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40 Posts
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1176
Migrate clients to everything new
Hi,
I have an existing Networker 7.3.4(Win2003) installation where I backup my clients to a backup server. First I backup to disk and then clone full backups to tape monthly that are archived for DR.
I have installed and configured an entirely new 7.5 installation. Everything is new including the hardware, the hostname, Win2008, Networker 7.5, licenses, management console, etc... It has been successfully backing itself up and cloning for a while now.
Both systems are running beside each other but are unaware of each other's existence.
I would like to start migrating clients over to the new system. I would like to move them a couple at a time beginning with the least important to make sure everything is stable. I have read the DR Guide and the suggested method for migration seems to assume that 1) you are migrating tapes and 2) that you have a compelling need to retire the original system. They say to mirror the client names and IDs on the new server, create identical media pools on the new server, use the SCANNER program to inventory the tapes(in my case drives), and recover the client indexes from the scanned tapes/drives.
My problems are:
1) making the original system's diskfile available to the new system may be difficult. It will most likely need to be copied over and mounted but it is rather large. If I want to move my clients in sets, I will need to find a way to copy just the deltas as the original system will continue to change. Then I will need to remount and rescan each time I migrate a client.
2) I have no compelling reason to retire the original system immediately. I'm only moving to take advantage of newer software and hardware and because of End of Life schedules for EMC.
My questions are:
Do I have to migrate the savesets and media? What if I don't do it? Can I just start backing up the client to the new server and stop on the old one? When the save sets on the old server for that client have passed their retention periods, I would remove the client from that server completely.
If I start backing up to the new server, will I be able to point the client back to the old server if I need to recover files that were backed up there and are still "live" on the old server. Can a client maintain a good relationship with two servers?
Should I use the same client ID on the new server to support archived tapes? Will I be able to scan those tapes in later for DR? Will having the same name and clientID on two servers confuse the client since I may have to point to either server during the transition to recover files from disk?
Thanks.
I have an existing Networker 7.3.4(Win2003) installation where I backup my clients to a backup server. First I backup to disk and then clone full backups to tape monthly that are archived for DR.
I have installed and configured an entirely new 7.5 installation. Everything is new including the hardware, the hostname, Win2008, Networker 7.5, licenses, management console, etc... It has been successfully backing itself up and cloning for a while now.
Both systems are running beside each other but are unaware of each other's existence.
I would like to start migrating clients over to the new system. I would like to move them a couple at a time beginning with the least important to make sure everything is stable. I have read the DR Guide and the suggested method for migration seems to assume that 1) you are migrating tapes and 2) that you have a compelling need to retire the original system. They say to mirror the client names and IDs on the new server, create identical media pools on the new server, use the SCANNER program to inventory the tapes(in my case drives), and recover the client indexes from the scanned tapes/drives.
My problems are:
1) making the original system's diskfile available to the new system may be difficult. It will most likely need to be copied over and mounted but it is rather large. If I want to move my clients in sets, I will need to find a way to copy just the deltas as the original system will continue to change. Then I will need to remount and rescan each time I migrate a client.
2) I have no compelling reason to retire the original system immediately. I'm only moving to take advantage of newer software and hardware and because of End of Life schedules for EMC.
My questions are:
Do I have to migrate the savesets and media? What if I don't do it? Can I just start backing up the client to the new server and stop on the old one? When the save sets on the old server for that client have passed their retention periods, I would remove the client from that server completely.
If I start backing up to the new server, will I be able to point the client back to the old server if I need to recover files that were backed up there and are still "live" on the old server. Can a client maintain a good relationship with two servers?
Should I use the same client ID on the new server to support archived tapes? Will I be able to scan those tapes in later for DR? Will having the same name and clientID on two servers confuse the client since I may have to point to either server during the transition to recover files from disk?
Thanks.
jsallila
56 Posts
0
October 8th, 2009 02:00
and new one is NW7.4SP4 running on Linux. We have multiple customers so upgrading the existing environment was concidered as too risky as there is several hundred clients attached to old BU-server.
We have installed the new clients to new environment and slowly transferring also old clients to new environment. When all the clients are on new environment we will disable old environment and wait for all tapes to expire. Tapes(only few) which longer retention than month will be scanned to new system.
amediratta
2K Posts
0
October 7th, 2009 09:00
1. Take a savegrp -O backup of original system.
2. Install NW 7.3.4 on the new system with same hostname as the original.
3. Run a mmrecov to rebuild your res & mm folders.
4. Run nsrck to rebuild indexes.
5. Upgrade the new system to 7.5.
You could also just install NW 7.3.4 on new system, stop NW services and copy /nsr/res, /nsr/index & /nsr/mm, Paste these to the new system. Once done successfully...upgrade to 7.5.
If complete res folder was there, you could have avoided the potential typo errors. Remember to be capable of recovering from old tapes, the new system's clients should have same client ID as the original.
If client IDs are same, you can scan old tapes in the new system and recover the data. You can do this when required OR on a daily basis when your drives are free on the new system.
You should have the same client names & client IDs to be able to scan the older tapes. Having them same on two NW servers would not confuse the client. Client responds to the one it has in its /res/servers file.
pdumigan
40 Posts
0
October 7th, 2009 10:00
I wanted to upgrade my existing 7.3.4 to 7.5 and then migrate to new hardware but I was told repeatedly by my EMC sales rep that upgrading from 7.3.4 to 7.5 was not possible and I would have to build my new environment from scratch. Are you now telling me that it would have been possible? My new environment is fully installed, configured and stable now. Tearing it down now would be a considerable waste of the time it took to get it stable. Including support calls, hotfixes and application conflicts (see my other posts).
I'm not sure what you mean by "If complete res folder was there". Do you mean if it was copied to the new server?
Thanks.
pdumigan
40 Posts
0
October 7th, 2009 10:00
Can I have two entries in the client's /res/servers file?
backupserver1.domain.com
backupserver2.domain.com
If so, can I just point the client to whatever one I need for that particular restore? In the beginning, BS1 will have most of the savesets and BS2 will only have the newer ones that it created. BS2 will have more and more as it continues to backup the client. BS1 will have less and less as its retention periods for that client expire and it is no longer taking backups of the client.
Thanks,
Message was edited by:
pdumigan
ble1
2 Intern
2 Intern
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14.3K Posts
1
October 7th, 2009 16:00
Yes.
amediratta
2K Posts
0
October 7th, 2009 22:00
amediratta
2K Posts
1
October 7th, 2009 22:00
Ideally you should not use one versions metadata (indexes,res & mm) on a different version without upgrading the previous version. Upgrade process ensures smooth upgrade of metadata also.
"If complete res folder was there", yes I mean res folder was copied or restored.
ble1
2 Intern
2 Intern
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14.3K Posts
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October 8th, 2009 00:00