Decommissioning Data Protection CMS Servers
Article ID: 122169
Updated On:
Products
CA Data Protection (DataMinder)
Issue/Introduction
CA has announced End-Of-Life (EOL) for Data Protection.
https://support.ca.com/us/product-content/status/announcement-documents/2017/ca-data-protection-stabilization-and-end-of-life-announcement.html
Due to compliance regulations some organisations may need to recommissioned the resources in the future. The following advise provide some preemptive advise in managing the decommissioning or moth balling these resources in a methodical manner allowing them to be reinstated if required.
https://support.ca.com/us/product-content/status/announcement-documents/2017/ca-data-protection-stabilization-and-end-of-life-announcement.html
Due to compliance regulations some organisations may need to recommissioned the resources in the future. The following advise provide some preemptive advise in managing the decommissioning or moth balling these resources in a methodical manner allowing them to be reinstated if required.
Environment
CA Data Protection 14.x\15.x
Resolution
There are several approaches that can be taken and these are outlined below.
"Mothball" the system
The system will continue working "as-is" for the foreseeable future however there are other factors which could impede its use in the future, namely updates to third party libraries and operating systems.
While backing up the system is an option (See below), the question arises as to whether the physical resources will be available to restore it to an active state in the future.
With this in mind, there are several approaches which can be considered.
(a) Take the CMS system offline and "mothball" the system. Without access to the internet or software update service the system will not be patched or upgraded and will continue to work in an "as-is" for as long as the hardware continues to function.
(b) Virtulize the system. This follows the same idea as above but the dependency on the hardware is removed, although there are still concerns over the continued support of the VM image if the technology upgrades,
Export the data
The event and meta data contained with the Data Protection system can be Exported using the CA Data Protection Data Management Console (DMC) to a Virtual Website. This is a self contained solution. and is not dependent upon hardware technologies.
Backup the system and restoring the data if required
The suggested steps are as follows:
1. Uninstall or stop the end point clients ie Outlook Agents, Windows Exchange Server Agents (ESA), Event Importer Services etc. - this should be done first to ensure that no further data passes through the system prior to backup.
2. Stop the CA Data Protection (DataMinder) services on all Data Protection servers except the CMS.
3. Backup the application servers (Data and Systems State)
Specifically:
Backup the installation folder %wgnInstalldir%
Backup the data folder %wgndatadir%
Backup the registry keys
HKLM\SOFTWARE\ComputerAssociates\
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ComputerAssociates\
4. Backup the CMS Database
5. Take a WgnCheck from the CMS and store this with the backup set, this will contain information on install paths\ patches\ OS etc. which may be needed if the system is recommissioned.
5. Stop the DataMinder (Data Protection) services on the CMS and gracefully shutdown all servers.
"Mothball" the system
The system will continue working "as-is" for the foreseeable future however there are other factors which could impede its use in the future, namely updates to third party libraries and operating systems.
While backing up the system is an option (See below), the question arises as to whether the physical resources will be available to restore it to an active state in the future.
With this in mind, there are several approaches which can be considered.
(a) Take the CMS system offline and "mothball" the system. Without access to the internet or software update service the system will not be patched or upgraded and will continue to work in an "as-is" for as long as the hardware continues to function.
(b) Virtulize the system. This follows the same idea as above but the dependency on the hardware is removed, although there are still concerns over the continued support of the VM image if the technology upgrades,
Export the data
The event and meta data contained with the Data Protection system can be Exported using the CA Data Protection Data Management Console (DMC) to a Virtual Website. This is a self contained solution. and is not dependent upon hardware technologies.
Backup the system and restoring the data if required
The suggested steps are as follows:
1. Uninstall or stop the end point clients ie Outlook Agents, Windows Exchange Server Agents (ESA), Event Importer Services etc. - this should be done first to ensure that no further data passes through the system prior to backup.
2. Stop the CA Data Protection (DataMinder) services on all Data Protection servers except the CMS.
3. Backup the application servers (Data and Systems State)
Specifically:
Backup the installation folder %wgnInstalldir%
Backup the data folder %wgndatadir%
Backup the registry keys
HKLM\SOFTWARE\ComputerAssociates\
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ComputerAssociates\
4. Backup the CMS Database
5. Take a WgnCheck from the CMS and store this with the backup set, this will contain information on install paths\ patches\ OS etc. which may be needed if the system is recommissioned.
5. Stop the DataMinder (Data Protection) services on the CMS and gracefully shutdown all servers.
Additional Information
If the backup scenario has been employed and you need to restore the system, please ensure that the machine that is being used to host the newly restored system has the same Netbios Machine name as the original. Machine names are used as unique identifiers in the Data Protection Database and retaining the original machine name will enable the system to function as expected.
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