Upgrade networker server

[terrywashington]

We are upgrading our Solaris Networker server with a newer machine. The original server is running 7.1.1. I have installed 7.2.1 on the new machine. I know that I will need to contact EMC to get new authorization codes but what is the easiest way to move the indexes, groups and other configuration to the new server?

 

[Chapter11]

Officially, the method is to perform a bootstrap recovery, which involves taking a bootstrap, shutting down Networker on your old system, then performing the process associated with the "mmrecov" command on the new system, which is not all that hard to do.

Unofficially, I didn't have any problems when I simply tarred up the /nsr directory on my old server and untarred it on my new server (7.2.1).

I will point out one thing in your plan I would *not* do, which is perform an upgrade and transfer at the same time. If I were you, I would either upgrade your old server to 7.2.1 and establish that it works as intended, then move, or downgrade your new server to 7.1.1, then make sure everything is working before doing the upgrade to 7.2.1.

I consider both of those to be major changes, and if something *does* go wrong, it's easier to track down what's broke if you only make one change at a time.

 

[terrywashington]

Thanks for the info. I considered doing a tar of /nsr but wanted to see what others recommended. I think I will upgrade the original server to 7.2.1 and tar /nsr. Did you have to run nsrck -L7 on your new server after you untarred /nsr?

 

[bombcan]

You must keep the same hostname also.
The best way is to tar/untar the /nsr directory.
However I would put the new server to the same version as the old server and like Chapter11 said test to see it all works OK . then upgrade to 7.22. More stable than 7.21

 

[Chapter11]

No need for a -L7 - that's index recovery, and you'd do that if you did the bootstrap method. I did a -L6 and it came out all clean and shiny.

bombcan - I changed server names in my transition, didn't have any problems with it (was also the 2nd name change for my server in its history as well).

Actually I think I used rsync to pull the first /nsr over to the new server instead of tar, but it amounts to the same thing.

Since you have two servers, take a week to test it out: shut down the old server, copy it over, and restart the old server to continue let it processing normally. When the old server is idle, shut it down and bring up the new server to see what gotchas you will run into. (You have to keep one of them down because they *will* detect each other and disable themselves due to license conflict). It's just a matter of scheduling when you need the live server up and when you can spend time testing out the new server. Once you figure the gotchas, refresh the test/new copy, and cut over for real.

 

[605]

Just want to correct one detail with respect to Chapter11's last statement which reads "No need for a -L7 - that's index recovery, and you'd do that if you did the bootstrap method."

Since NW 6, no index backup is part of the bootstrap any more. Consequently it can not be recovered during a bootstrap recovery.

 

[terrywashington]

Thanks for all of the input. I really appreciate it. I just downloaded 7.2.2 and plan to upgrade all of our sites. Has anyone had any experience with 7.3? I read that it has a new GUI and a lot of new things to learn.

 

[605]

Finally, with NW 7.3, a new java-based GUI is available which is the same vor UNIX/Linux and Windows. However, this increases the amount of code to be installed to something about 250MB - about 180MB just for JRE and the GUI. And some features like drag & drop are not available yet, this will be released with NW 7.4 which shall be released this month.

Besides that, there were a lot of internal improvements introduced in NW 7.3 (btw, the current version is 7.3.2). On the other hand, i have heard that this version is not as stable as previous versions. So you probably may want to wait until there is some NW 7.4 feedback available.

 

[paulmeta]

Does it the same when upgrade from 6.X to 7.3.2 on windows platform? I want to copy the /nsr to the new machine.

Thanks

 

[Chapter11]

To fill in a little more:

If you do the bootstrap (mmrecov) method, you don't get any client file indexes back - aka, no browsable recovers; you only get the media index and your Networker config. If you want to get the client file indexes back for browsable recovers, then you do the nsrck -L7 for each client.

If you do the tar/untar/rsync method, then the above is irrelevant since you'll be copying the client file indexes.

605, question: if you do an mmrecov, and choose not to pull back the client file indexes, won't the next backup for each client/saveset be forced to be a full since there is no reference to compare against for a non-full backup?

 

[605]

The purpose of a bootstrap recovery is to be able to run NEW backups. That's why the potentially very huge CFIs are not included, only the media index and the /res directory.

An empty CFI should not enforce a new full as the information about the backup level is still in the media index.

Please keep in mind - the file index is not really needed for recoveries - it is not even needed when you want to recover a subset of the whole backup. It just makes it more convenient for the user.

 

[bombcan]

Chapter11...you said you do not need the same hostname?
I was under the impression you did...I guess you'd keep the same hostname so not to add/change the servers file on all the clients

 

[Chapter11]

Well, I did have to change all my hosts and servers files, but that was part of a larger plan.