DS 6.9 to 7.1 Upgrade

Lorribot · 03-10-2010, 04:23 AM

Has anyone stumbled across a guide to move from DS 6.9 to DS 7.1 and all that is involved?

I am piecing together bits from various places but can't find anything relating to licensing or a step by step guide.

The more I read the more I want to go and hide in a cave somewhere far, far away

JeffreyJRiggs · 03-10-2010, 10:13 AM

{subscribed}

i am now setting up NS7 in our test lab and documenting it... i am now down to our solution configs....

then i am going to get to DS..
currently we use DS 6.9 sp2 and build desktops/laptops and servers.... so this is going to be a biggie for me to!!!!

markr1963 · 03-11-2010, 12:44 AM

My understading is that jobs and images are not transferable from DS 6.8 or 9 to DS 7.1. All to do with ResourceGUID creation IIRC.

Lorribot · 03-11-2010, 02:29 AM

Just remeber these words of wisdom from the planning doc

"It is the knee-jerk reaction to immediately deconstruct the architecture discussion into the technical pieces necessary to place components on the network and configure the software."

Nick · 03-11-2010, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markr1963

My understading is that jobs and images are not transferable from DS 6.8 or 9 to DS 7.1. All to do with ResourceGUID creation IIRC.

My research has indicated that images in DS 7.1 are created much like a software delivery job is in that several references are made in the database that will point to the source files. Something which can't be manually done.

What I haven't had a chance to try yet (building up my lab when I get back from DC this week) is to build a "dummy" image job in DS 7.1 then replace that image file with one of my "real" images.

The part that I'm looking at as well is that if my understanding of how the new imaging system works is correct (images now treated much like software packages) then it may necessitate the use of an NS at each remote location you wish to have images stored. Unless a script is used to run the job. Anyone had a chance to test this?

markr1963 · 03-11-2010, 07:43 AM

I suspect that those heavily into DS will stick with 6.9 for awhile. Word is they (Symantec) will be developing/supporting DS 6.9 for some time to come. DS 7.1 is definitely getting there. The Silverlight functionality is pretty slick yet there's a few, er, inconsistencies. The next MR or SP may well sort this though.
One would like to think that a mechanism to migrate images, jobs etc from 6.9 to 7.x would be on the cards.

Lorribot · 03-11-2010, 08:22 AM

There some mentions about a utillity to convert images from 6.9 to 7.1 called ResourceImportTool.exe
Article ID: 48744

Also there is a request for a Win32 console
Article ID: 49692

Do you need to upgrade your licenese from 6.9 to 7, if so how do you do this?

JeffreyJRiggs · 03-11-2010, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markr1963

I suspect that those heavily into DS will stick with 6.9 for awhile. Word is they (Symantec) will be developing/supporting DS 6.9 for some time to come. DS 7.1 is definitely getting there. The Silverlight functionality is pretty slick yet there's a few, er, inconsistencies. The next MR or SP may well sort this though.
One would like to think that a mechanism to migrate images, jobs etc from 6.9 to 7.x would be on the cards.

interesting you say this....

i contacted our symantec rep to get our ns7 licenses figured out and here are a few important tidbits for you guys... and yeah ill be on DS 6.9 SPx for a while due to these comments...

Me: Going to install DS 6.9 SP3 soon if DS 7.1 is not ready

Symantec Rep: If you plan to upgrade your DS 6.9 servers you might want to wait a couple of weeks, I’ve heard we plan to release SP4 early in Q2 (April)

Me: Deployment Server 6.9 SP4??? Thought DS 6.x was going away for the new DS solution in NS??? Doesn’t matter to me.. as long as I can build servers and desktops….

Symantec Rep: Yes, 6.9 will go away, but that will be at least 2-3years after an EOL announcement, which I haven't seen yet.

markr1963 · 03-11-2010, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffreyJRiggs

Symantec Rep: Yes, 6.9 will go away, but that will be at least 2-3years after an EOL announcement, which I haven't seen yet.

Yep, that's pretty much what I heard from one of the Technical Enablement guys

Brandon · 03-12-2010, 02:19 PM

I am sure you are all aware of this link already, but it's a nice bookmark.
http://www.altiris.com/Support/Online/ProductEOL.aspx

Hopefully they won't be announcing an EOL any time soon. I am not really liking the web based, SWD-style approach to DS 7.1.

roberto · 03-17-2010, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick

My research has indicated that images in DS 7.1 are created much like a software delivery job is in that several references are made in the database that will point to the source files. Something which can't be manually done.

What I haven't had a chance to try yet (building up my lab when I get back from DC this week) is to build a "dummy" image job in DS 7.1 then replace that image file with one of my "real" images.

The part that I'm looking at as well is that if my understanding of how the new imaging system works is correct (images now treated much like software packages) then it may necessitate the use of an NS at each remote location you wish to have images stored. Unless a script is used to run the job. Anyone had a chance to test this?

I've been looking at the new DS7.1:

It looks like the new image tasks don't contain any source location, does this mean that all images will be stored on a _default_ (WTF?) location on the deployment server and replicated to the site servers? What if you use an additional file server (that can't be configured as site server) to store the images??

The PXE configuration does not contain any drive mappings anymore (or am i wrong, because i can't find any refences?) so does this mean that the client will boot to PXE and connect to the local site server (if sites & services is configured and deployment site services is installed and the image is replicated) to download the image? Am i correct?

Any feedback is appreciated :-)

Lorribot · 03-17-2010, 09:05 AM

Looking at the end of life list it would seem that you get 2 years from when the new version is released, which meens 6.9 should be supported untill Q1 2012.

Which is probably only just enough time for me to cope with all the changes and fit in all the work I need to do to move to 7.1.

JeffreyJRiggs · 03-17-2010, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lorribot

Looking at the end of life list it would seem that you get 2 years from when the new version is released, which meens 6.9 should be supported untill Q1 2012.

Which is probably only just enough time for me to cope with all the changes and fit in all the work I need to do to move to 7.1.

i agree.. although our implementation of NS7 is going to get brought up sooner than later as my management wants the Dell openmanage server installed.. just found out that Dell now utilizes Altiris for that piece so im not gonna have long in my test lab but going to get to production sooner than i thought...