Veritas NetBackup™ Flex Scale Best Practices and Troubleshooting Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (3.1)
Platform: NetBackup Flex Scale OS
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      Scope and intended audience
    2.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale
    3.  
      About NetBackup Flex Scale nodes
  2. Configuration requirements
    1.  
      Physical environment
    2.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale configuration requirements
    3.  
      Firewall and network ports requirements
    4.  
      Considerations for using IPv6 addresses
  3. Best practices
    1.  
      Management network connectivity
    2.  
      Private network connectivity
    3.  
      Configuring AutoSupport for the appliance
    4.  
      Necessary software
  4. NetBackup Flex Scale tuning and sizing
    1.  
      Assigning media servers to a storage server
    2.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale tuning
  5. Troubleshooting NetBackup Flex Scale
    1.  
      NetBackup Flex Scale logs
    2.  
      Services management
    3.  
      Audit logs
    4. Collecting logs for cluster nodes
      1.  
        Uploading logs to Veritas Support
      2.  
        Downloading logs
    5.  
      Error messages displayed during the pre-upgrade check
    6. 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
      6.  
        Connection timeout errors during patch installs, upgrades, and rollback operations
      7.  
        Initial configuration wizard displays a driver node not selected error
      8.  
        Initial configuration wizard displays a license error after successfully configuring the cluster

Private network connectivity

NetBackup Flex Scale uses Avahi to discover the nodes in the private network. When you scan for the nodes that can be added to cluster, Avahi scans the private network and displays all the detected nodes in this network.

NetBackup Flex Scale uses IP address 172.16.0.0/19 for private network NICs by default. If IP from 172.16.0.0/19 are reserved by the company, change private IP addresses to other local network addresses, such as 192.168.x.x or other subnets such as 172.20.x.x.

To check private network connectivity:

  1. Use SSH and log in to the node using the default administrator credentials:

    username: admin

    password: P@ssw0rd

  2. To check if the private network is accessible, run the following command:

    /opt/IMAppliance/ansible/roles/avahi/bin/mdns-config | jq

    The following example shows the sample output for four nodes:

    [
  {
    "domain": "local",
    "hostname": "VTAS9031105",
    "ip": "172.1.2.3",
    "ipv6": "fd00::2"
  },
  {
    "domain": "local",
    "hostname": "VTAS9031104",
    "ip": "172.1.2.4",
    "ipv6": "fd00::3"
  },
  {
    "domain": "local",
    "hostname": "VTAS9031103",
    "ip": "172.1.2.5",
    "ipv6": "fd00::4"
  },
  {
    "domain": "local",
    "hostname": "VTAS9031102",
    "ip": "172.1.2.6",
    "ipv6": "fd00::1"
  }
 ]
  3. To verify all the nodes in the private network can be discovered, run the following command:

    avahi-browse -d local _discovery._sub._http._tcp -rt

    The following example shows the sample output. Ensure all the nodes in the private network are displayed.

site1-01:~ # avahi-browse -d local _discovery._sub._http._tcp -rt
+   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031103                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031104                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031102                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031105                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031103                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031104                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031102                                   Web Site             local
+   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031105                                   Web Site             local
=   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031102                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031102.local]
   address = [fd00::1]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031102                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031102.local]
   address = [172.1.2.3]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031104                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031104.local]
   address = [fd00::3]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031104                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031104.local]
   address = [172.1.2.4]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031103                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031103.local]
   address = [fd00::4]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031103                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031103.local]
   address = [172.1.2.5]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv6 VTAS9031105                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031105.local]
   address = [fd00::2]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
=   eth4 IPv4 VTAS9031105                                   Web Site             local
   hostname = [VTAS9031105.local]
   address = [172.1.2.6]
   port = [12345]
   txt = []
site1-01:~ #

If the 172.16.x.x IP range is restricted in the customer's environment, you must change the IP addresses assigned to the private NICs.