TSM upgrade 5.5 to 6.2

[nabildz]

Hi

We are about to upgrade our TSM sever on wondows 2003 to TSM server 6.2 and the plan we are thinking of is to do a new install on the new server and then export nodes across

the questions we have:

can we export nodes from TSM 5.5 to a deduped storage pool in 6.2, would the process dedupe the data into the new storagepool?

during the export can we still access the data on old server if we need to restore some files??

Thanks

[gyuzik]

I would recommend building a net new server running 6.2 and migrate to the new environment verses an in place upgrade.
Your old server will be still in tact if the upgrade fails.

Your 5.5 environment will be offline during the migration so expect an outage.

[TykneeTym]

can we export nodes from TSM 5.5 to a deduped storage pool in 6.2, would the process dedupe the data into the new storagepool?

Yes, the data will be deduplicated, but it's a post process deduplication. So if you had to transfer 100GB, 100GB will hit the new server, and then will be deduped down to whatever ratio you're going to get.

during the export can we still access the data on old server if we need to restore some files??

Yes, exporting data from one server to another is a "copy". The active data (meaning the data that was on the server as of the last backup) will remain on the old server until you specifically delete it. The inactive data will expire per retention settings.

I'll also include my blanket warning about TSM dedupe: It will cause your database to grow, possibily exponentially, and may have a huge performance impact on your TSM system.

[etchingsj]

I'll also include my blanket warning about TSM dedupe: It will cause your database to grow, possibily exponentially, and may have a huge performance impact on your TSM system.

Agreed,
Unless you have a hardware upgrade planned be cautious with DeDupe for TSM server 6.x
The best DeDuplication option is with an EMC Data Domain box presented to TSM as a target STG via NFS or as VTL if you feel more comfortable with that configuration.
The DD supports CIFS right out of the box.

[zatogo]

You might consider holding of for 30 days or so before exporting the data to the TSM 6 server. The big advantage in doing this -- depending on your retention settings -- is you may be able to expire a large amount of the data in the TSM 5 environment and thus significantly the amount you need to export.

When I do this, I set the TSM 6 server up as the library manager and the TSM 5 server as a library client thus giving both environments access to the tapes -- TSM 6 using them for new backups and restores; TSM 5 server using the tapes for restore of older data.

For dedup...is your intention to use client or server side dedup? I think this might effect deduplication for the data moved from TSM 5 to TSM 6 server.

[nabildz]

Agreed,
Unless you have a hardware upgrade planned be cautious with DeDupe for TSM server 6.x
The best DeDuplication option is with an EMC Data Domain box presented to TSM as a target STG via NFS or as VTL if you feel more comfortable with that configuration.
The DD supports CIFS right out of the box.

Thanks for the reply.. can you please clarfiy what CIFS??

[etchingsj]

Thanks for the reply.. can you please clarfiy what CIFS??

Common internet file system.
Used like NFS for UNIX but with Windows.

[booman55]

A couple on notes some responses here.

You don't have to export all versions, you can do an export with filed=active, which will only export the active data. Once your new environment has been running for your longest retention setting you can shut down the old instance.

Data Domain isn't the "best" solution, it's merely "a" solution. If your point was to mention that appliance based dedup > tsm based dedup then that would be correct, but there are multiple vendors that all have excellent dedup solutions.

[stephrf]

We have been testing a NetApp FAS Ontap 8 and have been seeing good dedupe rates for TSM backups: too early to say whether we buy it though.