Win2k to Win2k3 upgrade

Your plan sounds OK, I would also recommend the following: -

create a group called Index and link it to one of your existing pools or a new pool and label a tape into it.

Link each unique client to it - it is important that at least one client definition from each client (you can have multiple client definitions for a client, only link one) to ensure the index is part of the backup.

Before you switch off your existing server run: -

savegrp -O Index

This will backup the indexes from each client then do a bootstrap backup.  All the information will be on one tape volume (unless your indexes are very large and cannot fit on one tape).

You can then do the mmrecov and index recoveries from this tape without having to load lots of tapes.  This should significantly reduce the index recovery time.

There are documents  available on Powerlink also which describe the procedure but I do nto beleive this is currently covered in the NetWorker Procedure Generator.

Regards,

Bill

I'm going to keep my backup server up until the morning of the move.  I'm going to install 2003 on identical hardware, install Networker, and basically be prepared to do the move in one day.     So, I will have to move things around, and shutdown the original server, and then rename the "new" server.   Obviously, I can't have 2 servers with the same name up at the same time, but I wanted to be able to copy data from one server to the other.   At this point, the best choice might be to do the index restores like you suggested, instead of just copying the data.

It would have been nice to be able to do an OS upgrade, so that I could use the same hardware, but that's not recommened.

Hi Bill,

sounds quite good. But I would do a full backup of the Index group.

savegrp -O -l full Index

Then there is no need for other tapes.

Greets

Hello there I am wondering how your upgrade went. . .  

I am planning to upgrade my windows 2000 system running Networker 7.4.2 to Windows server 2008.

And if all goes well . . .   then upgrade to Networker 7.5.X after a few days. . . .

Any real problems, pitfalls. .   ?

Thanks

My upgrade is complete - all the way to 7.5.1.8.

The biggest issue was trying to nail down procedures.  I have to do another machine, so I wanted to nail the process down cold.   One major issue (easily resolved in the end), was that the MMRECOV did not work properly.  Still don't know why that didn't go as it should.

To quickly summarize, I did the MMRECOV on the new win2003 machine, and it didn't create the res.R directory like it should.  Therefore, it would create duplicate entries (drives, storage nodes, pools, etc) in the res directory.  Eventually, after a quick call to EMC to confirm, I simply did the MMRECOV, stop services, and then copied the old res directory from the Win2000 machine to the new win2003 machine.   I wanted to verify that the res directory was not OS dependent, and that it can simply be copied from one machine to the other.  After one day of running 7.4.5 on Win2003, we upgraded to 7.5.1.8, and so far, everything is working properly 2 days later.   One more machine to go, this one being more complicated, as it has Dedicated storage nodes.

This is probably overkill, but if anyone is interested in the steps, here they are:

(NOTE: this assumes you have already installed same networker version on a WIN2003 machine, and have loaded appropriate device drivers)

on current "win2000 machine", run
nsrim -X
nsrck -m
nsrck -L6

run backup of NW console data (if it's on this machine)

run SAVEGRP -O for each group on WIN2000 machine
savegrp -O -l full -G "GROUPNAME"

run additional savegrp, different tape
savegrp -O -l full -G "GROUPNAME"  (run for each group, if you have multiple groups)

run MMFINO command, write down bootstrap
mminfo -B > "filename"  (you can then import this to excel)

my bootstrap information:
1365098730------360----0------Full:1140--5273
1247658483------362-----0-----Full:1140--5273
1130218446------139----0------Full:1141---4710

shut Networker services on old WIN200 machine

copy to temporary spot on WIN2003 machine

power down WIN200 machine

rename WIN2003 machine to WIN2000 machine name.
change IP adress on WIN2003 machine to WIN2000 IP address.

move fiber from WIN2000 machine to WIN2003 machine

reboot new WIN2003 machine (to ensure device recognition)

recover media database via mmrecov

shutdown NETWORKER services

copied "old" GST datases to current location (only necessary if NMC in on machine)

rename res directory to junk

copy res directory from WIN2000 machine to WIN2003 machine
delete jobsdb and nsrladb subdirectories on WIN2003 machine

reboot NEW WIN2003 machine

verify media database is ok (and NMC database if necessary)

Via Powerlink, transfer licenses to new Hostid
update licenses with current codes (you have several weeks to do this, but I did it immediately)

verify Tape Library is working properly

     to do this, I had to delete drives, and library, and re-create them

recover the following indexes from tape
-----OR-----

copy indexes directory from WIN2000 machine to WIN2003 machine (must stop Networker services 1st)

reboot one last time

Win2003 upgrade complete

I then did the 7.5.1.8 upgrade the next day...

Dave.

Cool . .

This  is a big help . . . althought I just found out that I will be upgrading to Server 2008 and not 2003 as I thought . . . 

and maybe to 7.5.X next fisical year . . . .

Thanks again