FP3/5 Upgrade on Sun Solaris

[RenC]

We are currently running NetBackup 4.5 MP3 release and are looking to upgrade to 4.5 FP3 and then apply the patches to take us to FP5. Unfortunately, we don't have a solid test environment yet and will have to complete the upgrade in production. Does anyone know if there have been any issues with the FP3 upgrade process, or with the FP3 release? What about with FP5, anything there that would cause us to want to stay at FP3 for awhile? Is there anything we should watch out for during this upgrade process?

Our stats:

NetBackup 4.5 MP3
Veritas Cluster 2.0 on two Sun V880 Master servers running Solaris 8.0
STK L700 Tape Library with IBM Ultrium arbitrated loop tape drives
Eight media servers (Combination of HP, Sun, and Windows 2000)
approximately 100 clients (same combination as above)
McData 24m switch
Shared Storage Option

Any help is appreciated

 

[srinibee]

Hi,
You upgrade to FP5 but, it is neccessary to bring all media servers to the same level.
Since you are in a production environment you should be extremely careful while doing this.

We did this on a prod env a week back. everything went smooth.

regards
Srinivas Bandaru

 

[jdespres]

I would make a copy of your openv directory prior to the upgrade.

 

[comtec17]

If I am not mistaken, Veritas does not support upgrading to FP if you are currently using an MP level.

 

[MaineDCAdmin]

We are about to update our single Master Media Server (Sun) from version 4.5 MP3 to FP3 and then onward to FP5. Certainly backing up the /openv directory would be a prudent measure; additionally, we will make sure the Catalog backup to tape completed succesfully. Page 51 of the FP3 Installation Guide is a bit unclear (see step #3). From what I have gathered talking to my SE, and others at Veritas, the process outlined removes the application binaries, and potentially any customized code created BUT the Catalog remains in place. FP3 is unlike patching from MP1 to MP2, etc. The FP3 CD is, in fact a full binary install (as opposed to a patch like MP3).

Moving from MP3 to FP3 is a Veritas supported migration path.

Like the originating post for this thread I am very much interested in hearing how MP3 to FP3 upgrade efforts went on a Sun Solaris platform.

 

[bswip]

We migrated from MP4 to FP3 and then FP5 recently. All previous suggestions are very good... make a backup of your special configurations and any customization that you may have made to /usr/openv/netbackup/bin. (i.e. if you have customized some of the scripts here)...

Our migration was percipitated by the our upgrading from LTD to an ACS library. FP5 fully supported this new library and it was recommended that we upgrade. However, FP5 does not require that all media servers also be updated. We actually ran for 5-6 weeks with our Master server at FP5 and our media servers @ MP4 without any problems!!!

Now for the upgrade. You wil lneed to un-install Netbackup and will then be asked if this is part of an upgrade. It is extremely important that you respond YES

You can then install FP3. Once FP3 is installed you can apply the FP5 patches. Again it is extremely important that you apply the patches in the proper sequence, especially if you use Vault!. You will install the general FP5 patch, then the client patches, then the Java patches, and lastly the Vault patches.

Apparently, if the vault patch is done out of sequence, it will not be up to FP5.

Once completed, you redo your customization and you are back in business.

The one caveat to be aware of in FP3+, expiring media will be automatically moved to the SCRATCH pool. If you don't want this to occur, then you must add the following to the vm.conf file:

RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL = NO

 

[MaineDCAdmin]

We have completed our upgrade from MP3 to FP3 and then FP5 without any real incidents. The information provided by "bswip" is exactly the method we followed. Generally backups are running at the same or a shorter amount of time. The one exception is Exchange brick-level backups. Backup transfer rates decreased to 25% of what they were at MP3. Veritas has confirmed the problem and is investigating.

 

[Deano71]

We went from MP4, back to FP3, then up to FP5.
We still have about a dozen media servers running at MP4, with the master at FP5, and no apparent problems.

One thing caused some pain during the upgrade process. It didn't auto-detect any of our fibre attached STK 9840 and 9940 tape drives. So it deleted all their definitions from NetBackup.

So I highly recommend that you print out your tape drive configuration before you start the upgrade. I just printed out the Device Management display of tape drives from the GUI.

 

[PGPhantom]

You may want to consider FP6 which is a major upgrade in that you do not have to install and previous versions of NetBackup - FP6 is a base install version which contains all previous FP's and MP's.

Definitely print out your tape device configurations - Will save you a lot of hassle.