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Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

  • 1.  Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 07, 2013 09:57 PM

    I've asked this a couple of times with no real answer and had a thought once 7.5 comes out (which is now!) to migrate to a new server to avoid issues. Basically we have the Dell Management Console installed and don't want it there. If we try to remove it we get a large number of errors in the logs probably caused by database items being left behind or bad pointers or all of the above. It had been recommended to call support for help (there was a rumor of a tool that can remove it a few versions ago) but they didn't have any recommendation except for keeping it since its harmless. It was then recommended ti use 7.5 to migrate to a new DB and server without DMC installed. Makes sense except that all of the documents say to be sure that you're in product parity! That won't help me if I want to remove DMC! Now, however, there's a twist...when I go to our SMP server and launch SIM I can upgrade to 7.5 and under the items that will be removed are all of the Dell components! 

    What I am asking, finally, is does anyone know that this will work? Can I do the upgrade and have it successfully remove DMC without any issues? If so then that's the route I will go as it is the easiest for us (even though we do want to place the DB on a new DB server anyway but can handle that differently).

    Any info would be greatly appreciated.

     



  • 2.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 08, 2013 05:51 AM

    Hello,

    Same here, what would be the best migration path ?

    Regards,

     



  • 3.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 08, 2013 11:35 AM

    I would move to new hardware if possible.  Then you may use the software repliator to move software products, and use the CMDB connector to move other items.  



  • 4.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 08, 2013 07:45 PM

    DMC is not available in 7.5. Dell is discontinuing DMC and a corresponding 7.5 compatible version is not available.

    Could you please provide more information on the environment to be upgraded/migrated to 7.5 (installed Altiris products/suites, product versions)?



  • 5.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 09, 2013 03:12 AM

    Hi,

    cparkITSPartners suggestion is the best in this scenario. My experiences with DMC are the same as described initally. Uninstallation won't work clearly. So I guess the installation of 7.5 as an in-place upgrade wouldn't bring a clean database without any dell relevant items. I had this problem too in a further release and started with a new clean installation and migrated the relevant data.

    Regards



  • 6.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 09, 2013 08:52 AM

    We are running Deployment Solution, Client Management and Service and Asset Management along with IT analytics. We currently have 7.1 SP2 installed (don't recall which rollup exactly) and, as I've mentioned, have DMC 2 installed.



  • 7.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 09, 2013 03:43 PM

    There will be a possiblity to upgrade smoothtly to 7.5 with DMC previously installed (and uninstalled during upgrade). We are currently completing the final activities on this scenario. I will update you on this shortly.



  • 8.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 09, 2013 03:47 PM

    Thanks for the provided information! Final information on upgrading to 7.5 with DMC installed will be publicly available very very soon.



  • 9.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 10, 2013 03:11 AM

    Eventhough I believe an in-place won't be as clean as expected - sometimes the best solution is to do a P2V / Clone the server in a testing area & try...



  • 10.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 10, 2013 03:41 AM

    That's a pity that Dell stopped the product (they have so many competitors in-house...)

    Integration of Dell patches, and other things was quite convenient. That's sad that SMP will no longer integrate with maker products (I guess same will goes with HP too).

     



  • 11.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 10, 2013 09:41 AM

    My only experience I can add with a customer with DMC on SP2 v4 was poor. We eventually went with a clean build.

    You are weighing up your choice of keeping something you know might cause problems against your data availability. I'm not sure knowing how the removal of DMC will help you decide, to me, it will merely call the uninstall logic via the original installer and add nothing new to the cleaning, but I don't know that for sure.

    Easiest is not always best, guarantee's are unlikely.



  • 12.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 10, 2013 10:05 PM

    So there doesn't seem to be a good answer for us. I uninstalled the DMC and there are errors in the console, specifically when trying to edit a resource. The page won't load because its looking for Altiris.PatchManagementDell. That's the most obvious and I would be there will be others.

    I don't know if what we are doing will work or not but here's the plan:

    The team has decided that we will be using SQL 2012 so I've uninstalled DMC from 7.1 that was on SQL 2008. I've backed up and restored the DB to the SQL 2012 server and am attempting to now install CMS on a new server pointing to the restored DB which will hopefully, successfully upgrade with all of our assets and computers in place. Want to add insult to injury, the old server is installed will all items on C:\ but the new one needs to be installed with the app on D:\! With a new install this should be fine except that the all agent pointers in the DB are looking for a C:\ install...so who knows what's going to happen to this fine mess!



  • 13.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 11, 2013 04:28 AM

    So have you tried http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO59488 which was a KB updated in the last few days specifically for this issue?#

    It might be worth you raising a support case in order to get further advice.



  • 14.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 11, 2013 07:40 AM

    It does appear that if I uninstall the DMC first and then upgrade onto a new server and DB server (technically migrate) then most of the errors go away. I did open a support case and all I get is that it should work and if there are issues then I need to call Dell...which unfortunately is a black hole because when I've called them in the past it took several tries to get to a tech who even knew what I was talking about.

    I wll be trying a few things today so I'll cross my finger and I will post my findings.



  • 15.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 14, 2013 01:36 PM

    We went ahead and performed the upgrade to 7.5 this weekend. What we did was uninstall DMC 2 first and then upgraded to 7.5. During the upgrade we noticed a lot of additional Dell components being removed so it appears that the uninstallers don't get everything to being with. After the upgrade there are still a lot of Dell resources in the CMDB and I am now wondering if I can just remove those without causing any major headaches. They are all Dell_XXXX with various attributes. I'm OK with them there, its just annoying to have to scroll through all of them when you're trying to navigate through specific pages and windows.



  • 16.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 15, 2013 04:33 AM

    Here is a screen snip of my CMDB. it's an ITMS database, pretty vanilla. No Dell tables. I'm not going to advise you either way, it's just FYI. Just keep backups in case.

    nodell.JPG



  • 17.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Oct 15, 2013 05:55 AM

    Yes, you can safely upgrade to 7.5, but there are some DMC-related items remaining after upgrade (Dell resources presence is one of them). We are still working on the clean-up approach to provide the solution for customers for safe clean-up. I hope it will be published very soon, since this task is of high priority for us at the moment.



  • 18.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Nov 05, 2013 09:27 PM
    Dmitri, Do you know if Symantec has published a safe clean-up approach for the DMC related Items for the upgrade to 7.5? Thanks!


  • 19.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Nov 07, 2013 12:39 PM

    Not yet. But it's coming soon. All technical activities are completed, so this item is currently going through KB creation process. I will post an update on it as soon as KB is published.

    Thanks,

    Dmitri.



  • 20.  RE: Upgrading to 7.5 With DMC Currently Installed

    Posted Nov 14, 2013 09:19 AM

    Knowledgebase article is finalized at last!

    You can find it here:

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO93880

    This article describes the following items:

    - clean up procedure for remaining Dell items (and thus solving some related issues) after upgrading from environments with DMC 2.0.x installed to 7.5

    - tips for integration of NS with Dell OME (OpenManage Essentials).

    Please feel free to post any concerns or questions here.

    Thanks,

    Dmitri.