviewed. Also need to add the new server name to all your client /nsr/res/servers files if host based restrictions are in use.

There is a section in the 7.5 Disaster Recovery Guide 'Moving the NetWorker server to a server with the new UNIX host' which covers precisely this scenario if you are planning on rebuilding the new server from tape copies. I note it has been replaced in the 7.6.1 version of the guide with instructions to call support.

We have always migrated the index disks at a SAN level so never followed this procedure but it looks fairly straightforward. Basically it involves reprofiling the target server with a temporary identity, performing a DR of the media database and resource files on the reprofiled temporary target, deleting the source client resource and creating target with the same client ID. At this point the target server can be given its original name again and the remaining client indexes recovered using nsrck -L7 - they will be owned by the new target resource.

Thanks

I will go back and re-read the Disaster Recovery guide.  I have many versions and I am sure it will be helpful.

I would love to be able to keep the same name and IP but unfortunately this is not the case.