Its easy to say get rid of them because we don't use them, but I have had customers in the not-too-distant past who have used these platforms who would probably still be using them who would probably not look on such an announcement favourably! However, I can also understand this from a business standpoint for EMC in that the number of these customers are relatively small with the vast majority of customers I have dealt with (well over 90%) having their Networker server based on Solaris or Windows.
the proposed dropping of above OS versions sounds alright as those versions are to be out of support soon anyway (if not already). Even though we still have some tru64 and windows on itanium storagenodes, dropping support after 7.6.x would not have to be that big a deal.
windows on itanium main stream would end 2013, redhat has also ready abonded itanium, tru64 support ends at the end of 2012, so that would not be that big a loss assuming that you wouldn;twant to run anyway on systems that are out of support.
I don't see support for other platforms and was hoping for more flavors of linux then only redhat and suse. Even though it is working on for instance ubuntu (with some hacks), official support would be nice for it and other linux distro's.
Until recently also OpenSolaris support would've been a nice to have, due to stopping that development also, now possibly its offspin OpenIndiana. Especially when Networker could fully integrate with the ZFS deduplication when using it as a ADV_FILE backup-to-disk.
We are still a business that has a fair number of AIX 5.3 in production. And today all of our large NetWorker Servers are running on AIX 5.3, as well as a fair number of storage nodes.
However I would expect us to have moved our NetWorker servers off AIX 5.3 during the life of NetWorker 7.6.x, however I cannot promise to have moved off the NetWorker Storage Nodes within that period.
Thus I'd accept the stopping of the NetWorker server, but putting a delay on the stopping of the storage nodes.
hmm, aix 5.3. We've got those in abundance also as storagenodes. No idea yet when those are due for upgrading. stopping supporting NW on aix 5.2 is logical as support from ibm has also ended, however not yet for aix 5.3.
It appears that based on feedback from members of the NetWorker community that there is general consensus for the proposal with one exception.
Please keep in mind that the proposal is for a future major release of NetWorker. You will still be able to utilize existing NetWorker clients to backup older operating systems.
The feedback is that dropping support for AIX 5.3 as a NetWorker Server and Storage Node platform is not advisable. According to IBM's website AIX 5.3 will go end of support as of 04/2011 and end of life as of 04/2012. There is validity in keeping this OS version supported.
The current planning will be to leave AIX 5.3 as a supported NetWorker Client, Storage Node and Server platform. However, support for AIX 5.2 will be deprecated out of NetWorker as there seems to be general agreement as it is EOL.
pdeguise
22 Posts
0
January 19th, 2011 19:00
I think the proposal to drop those platforms as supported servers/storage nodes is quite reasonable.
Even more so if it would allow time to develop platform support for Mac OS X as a storage node ;-)
David_Hampson_90e289
2 Intern
•
243 Posts
0
January 20th, 2011 01:00
Its easy to say get rid of them because we don't use them, but I have had customers in the not-too-distant past who have used these platforms who would probably still be using them who would probably not look on such an announcement favourably! However, I can also understand this from a business standpoint for EMC in that the number of these customers are relatively small with the vast majority of customers I have dealt with (well over 90%) having their Networker server based on Solaris or Windows.
bbeckers1
2 Intern
•
203 Posts
0
January 20th, 2011 12:00
the proposed dropping of above OS versions sounds alright as those versions are to be out of support soon anyway (if not already). Even though we still have some tru64 and windows on itanium storagenodes, dropping support after 7.6.x would not have to be that big a deal.
windows on itanium main stream would end 2013, redhat has also ready abonded itanium, tru64 support ends at the end of 2012, so that would not be that big a loss assuming that you wouldn;twant to run anyway on systems that are out of support.
I don't see support for other platforms and was hoping for more flavors of linux then only redhat and suse. Even though it is working on for instance ubuntu (with some hacks), official support would be nice for it and other linux distro's.
Until recently also OpenSolaris support would've been a nice to have, due to stopping that development also, now possibly its offspin OpenIndiana. Especially when Networker could fully integrate with the ZFS deduplication when using it as a ADV_FILE backup-to-disk.
fparsons1
15 Posts
0
January 21st, 2011 04:00
Hi Micheal,
We are still a business that has a fair number of AIX 5.3 in production. And today all of our large NetWorker Servers are running on AIX 5.3, as well as a fair number of storage nodes.
However I would expect us to have moved our NetWorker servers off AIX 5.3 during the life of NetWorker 7.6.x, however I cannot promise to have moved off the NetWorker Storage Nodes within that period.
Thus I'd accept the stopping of the NetWorker server, but putting a delay on the stopping of the storage nodes.
Felix
bbeckers1
2 Intern
•
203 Posts
0
January 25th, 2011 02:00
hmm, aix 5.3. We've got those in abundance also as storagenodes. No idea yet when those are due for upgrading. stopping supporting NW on aix 5.2 is logical as support from ibm has also ended, however not yet for aix 5.3.
rochem1
23 Posts
0
January 31st, 2011 14:00
It appears that based on feedback from members of the NetWorker community that there is general consensus for the proposal with one exception.
Please keep in mind that the proposal is for a future major release of NetWorker. You will still be able to utilize existing NetWorker clients to backup older operating systems.
The feedback is that dropping support for AIX 5.3 as a NetWorker Server and Storage Node platform is not advisable. According to IBM's website AIX 5.3 will go end of support as of 04/2011 and end of life as of 04/2012. There is validity in keeping this OS version supported.
The current planning will be to leave AIX 5.3 as a supported NetWorker Client, Storage Node and Server platform. However, support for AIX 5.2 will be deprecated out of NetWorker as there seems to be general agreement as it is EOL.
Thanks to all for your responses.