DFM release Question

[hheuze]

Hi All,

I have recommended  to a customer using a DFM/OM server for monitoring and another DFM/OM/PM server for Protection Manager backup / restore.
I would like to know if these two activities Monitoring and Backup / Restore must have the same version of DFM?

ie: a fasX can be managed with a DFM 3.6/3.7 for monitoring and a DFM 3.8.1 or 4.0 for Backup / Restore

The underlying question is do we have to align DFM version for monitoring and backup/restore operation?
I suppose no, but after checking our doc, unfortunately we found nothing on this topic.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Hugues

[adaikkap]

Hi Hugues,

              What is the basis of recommending two different DFM versions for monitoring and Backup/Restore.

Infact Backup/Restore depends upon monitoring.

Moreover huge improvment/features are added in 3.8.1/4.0 with respect to monitoring/Backup/Restore.

Regards

adai

[smoot]

There's no reason I know of to need the same DFM versions.  Since the monitoring DFM station is only reading data from the storage systems, it ought not cause any issues.

OTOH, it seems it would make your life simpler to use the same version everywhere, unless you're trying to avoid a bug we introduced in the more recent release.  3.8.1 should be very solid -- I don't know of any serious issues with it.  You should strongly consider upgrading your monitoring system to 3.8.1.

-- Pete

[RichardSopp]

I'm seeing lots of talk about 3.8.1 but it's not currently available via the NOW site.

Does all this talk about 3.8.1 imply its arrival is imminent?

[smoot]

Hi Richard --

Sorry to get your heart racing.  3.8.1 is relatively imminent, but I don't know the actual planned release date.

Let me put it this way: I can't get bug fixes into 3.8.1 any more because it's too close to the end of it's test phase.  But since we want this to be a GA release, the release team is being very careful what they let in and making sure they extensively test to avoid any regressions.  The sad, sorry truth of software "engineering" is you add one new bug for every two you fix :-(.

-- Pete

[hheuze]

Thanks all for your answers.

What I understand:

- having the same DFM release is not mandatory but recommended

In my case, my customer already have 2 DFM servers running on Solaris.

We are bulding a backup infrastructure based on snapVault and Protection Manager

--> target release for production: 4.0

It was the reason for my request, the customer doesn't target to update DFM and buy 2 new servers for replacing the 2 Solaris.

Thanks to confirm me everything is OK

Regards,

Hugues

[RichardSopp]

Hi Hugues,

I hope you're aware that as of DFM 3.8 there is no longer support for Solaris.

You should keep that in mind when planning a solution based around 4.0.

Richard

[hheuze]

Absolutely Richard,

It's the reason why my customer want to manager 2 DFM release:

- 1 based on Solaris server for monitoring

- 1 based on Windows MCSC for backup with PM

Thanks,

Hugues

[adaikkap]

Also keep in mind solaris is the slowest of all three OS flavours DFM supports.

Regards

adai

[RichardSopp]

Just out of interest what is considered the fastest of the three OS flavours?

[adaikkap]

IIRC Linux and Windows are equally good.

regards

adai

[soehlig]

Is what you are saying that your customer wants to run an older version of DFM on Solaris and then run a newer version on Windows with MSCS support?

If that is the case, you would be better off to have them run the latest version from one OS Platform - either Linux or Windows.

You are just looking for trouble if you want to try and run to different versions on two different platforms.

Scott J. Soehlig
Technical Support Engineer 
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