Upgrade multiple v5 servers to v6

[adamspiteri]

Hi, I currently have 5 backup servers running version 5. I would like to upgrade to version 6 and take advantage of the new backup proxy feature to allow all of my jobs to be managed from a single location. After reading the user guide, I see that I can upgrade an existing backup server to 6 and have the database upgraded for that server. I don't see any information about importing the database or jobs from other servers. Is this possible? I don't want to have to recreate all of my backup jobs if I don't have to.

[Vitaliy S.]

Adam, if you want to move to a "single backup server with multiple proxy servers" architecture you need re-create backup jobs on the main backup server, and map these jobs to your existing v6 backups in your backup repositories to avoid new full backups. Thanks!

[Reimold]

Hi Vitaliy, does this mean i first have to upgrade all v5 servers to v6 and after that i can map the backups to the on v6-server i want to keep and the i can uninstall full v6 from the other servers and use them as proxy ?

Right now i have 3 v5 servers and my plan is to make one new v6 server and degrade the old v5 servers to v6-proxys and repositories but i do not want to make full backups.

[Gostev]

You need to upgrade all servers to v6 and run all backup jobs, then you should be able to map to those backup files during the consolidation process. Thanks!

[mwant]

[merged]

I currently have 2 v5 backup servers.

1. Located on the working Vmware environment, this server runs the backups.

2. Located at the DR site, pulls replication jobs.

I am planning to install a backup server at the DR site and install a proxy and backup repository at the main site.

I can't find anything in the documentation about upgrading a v5 backup server to a proxy/BR? Can this be done and can I recover the backup jobs via the proxy if it is installed?

[mwant]

You need to upgrade all server to v6 and run all backup jobs, then you should be able to map to those backup files during the consolidation process. Thanks!

I'm still not clear if the install of a proxy/BR to a v5 instance is an upgrade or a fresh install.

If v5 has to be uninstalled before the proxy install will I then lose all the legacy backups?

[ND40oz]

I installed the v6 backup proxy install on all of my remote v5 servers. Since then, I've been moving a replication job nightly to the v6 server while they still perform their v5 backups and replications, once everything's moved over, I'll uninstall v5 on them and they should just act as a remote proxy.

[mwant]

I installed the v6 backup proxy install on all of my remote v5 servers. Since then, I've been moving a replication job nightly to the v6 server while they still perform their v5 backups and replications, once everything's moved over, I'll uninstall v5 on them and they should just act as a remote proxy.

Ah so you can run both at the same time, thanks ND40oz.

[Gostev]

Ah so you can run both at the same time, thanks ND40oz.

I don't really recommend doing that, because v5 will be killing v6 snapshots (should they happen to hit the same VM at the same time), and you will be ending up in messy situations with undeleted snapshot files. We had this in our production a few times while running v5 and v6 beta at the same time, eventually had to separate them in time to prevent this.

[ND40oz]

I wouldn't run a job on each that are processing the same guests at the same time. Currently I have a remote v5 server replicating Server1, Server2 and Server3. Delete Server1 from the v5 job and delete it's replica, then I create a new job on the central v6 server to replicate Server1. That night, Server1 is replicated by the v6 server and the v5 server still does Server2 and Server3. Then I just do one per night until they're all in the job on the v6 server.

[mwant]

I don't really recommend doing that, because v5 will be killing v6 snapshots (should they happen to hit the same VM at the same time), and you will be ending up in messy situations with undeleted snapshot files. We had this in our production a few times while running v5 and v6 beta at the same time, eventually had to separate them in time to prevent this.

OK but I still don't know the answer to my main question which is....

If v5 has to be uninstalled before the proxy install will I then lose all the legacy backups?

[foggy]

Please follow this procedure to keep all your existing backups:

1. Upgrade all v5 servers to v6.
2. Run your current backup jobs (you need at least one successful run for each job) to convert backups to v6 format.
3. Uninstall v6 from the servers you will be using as proxy servers only.
4. Create new backup repositories for existing backup targets using your main v6 installation. The process will "import" existing backups.
5. Create new proxy servers on these servers using your main v6 installation.
6. Re-create the rest of your backup jobs (that used to run on decommissioned v5 servers) on the main v6 installation.
7. Run the newly created backup jobs (full backup will be required).

[foggy]

The procedure is a bit smoother with "multiple v5 servers to a single v6.1 server" upgrade as with v6.1 you can map the jobs to backups produced by another v6.x backup server (no full backup required on re-created jobs):

1. Upgrade existing v5 servers to 6.1.
2. Run each backup job at least once and verify that metadata (.vbm) files are created.
3. Create new backup repositories for existing backup targets using your main v6.1 installation. The process will "import" existing backups.
4. For each job being consolidated recreate exact copy of job on "master" 6.1 server and map backup to existing backup files.
5. Once all jobs from a server are centralized, uninstall V6.1 and add system as proxy to 6.1 server.
6. Run the newly created backup jobs.

[homerjnick]

6.1????????

[Gostev]

Yep, it is generally available now, and you can download it any time you like. I just did not get a chance to update the versions sticky topic yet.