Skip to main content

Hello, 
 

We need to replace our backup storage as well as the media agents. We also want to update our environment from SP20 to SP28 and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this and have the following thoughts.

The update of the existing environment should only be done at the end.

The first plan I came up with would be to install the new media agents with SP28 and integrate them with the existing version (SP20). The new backup storage will only be used for the new media agents. New storage policies will be created and all active jobs will be moved from the old to the new storage policy. The data on the old backup storage will be kept until the retention period expires. After that, the LUNs and the old generation media agents are removed from the environment.

The second plan would be to attach LUNs from the new backup storage to the old media agents and use them for backups. Along the way, the new media agents will be set up. When they are finished, the media agents will be added to the Commvault environment and the LUNs and dedup will be migrated to the new media agents.  I think that this plan is not optimal, because we use a cluster shared volume for the media agents, which could lead to problems.

The third plan would be the same as the first plan, but without the data being aged out, but migrating it from the old LUN to a LUN of the new backup storage via Move Mount Path.

From your experience, what would be a feasible way with the least risk?

Kind Regards

Thomas

@thomas.S ,

Your plan looks good to me, you can also check the procedure below:

https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/11069_mediaagent_hardware_refresh_overview.ht

Best Regards,

Sebastien

What is holding you off from updating the existing MAs to FR28 as well? B.t.w. I would personally go for the first plan!

Hello @Onno van den Berg and @Sebastien Merluzzi ,

Thanks for the feedbacks.
The old media agents need to be removed by March 2023 as they are still running on Windows 2012R2. Therefore, we are replacing them with new machines running Windows 2022. 
Since the rest of the environment is also still running on SP20, it makes little sense to update the old media agents to SP28. 
We can only update the CommServe later, because we still have to test some things with the SP28 version in the test environment. The question for plan 1 would be if the media agents with SP28 have problems to work with a CommServe that still runs on SP20 ?

@thomas.S: 

i would follow the below path based on the criteria for achieving your result

Plan 1 (enough time available for upgrade of OS/CV. Lesser quantum of work)

  1. Without change in CV version, upgrade the OS of CV components to supported version (2012 to later version)
  2. Upgrade the CV version from SP20 to SP28
  3. Add the new MA- new Storage as SP28

Plan 2 (no time for testing SP28, more work)

  1. Setup the new MA-new Storage with CV SP20
  2. Change the OS for each of the component to later supported version keeping CV at SP20
  3. Upgrade the environment to SP28

Hello @Zubair Ahmed Sharief, 

Thank you very much. Yes, we have now discussed this in the team and will first set up the new media agents on version SP11.20 and when they are productive we will upgrade to SP 11.28 with the rest of the environment. 
I think this is the best plan for us.
 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings