Upgrading from TSM 5.5 to TSM 6.3

With the End of Support date for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 5.5 likely to be confirmed in the near future it’s time for all businesses that still have TSM 5.5 instances running to look at upgrading to TSM 6.3.

So apart from the fact 5.5 is approaching EOL what other benefits do you get from upgrading to TSM 6.3? Well for a start the underlying database has changed from btree to DB2 significantly improving the scalability, performance and reliability of TSM, providing you with the ability to protect more data with less TSM servers. Additional enterprise features such as server side deduplication, client side deduplication, node replication and automatic client updates are also introduced within TSM 6.3. The table below provides a very high level version comparison. 

	TSM v5.5 (Q2 07)	TSM V6.3 (Q4 11)
TSM Server Capacity (Objects)	0.5 Billion	4 Billion
Disaster Recovery (TSM EE)	DR Planning	Client Data Replication
Reporting and Monitoring	Yes - Limited via Operational Reporting	Yes - Tivoli Monitoring (Customised Cognos reports can be created via Tivoli Common Reporting )
VMware Support	In-guest	TSM for VE v6.3
Target-Side Data Deduplication	NA	Yes
Source-Side Data Deduplication	NA	Yes
Automatic Client Software Updates	NA	All O/S
Unified Recovery Management	NA	TSM Suite for Unified Recovery

Ok, so now you know about the benefits of upgrading, but what about the upgrade procedure? New hardware is almost always a necessity as the majority of TSM 5.5 servers are 4+ years old and if you wish to utilise additional functions such as server side deduplication then you need the relevant resource (see IBMs server requirements technote for more detail) The upgrade process in itself is a daunting and fairly complex procedure requiring a detailed design and bullet proof plan to ensure the procedure is completed with as little disruption as possible to your businesses scheduled backup operations.

When upgrading you have a choice of 3 upgrade methods, these are:

• Utilising the TSM Server Upgrade Wizard
• Re-Pointing BAclients at the new TSM 6.3 server and waiting for current data on the 5.5 server to expire
• Re-Pointing BAclients at the new TSM 6.3 server and using movenodedata commands to move all required node data from the TSM 5.5 Server to the TSM 6.3 Server

Utilising the TSM server upgrade wizard is the most commonly used upgrade method. This is because it is the easiest way to keep the content of your new TSM 6.3 database identical to that of your current TSM 5.5 database. The procedure does require downtime or a delta period whereby nodes continue to backup the 5.5 server whilst the extract/insert processes take place. The time for this process to complete varies depending upon the size of your current 5.5 database and number of database entries. 

Re-Pointing BAclients at the new TSM 6.3 server and waiting for current data on the 5.5 server to expire is only a realistic possibility if your business has only short term (14 – 60 day) retention policies defined on the 5.5 server instance that is being replaced.

Re-Pointing BAclients at the new TSM 6.3 server and using movenodedata commands to move all required node data from the TSM 5.5 server to the TSM 6.3 server is the best method to utilise if the business cannot experience any downtime or a delta period whereby data is being backed up to the 5.5 server whilst the upgrade procedure is in progress on the new server. However the main disadvantage with this method is that it will take a considerable amount of planning, resource and time to move all node filespaces from your TSM 5.5 environment to your TSM 6.3 environment.

Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, ultimately the decision upon which method you use to upgrade will be dependent upon the businesses current data retention policies and backup and restore SLAs. As utilising the TSM upgrade wizard is the most commonly used upgrade method I have put together the following 15 step guide on how to successfully upgrade to TSM 6.3 utilising the upgrade wizard:

• Install 5.5.6.0 on the new server
• Create a blank TSM 5.5.6.0 instance upon the new TSM 5.5 server
• Prepare space for the DB recovery on the new TSM 5.5 server
• Current TSM 5.5 server preparation and DB backup of the current TSM 5.5 server
• Continue backup operations with current TSM 5.5 server
• Restore the DB backup of the current 5.5 server on the new TSM 5.5 server
• Prepare the new TSM 5.5 server for upgrade to TSM 6.3
• Install the TSM 5.5.6 upgrade utilities on the new TSM 5.5 server
• Complete the prepare stage on the new TSM 5.5 server
• Uninstall 5.5.6.0 TSM license and server code on the new TSM 5.5 server
• Install TSM 6.3.x on the new server
• TSM 6.3.x upgrade Extract/Insert stage
• TSM 6.3.x post upgrade tasks including backup and restore testing upon the new TSM 6.3 server
• Re-point BAclients at new TSM 6.3 server
• Decommission TSM 5.5 server

Following the completion of a successful upgrade you can then begin reviewing the additional features within TSM 6.3 and considering how these can be deployed to add value within your TSM environment.  

An exciting announcement was recently made via IBM regarding the TSM 6.4 family which includes the TSM 6.3.3 server component and the TSM 6.4 client and is due to be released on the 16^th of November. I hope you found this post of use and if you are planning an upgrade in the near future good luck. If you have any questions regarding TSM or upgrading TSM please feel free to comment or get in touch.