Netbackup version question

[John Liden]

Hi
I have serveral Tru64 boxes running osf 5.1 to 5.1b. The backup group wants to upgrade Netbackup to 6.0. According to the docs NB wants us at 5.1.b-2. The problem w/that is it will break some of our apps/dbs. I am of the mind that backups should work just fine on a down rev O/S. Any one have experience in this area?

[Han Pilmeyer]

You could make the same argument for your applications and databases. Those should run just fine on the latest version.

All of this is most likely just what the ISV's have qualified.

Do you have any specific information of applications that will not work on V5.1B-3 (the latest and greatest)?

[John Liden]

We have some Oracle 7 databases on a couple of the boxes. The upgrade/patching process has broken these in the past.

Since we are migrating off of these boxes I don't want to put a lot of labor into them if I can avoid it. My experience is that the Netbackup clients being down reved is ususally not a problem

[Han Pilmeyer]

Oracle 7 hasn't been supported for a long time. That's why Oracle does claim support on newer Tru64 releases. But it should still work. I'm pretty sure I saw customer once do that. Although we don't come across Oracle 7 much any more.

Since you can't get to a situation where both applications are certified on the same version of Tru64, you have to chose the one that you feel has the least risk for you.

Tru64 has had upwards binary compatibility for a long time. The one area where things are tricky is when applications use threads. I know Oracle doesn't use threads, but I'm not sure about Netbackup. So personally I believe that going for a newer version of Tru64 has the best chance.

[Orjan Petersson]

Another option might be to keep the old clients on the machines where you can't upgrade. We currently run a couple of 3.4 clients with master and media servers on 4.5. (Sorry, no experience from version 6.0)
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Orjan

[Chris Hendrick_2]

Netbackup 6.0 should support your older clients... you should always upgrade the master, then media servers, then clients and they're pretty good about being compatible...

Chris

[John Liden]

Thanks Chris. That is what I needed to hear.
I am real sure the older clients/os will work ok.

[John Liden]

Thanks for all your replys