Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

All,

This past weekend, we attempted to patch our SMP 7.1 SP1 server to SP2.  It failed, and we were unable to get that server back up and running.  Given the amount of repairing, uninstalling, and reinstalling done in an effort to revive the server, I'm not sure we want that server without a complete reload.  Because we have nightly backups of the off-box database, I thought that the data and configuration of the once vibrant, but now down, SMP server, was safe.  Not so.  We have stood up another SMP server and pointed to the same database.  The data, configuration, custom jobs, inventories, policies, software packages, etc., are not there.

So to the questions:

1. Is there anyway to recover the data, configuration, custom jobs, inventories, policies, software packages, etc., when the database and the server are intact, but the SMP installation is not?
2. Going forward, are there any specific directories or files that we can backup to contains the data, configuration, custom jobs, inventories, policies, software packages, etc.
3. What data is stored in database; what data is stored on the SMP server? 

Regards,

Jeff M.

The data should be there.

Restore the backup elsewhere first and look at the inventory tables.

Looking at the tables, the data appears to be there, but I'm not seeing anything in the console.  We stood up another SMP server (server B) with a different name and I suspect the different SMP server name is the reason we're not seeing the computers in the console. We actually plan to take down the SMP server (server B) that we just stood up and stand up another server (server C) that actually has the same name as the original failed SMP server (server A).  (I hope that's not too confusing.)  I believe that'll bring the computers back without having to redirect them.

That's actually not my greatest concern though.  My greatest concern is getting the customizations (i.e. - policies, packages, jobs, inventories, etc.) back.

Where are these customizations stored?  In the DB?  On the server?

If these customizations are stored on the server, can I go back to the failed SMP server (server A) and grab specific files that contain these customizations?

The simple answer is some is stored in the database, and some on the hard drive.

Policies, packages, jobs, and inventories are stored in the db.

Any software (binaries) for distribution is on the hard drive. This means that the packages/jobs/tasks that reference an MSI on the hard drive will need to point to the new location once you're back up an running. Or, just keep the location the same on the new server.

Nearly all settings are stored in the db. If you look at the migration guides, that gives you an idea of what isn't.

Update:

Our new SMP server (server C) is up.  I had it create it's own DB (Symantec_CMDB_tmp1) during the installation with the intent of pointing to the old database once the installation completed successfully.  The installation did successfully complete, and when I pointed the server to an existing database (the old 7.1 SP1) database, I was prompted to upgrade the database and did.  Once I closed the "Upgrade database" dialog box, a "Reset database" window popped up with the message "Applying Changes . . ."  After that went away, the Database Settings page returned appearing to reflect the change pointing to the old and now upgraded database.  After a couple of seconds though, the Database Settings page refreshed and when it did, the database setting reverted to 'Use existing database' and again pointed to 'Symantec_CMDB_tmp1'. 

Effectively, I can't point my new SMP install to my old database.  Any ideas?

Normally when you swiitch databases the reconfigure process can take hours.

What was in the Altiris log at the time?