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Question

Move old DDB and Mount Path to new Media Agent to dismantle the old MA

  • 20 February 2024
  • 7 replies
  • 64 views
S
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Hello everyone,

 

I have a quick question, I am fairly convinced this is the way to do it, but due to the nature of it, I am unsure and want to make extra sure.

A few months ago, we deployed a new media agent in one of our Commcells, to replace the old Media Agent which was going EOL. We would now like to dismantle the old EOL, however, the old DDB on the old MA is still showing referenced jobs (132 of them):

 

 

We are now at a point where we can no longer wait for these jobs to naturally age out.

 

Along with support, we have worked out a process to move all data away from the old media agent. This involves moving the mount path still residing on the old media agent to the new one using this process: https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/156684_moving_mount_path_to_new_location.html

 

as well as moving the old, sealed DDB to a new partition on the new media agent. Then, we would check all jobs in the sealed DDB to make sure they are now referencing a path on the new media agent, and finish it off with a full DDB verification on all DDBs / data verification, and a DR backup at the end.

 

After applying this process, would this mean that we are not at risk of losing any data when dismantling and deleting the old media agent entirely, since DDB and mount path now reside on the new MA? Or are we missing something?

 

Thanks for your help!

7 replies

S
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Hi @SahiNo ,

 

You are on a thr right track.

 

We have to move the mount path to new media agent, move DDB partition to new media agent. Once movement is done, we will be able to restore the jobs.

 

If jobs to the new media agent have not yet ran, then we can also manaully move the index data from old media agent to new media agent.

ref: Migrating to the New MediaAgent Using Manual Operations (commvault.com)

 

At the end we have to make sure, there are no associations on the media agent and then remove it.

 

If you are not sure on how to check associations on the media agent you can use below snaps

 

Regards,

Suleman

 

S
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Hi Suleman,

 

Thanks for your response! Only one thing unclear now: you said

“If jobs to the new media agent have not yet ran, then we can also manaully move the index data from old media agent to new media agent.

ref: Migrating to the New MediaAgent Using Manual Operations (commvault.com)”

 

What if jobs to the new media agent have been running for a while?

 

The link mentions “ Copy the contents of the index cache directory from the old MediaAgent to the index cache directory of the new MediaAgent.” - is there an operation within the Commcell Console for this, or is this done manually?

 

Thanks again for your help!

S
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Userlevel 2
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Hi @SahiNo ,

When new system being deployed as a media agent, there are no indexes on the new media agent hence we try to copy the index data manaully. If we have jobs running then there is no need to copy the index data manaully as the backups will have index created.

Moving index data is manaul process.

Regards,

Suleman

S
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Thanks Suleman,

 

So, just to be 100%, do I understand correctly - if we move the DDB and the mount paths, we will not suffer any data loss when dismantling the old media agent even if we do not copy the index manually?

S
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@SMD, is this something you could confirm (that not copying the index will not matter for the restorability of data)?

L
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Hi !

Except on very old versions, you do not _need_ the indexes to restore the backups as long as you have the backup data accessible. They do contain them, but if you need to browse that backup data for restores, the 1st task will be to rebuild the indexes (as to rebuild the catalogue of the backup data), before you can browse the content of the backup. This will read the data, and take some time.

And depending on the type of backup (fs, vm..) there could be multiple index restore phases upon your browsing..

 

If you just keep those backups until they expire, with low probablility you would need to restore them, then you can proceed without moving the indexes.

 

Else, it’s not that complicated to move the indexes ‘manually’ 

Ensure you read this article before to get familiar with indexes https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/online_help_07.html

S
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Thanks @Laurent for your response. Based on your comment, it would be safe to *not* copy the IndexCache contents, and decommission the old media agent once DDB and mount paths have been migrated, with the caveat that restores of older data (i.e. data that was backed up before the switch to the new MA) would take a longer time, correct?

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