On Mon, Mar 13, 2006 at 10:20:19AM -0600, Horn, Brian wrote:
> We have Netbackup Enterprise.  Master server is an old, nearly
> end-of-supported-life Unix machine.  We also have a newer Windows media
> server.  Currently, all the tape drives are connected to the Windows
> media server, and nothing to the Master. [Master and media servers both
> at 5.1MP4]  I'd like to migrate -everything- to a brand spanking new
> Windows box. [At 6.0MP1] It looks like bprecover with the -dhost won't
> work for my needs since as I read it, it won't move the Unix image to
> Windows.  The Veritas docs I've found so far indicate that we either
> need to contract services with them for the migration, or do a clean
> break from the past and import any images that may be needed later for
> restores.  

Cross-architecture migrations are possible (we went from a Windows
master to a Solaris master under 3.4) but they're horribly ugly.
Veritas absolutely right in that professional services should be used.
I can't imagine going the other way...  We did it ourselves but we took
a couple of cracks at it with good admins.

> Is there a 3rd option?
> 
> Would a standalone drive mounted to the old Master server work for
> restores?

Yup.  The downside, however, is that you would have to buy another
master server license or upgrade your current Windows media server to a
master server.  You also need to remember forever what your cutover date
was so that you know which master to ask for a restore.  

If you really don't want to upgrade the Unix master (you could replace
it with a newer model, even it if refurb'ed) you could make your Windows
server a master too along with the existing Unix master and a standalone
drive.  Then import your tapes over time so that eventually you retire
the old Unix box.  I've seen people say it takes a day or two per tape
for the import so you can the math to see if that's reasonable or not.
The longer it takes you, the more likely it is that you'll expire some
images so work your way from your oldest images to the newest and you'll
overlap somewhere in the middle.

        .../Ed

-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts AT ewilts DOT org