Prior to the release of Simpana 9 SP1, upgrades from previous versions could get a little hairy. Sure, CommVault had its upgrade tool (on Maintenance Advantage) to verify that the CommServe could be upgraded. However, this really didn’t cover the critical portion of the upgrade, the MS SQL 2005 to 2008 upgrade. I’ve always recommended testing the upgrade in a lab environment first…just in case! This is where the DR process comes in handy.
For the purpose of this exercise, I will be recovering a version 7 CommServe. After installing the OS and the Simpana 7 CommServe on the VM, a copy of the DR backup set will be loaded into the test CommServe. I have outlined the instructions below.
Perform the following on your Production CommServe:
1) From the CommCell GUI, veriify that the CommServe has the latest updates installed.
3) Determine the location of the DR backups. In the control panel, double-click on DR Backups.
The DR backup location is located under the “Export Settings Tab”.
4) In the DR backup directory, you will see the DR backups (which include SQL dump, registry settings, etc.) The SET_### consist of a single DR backup. Make a copy of the latest SET_### directory and copy it to the test CommServe VM.
Perform the following on your Test CommServe:
1) Install the CommServe software. A 30 day temporary license will be granted with plenty of time to complete testing. I would highly recommend purchasing the CommServe DR License. This license allows your CommServe two different IP addresses, one for the production site and one for a DR CommServe. The price for this license is miniscule compared to the benefits you gain by having an extra DR CommServe.
2) Verify the location of the DR backup copied from the production CommServe
3) Run the CommServe DR Recovery GUI \\software_install_directory\base\CommServeDisasterRecoveryGUI.exe
Enter the following parameters in the DR Recovery GUI
SQL Restore Tab
a) Restore file: Select the commserv__FULL.dmp file to restore.
b) Restore path: Verify that the directory where you wish to restore the SQL DB’s.In my case, I installed the default CommServe DB on the C: drive, therefore, I can restore to the original path.
Disregard the following error message. You will be overwriting the existing default CommServe database.
Please note, CommVault Services will need to be restarted.
c) (Optional) Enter valid Mail Server/Recipient information to receive mail notification
d) Click "OK" and verify that the recovery is complete.
Name/License Change Tab
a) Check the CommServe Name Change to the hostname of your Test server. The CS DR GUI will automatically populate this information.
b) Click “OK”. The message window at the bottom will state the Hostname change is complete. Also, notice that the “Commserve Name Change” is no longer checked.
Post Recovery Tab
This is an optional piece of the DR recovery process. If your CommServe was also your Media Agent, you may want to disable schedules and media agent processes. I typically select the following items
a) Check Perform PostRecovery Operations
b) Check “Delete all Active Jobs”
c) Check “Disable Media Agent”
d) Check “Disable schedules"
e) Click "OK"
4) Verify that all CommVault Services have started.
5) Run the CommCell Console. Keep in mind that the cvadmin password will be the password you used when installing the CommServe. If you have AD authentication turned on, then you should be able to use these credentials as well.
Now you can test your CommServe upgrade without impacting production!!
Please note that this process does not take into account any media agent or other iDA installations that may have been installed on the production CommServe.
No comments:
Post a Comment