Veritas-bu

Re: [Veritas-bu] NB Upgrade 3.4 to 6.5

2008-03-03 18:04:19
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NB Upgrade 3.4 to 6.5
From: "Curtis Preston" <cpreston AT glasshouse DOT com>
To: <Jared.Seaton AT mylanlabs DOT com>, "Jerry Rioux" <jerryrioux AT gmail DOT com>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 17:44:28 -0500

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

 

First, don’t violate one of the sacred laws of upgrading: don’t upgrade more than one thing at a time.  You can upgrade your hardware, your OS & your backup software.  But for goodness sake, don’t do them at the same time!!!!

 

I agree with Jared.  I really don’t like the upgrading a bunch of versions at a time method with no way to check along the way.  I realize that you’ve waited long enough that you’ve got some catch-22s.  You can’t upgrade to 6.x on NT, and you can’t upgrade to Win2003 (is the really still the newest version?) and run 3.4.  I’d do this in lock step.

 

Along with the usual NBCC steps and things like that, I would do something like:

  1. Backup the catalog, backup the catalog, backup the catalog
  2. When testing this, do a bare metal backup to a similar machine so you can get NT running on some new hardware that you can test on.
  3. Upgrade current install to 4.5 (I believe that will work on NT)
  4. Test backups and recoveries
  5. Build Win2003 server with a different name
  6. Install 4.5 on Win2003 server (forget VM)
  7. Import 4.5 catalog to Win2003 server
  8. Do the “change the hostname” step that breaks in 6.0.
  9. Test backups and recoveries
  10. Upgrade to 5.1
  11. Test backups and recoveries
  12. Upgrade to 6.5 (I would skip 6.0 at this point.)
  13. Test backups and recoveries

 

This will have to be tested to make sure there aren’t dependencies I don’t know about.  Will 4.5 install on NT?  Will 4.5 install on Win2003?  Each of the test backups and recoveries steps should be very extensive.  Once you start running on the new stuff, you really can’t go back without losing all your new backups.

 

Step 7 is important, as it allows you to go all the way to the end when testing.

 

(In case you do have to go backward after doing backups on a new version, I recommend keeping very tight records of which tapes/disk files you use in the new version.  Then you can import them after downgrading.)

 

Did I mention that I think you’re crazy to do this without professional services?  Call it self serving if you want, but Jared had it right.  Your upgrade falls into the WOW category.

 

---

W. Curtis Preston

Backup Blog @ www.backupcentral.com

VP Data Protection, GlassHouse Technologies


From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu [mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Jared.Seaton AT mylanlabs DOT com
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 12:28 PM
To: Jerry Rioux
Cc: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu; veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NB Upgrade 3.4 to 6.5

 


WOW

Now that's a big upgrade, hope you aren't planning to do this all in one day.  Plus what would worry me is that you are doing all those upgrades on a VM without actually being able to verify if anything even works....

Why not just upgrade current system to 4.5, setup the new hardware with 4.5 and import catalog.  Run a full catalog backup, then upgrade to 5.1 and so on.

I personally have only performed upgrades from Solaris running 5.1 > 6 > AIX running 6 > 6.5 (not in production yet, just did in test)

The 5.1 to 6 can be painful if you don't have a good plan.  NBCC is critical to a successfully 5.1 > 6 upgrade.

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/294900.htm



Jared M. Seaton
Recovery Administrator
Mylan Inc.
304-554-5926
304-685-1389 (Cell)


"Jerry Rioux" <jerryrioux AT gmail DOT com>
Sent by: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu

03/03/2008 02:54 PM

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Subject

[Veritas-bu] NB Upgrade 3.4 to 6.5

 

 

 




We are planning the above mentioned upgrade. The catch is that we are switching hardware and OS as well.
Currently running 3.4.1 on WinNT
New Backup server (which will have the same name) is Windows 2003 and will have 6.5 loaded on it.
 
These are my proposed steps:

1 – Create a VM of WIN NT and install NB3.4

2 – Import NB catalog

3 – Upgrade VM and NB to 4.5

4 – Create a VM of Win 2003 and install NB 4.5

5 – Import 4.5 NB Catalog to win 2003 VM & NB

6 – Upgrade NB to 5.0

7 – Upgrade NB to 6.0

8 – Install & Configure NB 6.0 on Production server (plus patches)

9 – Import VM NB catalog to production server

Do you guys have any better options for doing this upgrade? The reason I am using a VM is because I cannot load 3.4 on the new Backup server in order to import the catalog.
 
Thanks,
Jerry
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