Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
Just a note to you all as a follow-up. We asked for a quote to do this
conversion from Symantec and it came back with 120 hours of labor at over $40k.
Obviously we're gonna visit with them on that quote - that seems like a lot of
hours & expense.
-M
From: Jonathan Dyck [mailto:jd...@bank-banque-canada.ca]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 11:15 AM
To: Donaldson, Mark; Bryan Bahnmiller
Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
I did exactly what you described here below last year. We went from a
"stand-alone" Solaris 8 V880 (we had a VVR replicating non-HA setup going) to
RHEL 4 Update 4, on IBM x3650's using Storage Foundations High Availability
global cluster option (VVR + VCS essentially). We also changed host names. We
also went from NBU 5.0MP4 up to 6.5.2A at that time.
Well worth the $20k or so we spent on PS. Let me know if you have some
specific Q's, I might be able to remember some details ;-)
-Original Message-
From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Donaldson, Mark
Sent: October 13, 2009 5:18 PM
To: Bryan Bahnmiller
Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
The goal is to get off of the aging V880 and onto a cheaper Linux
platform. At the same time, we've had a couple high-profile hardware failures
in the past couple months and, since the hardware is cheap (and the VCS license
is "free" thanks to our site license), putting in a cluster seems a way to add
reliability for the cost of a $5000 x86 box.
I don't intend to rename the master server, I'll move the name and, I
thought, make it the HA name for the pair - thus getting around the infamous
"can't rename the master server" problem. That's why I was thinking this would
be easy to pull off.
I don't know if the company will spring for $15k worth of services,
though. Kinda doubles the cost of the whole project.
From: Bryan Bahnmiller [mailto:bbahnmil...@dtcc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Donaldson, Mark
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered
Master
Mark,
Ugh... Don't envy that task. A few comments.
The master server has to run on the virtual name (relocatable IP and
dns name.) This name and the names of the individual nodes are in the EMM db.
If you kept the name of the current master as your virtual name, it should be a
simpler task. Also, the agent is very intrusive. (Especially on Windows.) There
are agent options that can only be set via the bpclusterutil command. That
tells me that the agent is not all that, what, conforming?
At the conference I went to, a Symantec employee was asked why
changing the name of the backup server is not supported. He said that the name
of the NBU master server is in 14 different places on Windows servers and 11
places on Unix servers. And the names in the different places have to be
changed in the correct order. One mistake and nothing works.
I sat in on some very interesting discussions about NBU HA. What are
you trying to accomplish? Most of the people I talked with agreed that the main
thing HA will give you is the capability of doing server maintenance with
minimal impact. Most hardware now is pretty reliable. When was the last time
you had a nic or hba fail? When the server fails over, all backups stop. After
a failover, you will still have to clear out tape drives, restart backups and
so on. The only currently allowed HA configuration is active/passive. So you do
have one server sitting there idling, waiting for the other server to fail
over.
Also, if you have the disk mirrored with VxVM, you'll have to see if
that is supported with the Linux agent for failover too.
Bryan
"Donaldson, Mark"
Sent by: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
10/13/2009 02:32 PM
To
cc
Subject
[Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
Page 14 of the NB High Availability guide:
=
NetBackup does not support the conversion of an existing non-failover
NetBackup server to a failover NetBackup server. Contact Symantec
Enterprise Technical Support.
=
Huh?
Should be easy, I'd think. Why would I need Tech Support?
Has anyone done this?
BTW: also co
Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
I did exactly what you described here below last year. We went from a
"stand-alone" Solaris 8 V880 (we had a VVR replicating non-HA setup
going) to RHEL 4 Update 4, on IBM x3650's using Storage Foundations High
Availability global cluster option (VVR + VCS essentially). We also
changed host names. We also went from NBU 5.0MP4 up to 6.5.2A at that
time.
Well worth the $20k or so we spent on PS. Let me know if you have some
specific Q's, I might be able to remember some details ;-)
-Original Message-
From: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of
Donaldson, Mark
Sent: October 13, 2009 5:18 PM
To: Bryan Bahnmiller
Cc: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered
Master
The goal is to get off of the aging V880 and onto a cheaper
Linux platform. At the same time, we've had a couple high-profile
hardware failures in the past couple months and, since the hardware is
cheap (and the VCS license is "free" thanks to our site license),
putting in a cluster seems a way to add reliability for the cost of a
$5000 x86 box.
I don't intend to rename the master server, I'll move the name
and, I thought, make it the HA name for the pair - thus getting around
the infamous "can't rename the master server" problem. That's why I was
thinking this would be easy to pull off.
I don't know if the company will spring for $15k worth of
services, though. Kinda doubles the cost of the whole project.
From: Bryan Bahnmiller [mailto:bbahnmil...@dtcc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Donaldson, Mark
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to
clustered Master
Mark,
Ugh... Don't envy that task. A few comments.
The master server has to run on the virtual name (relocatable
IP and dns name.) This name and the names of the individual nodes are in
the EMM db. If you kept the name of the current master as your virtual
name, it should be a simpler task. Also, the agent is very intrusive.
(Especially on Windows.) There are agent options that can only be set
via the bpclusterutil command. That tells me that the agent is not all
that, what, conforming?
At the conference I went to, a Symantec employee was asked why
changing the name of the backup server is not supported. He said that
the name of the NBU master server is in 14 different places on Windows
servers and 11 places on Unix servers. And the names in the different
places have to be changed in the correct order. One mistake and nothing
works.
I sat in on some very interesting discussions about NBU HA.
What are you trying to accomplish? Most of the people I talked with
agreed that the main thing HA will give you is the capability of doing
server maintenance with minimal impact. Most hardware now is pretty
reliable. When was the last time you had a nic or hba fail? When the
server fails over, all backups stop. After a failover, you will still
have to clear out tape drives, restart backups and so on. The only
currently allowed HA configuration is active/passive. So you do have one
server sitting there idling, waiting for the other server to fail over.
Also, if you have the disk mirrored with VxVM, you'll have to
see if that is supported with the Linux agent for failover too.
Bryan
"Donaldson, Mark"
Sent by: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
10/13/2009 02:32 PM
To
cc
Subject
[Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
Page 14 of the NB High Availability guide:
=
NetBackup does not support the conversion of an existing
non-failover
NetBackup server to a failover NetBackup server. Contact
Symantec
Enterprise Technical Support.
=
Huh?
Should be easy, I'd think. Why would I need Tech Support?
Has anyone done this?
BTW: also converting from Solaris to Linux at the same time if I
can
pull this off...
-Mark
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[Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
Mark, Don't know anything about clustering master servers, I'll put in my two cents worth on the master server migration. Since you're going to a *nix to a *nix environment, you should be able to simply do a disaster recovery type restore of NetBackup. The process is pretty much like this: install NBU from scratch on the new server, configure it enough to get a library or tape drive working and then do a full catalog restore. Since the EMM database backup is simply a dump of the data, the restore process will over come any binary level data differences that might exist between the two flavors of UNIX. And the images catalog is still the same format of flat and binary files in a nested directory structure. The only gotcha I can see here is the host name. You'll need to setup the new server with the exact same host name which means isolating it from your regular network. I'd be curious to see how this works for you. I'm actually considering the same thing (going from an AIX environment to Linux). +-- |This was sent by t...@tjsimerson.org via Backup Central. |Forward SPAM to ab...@backupcentral.com. +-- ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
It's been almost a year since I've had to deal with a clustered master server, so I may not remember some of the details, but in addition to knowing the virtual name of the cluster, NBU also knows the host names of every node in the cluster. How NBU dealt with a cluster changed in either 5.1 or 6.0 (I'm leaning toward 6.0 here). I once wanted to move a clustered master server to a new cluster by setting up the new cluster while the old one was still running, etc, etc, etc (tedious details omitted). I contacted Veritas support, and they said that even the hostnames of the nodes had to remain the same. So, I'm guessing there's some major under-the-hood work that would have to be done to do that kind of conversion. Even EMM knows about the individual nodes in the cluster, and it keeps track of which node is the active node in the cluster. I'm guessing that even building a new cluster from scratch and then doing a catalog recovery wouldn't work because of this. -- Jack Forester, Jr. Senior Recovery Administrator Global Technology Services - AHS Mylan, Inc. 1000 Hampton Center Morgantown, WV 26505 jack.fores...@mylan.com Phone: +1.304.554.6039 Cell: +1.412.805.5313 "Donaldson, Mark" Sent by: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu 10/13/2009 05:19 PM To "Bryan Bahnmiller" cc veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master The goal is to get off of the aging V880 and onto a cheaper Linux platform. At the same time, we've had a couple high-profile hardware failures in the past couple months and, since the hardware is cheap (and the VCS license is "free" thanks to our site license), putting in a cluster seems a way to add reliability for the cost of a $5000 x86 box. I don't intend to rename the master server, I'll move the name and, I thought, make it the HA name for the pair - thus getting around the infamous "can't rename the master server" problem. That's why I was thinking this would be easy to pull off. I don't know if the company will spring for $15k worth of services, though. Kinda doubles the cost of the whole project. From: Bryan Bahnmiller [mailto:bbahnmil...@dtcc.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:58 PM To: Donaldson, Mark Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master Mark, Ugh... Don't envy that task. A few comments. The master server has to run on the virtual name (relocatable IP and dns name.) This name and the names of the individual nodes are in the EMM db. If you kept the name of the current master as your virtual name, it should be a simpler task. Also, the agent is very intrusive. (Especially on Windows.) There are agent options that can only be set via the bpclusterutil command. That tells me that the agent is not all that, what, conforming? At the conference I went to, a Symantec employee was asked why changing the name of the backup server is not supported. He said that the name of the NBU master server is in 14 different places on Windows servers and 11 places on Unix servers. And the names in the different places have to be changed in the correct order. One mistake and nothing works. I sat in on some very interesting discussions about NBU HA. What are you trying to accomplish? Most of the people I talked with agreed that the main thing HA will give you is the capability of doing server maintenance with minimal impact. Most hardware now is pretty reliable. When was the last time you had a nic or hba fail? When the server fails over, all backups stop. After a failover, you will still have to clear out tape drives, restart backups and so on. The only currently allowed HA configuration is active/passive. So you do have one server sitting there idling, waiting for the other server to fail over. Also, if you have the disk mirrored with VxVM, you'll have to see if that is supported with the Linux agent for failover too. Bryan "Donaldson, Mark" Sent by: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu 10/13/2009 02:32 PM To cc Subject [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master Page 14 of the NB High Availability guide: = NetBackup does not support the conversion of an existing non-failover NetBackup server to a failover NetBackup server. Contact Symantec Enterprise Technical Support. = Huh? Should be easy, I'd think. Why would I need Tech Support? Has anyone done this? BTW: also converting from Solaris to Linux at the same time if I can pull this off... -Mark ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu _ DTCC DISCLAIMER: T
Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
The goal is to get off of the aging V880 and onto a cheaper Linux
platform. At the same time, we've had a couple high-profile hardware
failures in the past couple months and, since the hardware is cheap (and
the VCS license is "free" thanks to our site license), putting in a
cluster seems a way to add reliability for the cost of a $5000 x86 box.
I don't intend to rename the master server, I'll move the name and, I
thought, make it the HA name for the pair - thus getting around the
infamous "can't rename the master server" problem. That's why I was
thinking this would be easy to pull off.
I don't know if the company will spring for $15k worth of services,
though. Kinda doubles the cost of the whole project.
From: Bryan Bahnmiller [mailto:bbahnmil...@dtcc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Donaldson, Mark
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered
Master
Mark,
Ugh... Don't envy that task. A few comments.
The master server has to run on the virtual name (relocatable IP and
dns name.) This name and the names of the individual nodes are in the
EMM db. If you kept the name of the current master as your virtual name,
it should be a simpler task. Also, the agent is very intrusive.
(Especially on Windows.) There are agent options that can only be set
via the bpclusterutil command. That tells me that the agent is not all
that, what, conforming?
At the conference I went to, a Symantec employee was asked why
changing the name of the backup server is not supported. He said that
the name of the NBU master server is in 14 different places on Windows
servers and 11 places on Unix servers. And the names in the different
places have to be changed in the correct order. One mistake and nothing
works.
I sat in on some very interesting discussions about NBU HA. What are
you trying to accomplish? Most of the people I talked with agreed that
the main thing HA will give you is the capability of doing server
maintenance with minimal impact. Most hardware now is pretty reliable.
When was the last time you had a nic or hba fail? When the server fails
over, all backups stop. After a failover, you will still have to clear
out tape drives, restart backups and so on. The only currently allowed
HA configuration is active/passive. So you do have one server sitting
there idling, waiting for the other server to fail over.
Also, if you have the disk mirrored with VxVM, you'll have to see if
that is supported with the Linux agent for failover too.
Bryan
"Donaldson, Mark"
Sent by: veritas-bu-boun...@mailman.eng.auburn.edu
10/13/2009 02:32 PM
To
cc
Subject
[Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
Page 14 of the NB High Availability guide:
=
NetBackup does not support the conversion of an existing non-failover
NetBackup server to a failover NetBackup server. Contact Symantec
Enterprise Technical Support.
=
Huh?
Should be easy, I'd think. Why would I need Tech Support?
Has anyone done this?
BTW: also converting from Solaris to Linux at the same time if I can
pull this off...
-Mark
___
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Re: [Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Donaldson, Mark wrote: > Page 14 of the NB High Availability guide: > > = > NetBackup does not support the conversion of an existing non-failover > NetBackup server to a failover NetBackup server. Contact Symantec > Enterprise Technical Support. > = > > Huh? > > Should be easy, I'd think. Why would I need Tech Support? > I would think that converting one would mean renaming the master server. At last week's NetBackup Customer Forum in Roseville, at the "Ask the Wizards" session, I again raised the question of when Symantec would support us renaming a master server. The answer was "when it requires less than 15 steps on a Windows server - and those steps have to be done in *exactly* the right order." Apparently it's down to 10 steps if you edit the registry, which means you're unsupported by both Symantec and Microsoft :-). We didn't discuss how easier or harder it would be on *nix. Has anyone done this? > > BTW: also converting from Solaris to Linux at the same time if I can > pull this off... > Unofficially, apparently there are no differences in the binary format of the catalog between Solaris and Linux. EMM might be another story. Now I would expect you (or somebody) to eventually test this. And then report back, because I'm thinking about a Solaris to Linux migration too :-) .../Ed Ed Wilts, RHCE, BCFP, BCSD, SCSP, SCSE ewi...@ewilts.org ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
[Veritas-bu] Converting stand-alone Master to clustered Master
Page 14 of the NB High Availability guide: = NetBackup does not support the conversion of an existing non-failover NetBackup server to a failover NetBackup server. Contact Symantec Enterprise Technical Support. = Huh? Should be easy, I'd think. Why would I need Tech Support? Has anyone done this? BTW: also converting from Solaris to Linux at the same time if I can pull this off... -Mark ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
