Starting from Service Pack 7B of version 9.0, the CommCell Clone tool is
deprecated and no longer available for use.
In cases where an existing CommCell needs to be split, the CommCell Migration
can be used as a replacement for the Clone functionality. CommCell Migration
allows you to export CommCell objects and import them into another CommCell. If
an existing CommCell needs to be split into multiple CommCells, you can export
the objects that need to be moved and import them into the new or fresh
CommCell.
Using the CommCell clone tool the entire CommCell was copied 100% and given a
new CommCell ID. Once the name changes were completed on the Child CommCell, the
new child CommCell could be used after disabling and deconfiguring the not
needed entities on the exiting CommCell.
Using the CommCell Migration tool, gives you the flexibility to export the
items you want to utilize in the child CommCell. You can create a new CommCell
and merge in the exported items from the original source CommCell. Once the name
change operation is completed, the new objects belong to the Child CommCell.
In both the CommCell Clone and CommCell Migration, the imported Mount Paths
are marked as read-only.
Follow the instructions for a CommCell Migration (CCM) operation to migrate
the needed objects and create the split CommCell as needed. Keep in mind that
CommCell Migration requires the CommCell Migration license on the source and
destination CommCells. Make sure that the destination CommCell(s) have adequate
licenses for the imported objects.
The splitting CommCells feature enables you to split a CommCell into smaller CommCells. This feature is most useful if your CommCell has become extremely
large having a negative effect on the performance of your operations.
Splitting a CommCell involves the following operations:
Creating child CommCell(s) by installing the CommServe software on each
of the child CommCell.
Migrating the necessary clients and MediaAgents over to the
child CommCell(s).
The following sections describe the steps involved in splitting a CommCell:
Before you begin the splitting of a CommCell, make sure to do the following:
Identify and prepare a list of all of the clients, libraries, MediaAgents, and
storage policies that are part of the CommCell to split.
The Agents and data residing in some Storage Resources cannot be
migrated to a new CommCell. Consider
retaining these entities in the original CommCell.
Determine which of these CommCell entities are to be migrated to the child CommCell(s) and prepare a list of sub-groupings per CommCell. If there are more than one child CommCell,
determine the CommCell entities that are going in to each of these child CommCells.
Make sure the clients of one sub-grouping are not using the same storage
policies or MediaAgents from other sub-groups. If necessary, change the
storage policies of the appropriate subclients.
Contact your software provider to obtain a new CommCell ID number as well
as a new CSID license file for each new CommCell. The new license
must have at least the same or a larger number of licenses for each CommCell
entity.
Install the latest Service Pack on the parent CommServe.
The following section provides step-by-step instructions to create a child of a parent CommCell:
Install the CommServe software with an evaluation license on each computer that is to be a child
CommCell. Do not install any other platforms on these computers.
Make sure that the child CommCells have the same updates as the
parent CommCell.
Run the CommServe Disaster Recovery Tool on each child CommCell to restore the
database of the parent CommCell. See
CommServe Recovery for more information.
Disable the clients, libraries, and MediaAgents that are to be migrated
to the child CommCell(s).
The following section provides step-by-step instructions to split a CommCell:
Perform the following steps in each of the child CommCells:
Contact your software provider to obtain a new license for the
child CommCells.
From the Resource Pack, copy the CommCell Clone utility,
commcellclone.exe, and the new license file to the
<software installation path>\Base
folder on the CommServe computers
for the child CommCells. (See
Resource Pack for more information on the Resource Pack.)
From each of these CommServe computers, run the utility using the
new license file that was received from your software provider as a
command line argument, as follows:
CommCellClone
[-vm <virtualMachine>] [-license <License File>] [-rt <Reuse Media Y/N>]
For example:
CommCellClone -License ChildCommcellLicense.xml
Change the name of each child CommCell using the CommServe Disaster Recovery
Tool.
Apply a new CSID license file on each child CommCell. See
Activate Licenses
for more information.
If the child CommCell is across a firewall, make sure that the
CommCell entities that are to be part of the child CommCell are configured for
firewall.
Start the CommCell Console on each child CommCell.
For each client of the child CommCell, change the name of the CommServe
to the child CommServe name from the
General tab of the
Client Computer Properties dialog box.
Disable the clients, libraries, and MediaAgents in the child CommCell
that are to remain in the parent CommCell(s).
If the clients, storage policies, and MediaAgents belonging to other
sub-groupings are no longer needed in the parent or child CommCell, these
can be deconfigured from the
appropriate CommCell Console.
Optionally, you can Install other CommCell entities on the new CommServe, such as clients,
MediaAgents, and/or agents on each child CommCell.
Run full data protection operations on each CommCell.
Restart the client services if the client fails to browse and restore on
the child CommCell after the CommCell Split.
If some clients within the same storage policy have been split from the
parent CommCell, do not deconfigure these clients. The storage policy media may
have data from both clients of child and parent CommCells. The parent CommCell
may overwrite the media that contains only data from clients of child CommCells
or when the retention rules of the data protection data of the parent CommCell
has been met. Deconfigure the clients only when the data from these clients
have been aged off all CommCells.
Perform the following steps when a MediaAgent is not split with associated
clients:
To obtain a list of all media and/or mount paths, run the
Media Information Report
for all storage policy copies that have data for the client you wish to
migrate from the parent CommCell.
The media associated with migrated clients are not automatically
exported after the migration. Hence, you must manually export the media from
the library of the parent CommCell, and then manually input the media into
the library of the child CommCell. Ensure that compatible libraries and
drives are available in the child CommCell to restore the migrated data.
Similarly, in the case of disk libraries, configure a disk
library on the child CommCell computer with empty mount paths. Then, copy
the CV_MAGNETIC folders available in the
mount paths of the disk libraries associated with the migrated clients
from the parent CommCell computer to the child CommCell computer. (The
CV_MAGNETIC folder is used by the software
to store the data associated with disk libraries.)
Perform the following steps when you have any issues with the data in child
CommCells:
When an Auxiliary Copy operation is performed on the parent CommCell
after successfully splitting a CommCell, the Auxiliary Copy
operation only copies the data associated with the Data Protection
operations from the parent CommCell. The data will not be copied by the
Auxiliary Copy operation, even if the job status is displayed as
To be Copied or
Partial.
Similarly, a Data Verification operation will only verify the Data
Protection operations performed in the child CommCell.
As a precaution, mark media (tape and optical media)
associated with the source CommCell as READ ONLY before performing a data
recovery operation in the destination CommCell.
When splitting a CommCell that is registered with a CommNet Server, the
CommNet registration records are removed from the CommServe database. Therefore,
you must reregister the CommCell with the CommNet Server after the split. For
more information, see
Register a
Cell for more information.
Merging two CommCells involves exporting the clients and the metadata
associated with the clients such as libraries, MediaAgents, and storage policies
from a source CommCell and importing them to a destination CommCell.
You can merge the clients of two CommCells if you wish to perform the
following:
Relocate the client computers.
Move some or all your clients from one CommCell to an other CommCell for the
purpose of load-balancing.
Before you begin the merging of two CommCells, make sure to fulfill the following
requirements:
You require the CommCell Migration license on the source and destination CommServe computers
when you merge two CommCells.
Make sure that you have fulfilled all the
Prerequisites
before performing a CommCell Merging operation.
Identify and prepare a list of all of the clients, libraries, MediaAgents, and
storage policies that you wish to merge with the destination CommCell.