Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (3.0)
Platform: NetBackup Flex Scale OS
  1. Product overview
    1.  
      About Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale
  2. Viewing information about the NetBackup Flex Scale cluster environment
    1.  
      Accessing NetBackup Flex Scale and NetBackup
    2.  
      Accessing the NetBackup web user interface on the appliance
    3.  
      About the NetBackup Flex Scale management console
    4. About the Dashboard view
      1.  
        Viewing all the activities
    5.  
      Working with NetBackup Flex Scale APIs
  3. NetBackup Flex Scale infrastructure management
    1. User management
      1.  
        Considerations for managing NetBackup Flex Scale users
      2.  
        Adding users
      3.  
        Changing user password
      4.  
        Removing users
      5.  
        Considerations for configuring AD/LDAP
      6.  
        Configuring AD server for Universal shares and Instant Access
      7.  
        Configuring AD/LDAP servers for NetBackup services
      8.  
        Configuring additional AD/LDAP servers for managing NetBackup services/Universal Shares/Instant Access
      9.  
        Configuring AD/LDAP servers on clusters deployed with only media servers
      10.  
        Directory services and certificate management
    2.  
      Region settings management
    3.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale storage
    4. About Universal Shares
      1.  
        Creating a Protection Point for a Universal Share
    5. Node and disk management
      1.  
        NetBackup Flex Scale network cabling
      2. Adding a node to the cluster using the NetBackup Flex Scale web interface
        1.  
          Considerations for adding a node when disaster recovery is configured
      3.  
        Adding a node using the REST APIs
      4.  
        Replacing a node in a cluster
      5.  
        Starting and stopping nodes
      6.  
        Replacing a disk
      7.  
        Viewing disk details
      8.  
        Viewing node details
    6. License management
      1.  
        Adding or removing storage licenses
      2.  
        Adding NetBackup licenses
  4. NetBackup Flex Scale network management
    1.  
      About network management
    2.  
      Modifying DNS settings
    3.  
      About bonding Ethernet interfaces
    4. Bonding operations
      1.  
        Creating a bond
      2.  
        Modifying a bond
      3.  
        Removing a bond
    5.  
      Configuring NetBackup Flex Scale in a non-DNS environment
    6. Data network configurations
      1. Network configuration on plain device (eth5)
        1.  
          Adding a data network
        2.  
          Modifying a data network
        3.  
          Deleting a data network
      2.  
        Network configuration on VLAN (eth5)
      3. Network configuration on bonded interfaces (bond0 on eth5 and eth7)
        1.  
          Adding a data network
      4.  
        VLAN on bond of eth5 and eth7 (bond0)
      5.  
        Support for multiple VLAN when disaster recovery is configured
  5. NetBackup Flex Scale infrastructure monitoring
    1. About alert management
      1.  
        Viewing information about alerts
      2.  
        Managing alerts
    2. About event notification
      1.  
        Purging events
    3. About AutoSupport and Call Home
      1.  
        Setting up email alerts
      2.  
        Setting up SNMP alerts
      3.  
        Configuring Call Home settings
    4.  
      Monitoring hardware components
    5.  
      Monitoring usage and licensed capacity using Veritas NetInsights Console
  6. Resiliency in NetBackup Flex Scale
    1.  
      Erasure coding in NetBackup Flex Scale
    2.  
      Handling split-brain scenario in NetBackup Flex Scale
    3.  
      High availability of the NetBackup primary service
    4.  
      High availability of NetBackup services
    5.  
      NetBackup catalog protection
    6. NetBackup primary service catalog protection using checkpoints
      1.  
        Performing a recovery of the catalog file system using GUI
      2.  
        Performing a recovery of the catalog file system using REST APIs
  7. EMS server configuration
    1.  
      Configuring an external BYOS media server
    2.  
      Configuring an external NBA media server
  8. Site-based disaster recovery in NetBackup Flex Scale
    1.  
      About site-based disaster recovery in NetBackup Flex Scale
    2.  
      Configuring disaster recovery using GUI
    3.  
      Clearing the host cache
    4.  
      Managing disaster recovery using GUI
    5. Performing disaster recovery using RESTful APIs
      1.  
        Establishing trust and setting up authentication
      2.  
        Configuring disaster recovery
      3.  
        Managing disaster recovery
    6.  
      Active-Active disaster recovery configuration
    7.  
      NetBackup optimized duplication using Storage Lifecycle Policies
  9. NetBackup Flex Scale security
    1. STIG overview for NetBackup Flex Scale
      1.  
        STIG-compliant password policy rules
      2.  
        Enabling STIG for NetBackup Flex Scale
      3.  
        Viewing the NetBackup Flex Scale STIG status
    2. FIPS overview for NetBackup Flex Scale
      1.  
        Viewing the NetBackup Flex Scale FIPS status
    3.  
      Managing the login banner
    4.  
      Changing the password policy
    5. Support for immutability in NetBackup Flex Scale
      1.  
        About lockdown modes
      2.  
        Selecting or changing the lockdown mode
      3.  
        Configuring immutability using GUI
    6. Deploying external certificates on NetBackup Flex Scale
      1.  
        Deploying ECA using the GUI
      2.  
        Log locations
      3.  
        Considerations for performing other operations when ECA is deployed
  10. Troubleshooting
    1.  
      Services management
    2. Collecting logs for cluster nodes
      1.  
        Uploading logs to Veritas Support
      2.  
        Downloading logs
    3.  
      Checking and repairing storage
    4. Troubleshooting NetBackup Flex Scale issues
      1.  
        If cluster configuration fails (for example because an IP address that was already in use is specified) and you try to reconfigure the cluster, the UI displays an error but the configuration process continues to run
      2.  
        Validation error while adding VMware credentials to NetBackup
      3.  
        NetBackup Web UI incorrectly displays some NetBackup Flex Scale processes as failed
      4.  
        Unable to create BMR Shared Resource Tree (SRT) on NetBackup Flex Scale Appliance
      5.  
        NetBackup configuration files are not persistent across operations that require restarting the system
  11. Appendix A. Configuring NetBackup optimized duplication
    1. Configuring a Storage Lifecycle Policy for optimized duplication
      1.  
        Creating a Storage Lifecycle Policy for optimized duplication
      2.  
        Configuring a policy to use an SLP
      3.  
        Updating the policy to reverse the replication direction
  12. Appendix B. Disaster recovery terminologies
    1.  
      VVR technology in disaster recovery
    2.  
      About response fields in the GET disaster recovery API
  13. Appendix C. Configuring Auto Image Replication
    1.  
      Auto Image Replication configuration

About Universal Shares

The Universal Share feature provides data ingest into a NetBackup Flex Scale appliance using an NFS or a CIFS (SMB) share. Space efficiency is achieved by storing this data directly into an existing NetBackup-based deduplication pool.

You can configure and manage the Universal Share from NetBackup. For more information, see the chapter "Configuring and using universal shares" in the NetBackup Deduplication Guide.

Advantages of Universal Shares

The following information provides a brief description of the advantages for using Universal Shares:

  • As a NAS-based storage target

    Unlike traditional NAS-based storage targets, Universal Shares offer all of the data protection and management capabilities that are provided by NetBackup.

  • As a DB dump location

    Universal Shares offer a space saving (deduplicated) dump location, along with direct integration with NetBackup technologies including data retention, replication, and direct integration with cloud technologies.

  • Financial and time savings

    Universal Shares eliminate the need to purchase and maintain third-party intermediary storage, which typically doubles the required I/O throughput since the data must be moved twice. Universal Shares also cut in half the time it takes to protect valuable application or DB data.

  • Protection Points

    The Universal Share Protection Point offers a fast point in time copy of all data that exists in the share. This copy of the data can be retained like any other data that is protected within NetBackup. All advanced NetBackup data management facilities such as Auto Image Replication, Storage Lifecycle Policies, Optimized Duplication, cloud, and tape are all available with any data in the Universal Share.

  • Copy Data Management (CDM)

    The Universal Share Protection Point also offers powerful CDM tools. A read/write copy of any Protection Point can be "provisioned" or made available through a NAS (CIFS/NFS) based share. A provisioned copy of any Protection Point can be used for common CPD activities, including instant recovery or access of data in the provisioned Protection Point. For example, a DB that has been previously dumped to the Universal Share can be run directly from the provisioned Protection Point.

  • Backup without client software

    Client software is not required for Universal Share backups. Universal Shares work with any POSIX-compliant operating system that supports NFS or CIFS.

How it works

The Universal Share feature provides a network-attached storage (NAS) option for NetBackup Flex Scale appliances. Traditional NAS offerings store data in conventional, non-deduplicated disk locations. Data in a Universal Share is placed on highly redundant storage in a space efficient, deduplicated state. The deduplication technology that is used for this repository is the same MSDP location used by standard client-based backups.

Any data that is stored in a Universal Share is automatically placed in the MSDP, where it is deduplicated automatically. This data is then deduplicated against all other data that was previously ingested into the media server's MSDP location. Since a typical MSDP location stores data across a broad scope of data types, the Universal Share offers significant deduplication efficiency. The Protection Point feature lets you create a point in time copy of the data that exists in the specified Universal Share. Once a Protection Point is created, NetBackup automatically catalogs the data in that point and manages it like any other data that is ingested into NetBackup. Since the Protection Point only catalogs the Universal Share data that already resides in the MSDP, no data movement occurs. Therefore, the process of creating a Protection Point can be extremely fast.

Limitations:

  • A Universal Share is presented through a single MSDP engine, and its size is limited by the capacity of the single node. If the Universal Share quota is set, its size is limited by its quota and cannot exceed the capacity of a single node.

  • The maximum number of Universal Shares that can be created on an MSDP engine is limited, which is specified by the MaxAllowedLivemounts parameter in the spws.cfg file and the default value of this parameter in NetBackup Flex Scale is 100.

Protection Point - cataloging and protecting Universal Share data

Any data that is initially ingested into a Universal Share resides in the MSDP located on the appliance-based media server that hosts the Universal Share. This data is not referenced in the NetBackup Catalog and no retention enforcement is enabled. Therefore, the data that resides in the Universal Share is not searchable and cannot be restored using NetBackup. Control of the data in the share is managed only by the host where that share is mounted.

A Protection Point is a point in time copy of the data that exists in a Universal Share. Creation and management of a Protection Point is accomplished through a NetBackup policy, which defines all scheduling and retention of the Protection Point. The Protection Point uses the "Universal-Share" policy type. Once a Protection Point for the data in the Universal Share is created, that point in time copy of the Universal Share data can be managed like any other protected data in NetBackup. Protection Point data can be replicated to other NetBackup Domains or migrated to other storage types like tape or cloud, using Storage Lifecycle Policies. Each Protection Point copy is referenced to the name of the associated Universal Share.

Protection Point restores

Restoring data from a Protection Point is exactly the same as restoring data from a standard client backup. The standard Backup Archive and Restore interface is used. The client name that is referenced for the restore is the Universal Share name that was used when creating the Universal-share policy type. Alternate client restores are fully supported. Make sure that NetBackup Client is installed on the destination client before restore. However, to restore to the system where the Universal Share was originally mounted, NetBackup Client software must be installed on that system. This is necessary since a NetBackup Client is not required to initially place data into the Universal Share.