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NetBackup™ Deduplication Guide

Last Published: 2023-06-18

Product(s): NetBackup (10.2.0.1)

Introducing the NetBackup media server deduplication option
1. About the NetBackup deduplication options
Quick start
1. About client-side deduplication
2. About the media server deduplication (MSDP) node cloud tier
  1. Configuring the MSDP node cloud tier
3. About Auto Image Replication (A.I.R.)
Planning your deployment
1. Planning your MSDP deployment
2. NetBackup naming conventions
3. About MSDP deduplication nodes
4. About the NetBackup deduplication destinations
5. About MSDP storage capacity
6. About MSDP storage and connectivity requirements
  1. Fibre Channel and iSCSI comparison for MSDP
7. About NetBackup media server deduplication
8. About NetBackup Client Direct deduplication
  1. About MSDP client deduplication requirements and limitations
9. About MSDP remote office client deduplication
  1. About MSDP remote client data security
  2. About remote client backup scheduling
10. About the NetBackup Deduplication Engine credentials
11. About the network interface for MSDP
12. About MSDP port usage
13. About MSDP optimized synthetic backups
14. About MSDP and SAN Client
15. About MSDP optimized duplication and replication
16. About MSDP performance
  1. How file size may affect the MSDP deduplication rate
17. About MSDP stream handlers
  1. Oracle stream handler
  2. Microsoft SQL Server stream handler
18. MSDP deployment best practices
Provisioning the storage
1. About provisioning the storage for MSDP
2. Do not modify MSDP storage directories and files
3. About volume management for NetBackup MSDP
Licensing deduplication
1. About the MSDP license
2. Licensing NetBackup MSDP
Configuring deduplication
1. Configuring MSDP server-side deduplication
2. Configuring MSDP client-side deduplication
3. About the MSDP Deduplication Multi-Threaded Agent
4. Configuring the Deduplication Multi-Threaded Agent behavior
  1. MSDP mtstrm.conf file parameters
5. Configuring deduplication plug-in interaction with the Multi-Threaded Agent
6. About MSDP fingerprinting
7. About the MSDP fingerprint cache
8. Configuring the MSDP fingerprint cache behavior
  1. MSDP fingerprint cache behavior options
9. About seeding the MSDP fingerprint cache for remote client deduplication
10. Configuring MSDP fingerprint cache seeding on the client
11. Configuring MSDP fingerprint cache seeding on the storage server
  1. NetBackup seedutil options
12. About sampling and predictive cache
13. Enabling 400 TB support for MSDP
14. About MSDP Encryption using NetBackup KMS service
  1. Upgrading KMS for MSDP
  2. Enabled KMS encryption for Local LSU
15. About MSDP Encryption using external KMS server
16. Configuring a storage server for a Media Server Deduplication Pool
  1. MSDP storage path properties
  2. MSDP network interface properties
17. About disk pools for NetBackup deduplication
18. Configuring a disk pool for deduplication
  1. Media Server Deduplication Pool properties
19. Creating the data directories for 400 TB MSDP support
20. Adding volumes to a 400 TB Media Server Deduplication Pool
21. Configuring a Media Server Deduplication Pool storage unit
  1. Media Server Deduplication Pool storage unit properties
  2. MSDP storage unit recommendations
22. Configuring client attributes for MSDP client-side deduplication
23. Disabling MSDP client-side deduplication for a client
24. About MSDP compression
25. About MSDP encryption
26. MSDP compression and encryption settings matrix
27. Configuring encryption for MSDP backups
28. Configuring encryption for MSDP optimized duplication and replication
29. About the rolling data conversion mechanism for MSDP
30. Modes of rolling data conversion
31. MSDP encryption behavior and compatibilities
32. Configuring optimized synthetic backups for MSDP
33. About a separate network path for MSDP duplication and replication
34. Configuring a separate network path for MSDP duplication and replication
35. About MSDP optimized duplication within the same domain
  1. About the media servers for MSDP optimized duplication within the same domain
    1. About MSDP push duplication within the same domain
    2. About MSDP pull duplication within the same domain
36. Configuring MSDP optimized duplication within the same NetBackup domain
  1. Configuring NetBackup optimized duplication or replication behavior
    1. Setting NetBackup configuration options by using the command line
37. About MSDP replication to a different domain
38. Configuring MSDP replication to a different NetBackup domain
  1. About NetBackup Auto Image Replication
  2. About trusted primary servers for Auto Image Replication
  3. About the certificate to be used for adding a trusted primary server
  4. Adding a trusted primary server using a NetBackup CA-signed (host ID-based) certificate
  5. Adding a trusted primary server using external CA-signed certificate
  6. Removing a trusted primary server
  7. Enabling NetBackup clustered primary server inter-node authentication
  8. Configuring NetBackup CA and NetBackup host ID-based certificate for secure communication between the source and the target MSDP storage servers
  9. Configuring external CA for secure communication between the source MSDP storage server and the target MSDP storage server
  10. Configuring a target for MSDP replication to a remote domain
    1. Target options for MSDP replication
    2. Configuring a NetBackup Deduplication Engine user with limited permissions for Auto Image Replication
39. About configuring MSDP optimized duplication and replication bandwidth
40. About performance tuning of optimized duplication and replication for MSDP cloud
41. About storage lifecycle policies
42. About the storage lifecycle policies required for Auto Image Replication
43. Creating a storage lifecycle policy
  1. Storage Lifecycle Policy dialog box settings
44. About MSDP backup policy configuration
45. Creating a backup policy
46. Resilient Network properties
  1. Resilient connection resource usage
47. Specifying resilient connections
48. Adding an MSDP load balancing server
49. About variable-length deduplication on NetBackup clients
50. Managing the variable-length deduplication using the cacontrol command-line utility
51. About the MSDP pd.conf configuration file
52. Editing the MSDP pd.conf file
  1. MSDP pd.conf file parameters
53. About the MSDP contentrouter.cfg file
54. About saving the MSDP storage server configuration
55. Saving the MSDP storage server configuration
56. Editing an MSDP storage server configuration file
57. Setting the MSDP storage server configuration
58. About the MSDP host configuration file
59. Deleting an MSDP host configuration file
60. Resetting the MSDP registry
61. About protecting the MSDP catalog
  1. About the MSDP shadow catalog
  2. About the MSDP catalog backup policy
62. Changing the MSDP shadow catalog path
63. Changing the MSDP shadow catalog schedule
64. Changing the number of MSDP catalog shadow copies
65. Configuring an MSDP catalog backup
  1. MSDP drcontrol options
66. Updating an MSDP catalog backup policy
67. About MSDP FIPS compliance
68. Configuring the NetBackup client-side deduplication to support multiple interfaces of MSDP
69. About MSDP multi-domain support
70. About MSDP application user support
71. About MSDP mutli-domain VLAN Support
72. About NetBackup WORM storage support for immutable and indelible data
  1. About the NetBackup command line options to configure immutable and indelible data
MSDP cloud support
1. About MSDP cloud support
  1. Operating system requirement for configuration
  2. Limitations
2. Create a Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP) storage server in the NetBackup web UI
3. Creating a cloud storage unit
4. Updating cloud credentials for a cloud LSU
5. Updating encryption configurations for a cloud LSU
6. Deleting a cloud LSU
7. Backup data to cloud by using cloud LSU
8. Duplicate data cloud by using cloud LSU
9. Configuring AIR to use cloud LSU
10. About backward compatibility support
11. About the configuration items in cloud.json, contentrouter.cfg, and spa.cfg
12. Cloud space reclamation
  1. Configuring the container aging
  2. Configuring the cloud compaction
13. About the tool updates for cloud support
14. About the disaster recovery for cloud LSU
  1. Common disaster recovery steps
  2. Disaster recovery for cloud LSU in Flex Scale
15. About Image Sharing using MSDP cloud
  1. Things to consider before you use image sharing to convert VM image to VHD in Azure
  2. Converting the VM image to VHD in Azure
16. About restore from a backup in Microsoft Azure Archive
17. About Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure
18. Configuring Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure and Azure Government
19. Configuring Veritas Alta Recovery Vault Azure and Azure Government using the CLI
20. Migrating from standard authentication to token-based authentication for Recovery Vault
21. About MSDP cloud immutable (WORM) storage support
  1. About MSDP cloud admin tool
  2. About immutable object support for AWS S3
  3. About immutable object support for AWS S3 compatible platforms
  4. About immutable storage support for Azure blob storage
    1. Creating an Azure cloud immutable storage unit using the Web UI
    2. Managing an Azure cloud immutable volume using msdpcldutil tool
  5. About immutable storage support for Google Cloud Storage
    1. Creating a Google cloud immutable storage using the Web UI
    2. Managing a Google cloud immutable storage using msdpcldutil tool
  6. About using the cloud immutable storage in a cluster environment
  7. Troubleshooting the error when the bucket is created without msdpcldutil
  8. Deleting the immutable image with the enterprise mode
  9. Refreshing the immutable cloud volume retention range value in the web UI
  10. Deleting the S3 object permanently
22. About instant access for object storage in cloud
S3 Interface for MSDP
1. About S3 interface for MSDP
2. Prerequisites for MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server
3. Configuring S3 interface for MSDP on MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server
  1. Changing the certificate in S3 server
4. Identity and Access Management (IAM) for S3 interface for MSDP
5. S3 APIs for S3 interface for MSDP
6. Disaster recovery in S3 interface for MSDP
7. Limitations in S3 interface for MSDP
8. Logging and troubleshooting
9. Best practices
Monitoring deduplication activity
1. Monitoring the MSDP deduplication and compression rates
2. Viewing MSDP job details
  1. MSDP job details
3. About MSDP storage capacity and usage reporting
4. About MSDP container files
5. Viewing storage usage within MSDP container files
6. About monitoring MSDP processes
7. Reporting on Auto Image Replication jobs
Managing deduplication
1. Managing MSDP servers
2. Managing NetBackup Deduplication Engine credentials
3. Managing Media Server Deduplication Pools
4. Deleting backup images
5. About MSDP queue processing
6. Processing the MSDP transaction queue manually
7. About MSDP data integrity checking
8. Configuring MSDP data integrity checking behavior
  1. MSDP data integrity checking configuration parameters
9. About managing MSDP storage read performance
10. About MSDP storage rebasing
  1. MSDP server-side rebasing parameters
11. About the MSDP data removal process
12. Resizing the MSDP storage partition
13. How MSDP restores work
14. Configuring MSDP restores directly to a client
15. About restoring files at a remote site
16. About restoring from a backup at a target primary domain
17. Specifying the restore server
Recovering MSDP
1. About recovering the MSDP catalog
2. Restoring the MSDP catalog from a shadow copy
3. Recovering from an MSDP storage server disk failure
4. Recovering from an MSDP storage server failure
5. Recovering the MSDP storage server after NetBackup catalog recovery
Replacing MSDP hosts
1. Replacing the MSDP storage server host computer
Uninstalling MSDP
1. About uninstalling MSDP
2. Deactivating MSDP
Deduplication architecture
1. MSDP server components
2. Media server deduplication backup process
3. MSDP client components
4. MSDP client - side deduplication backup process
Configuring and using universal shares
1. About universal shares
2. Configuring and using an MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server for universal shares
3. MSDP build-your-own (BYO) server prerequisites and hardware requirements to configure universal shares
4. Configuring universal share user authentication
5. Mounting a universal share created from the NetBackup web UI
6. About universal share self-service recovery
7. Performing a universal share self-service recovery
8. Using the ingest mode
  1. Using the ingest mode to take a snapshot over NFS or SMB
  2. Using the ingest mode to run a policy using NFS or SMB
9. About universal shares with object store
10. Enabling a universal share with object store
  1. Enabling instant access with object storage
11. Disaster recovery for a universal share
12. Changing the number of vpfsd instances
13. Enabling variable-length deduplication (VLD) algorithm for universal shares
14. Upgrading to NetBackup 10.2.0.1
Configuring isolated recovery environment (IRE)
1. Requirements
2. Configuring the network isolation
3. Configuring an isolated recovery environment on a NetBackup BYO media server
4. Managing an isolated recovery environment on a NetBackup BYO media server
5. Configuring AIR for replicating backup images from production environment to IRE BYO environment
6. Configuring an isolated recovery environment on a WORM storage server
7. Managing an isolated recovery environment on a WORM storage server
8. Configuring data transmission between a production environment and an IRE WORM storage server
Using the NetBackup Deduplication Shell
1. About the NetBackup Deduplication Shell
2. Managing users from the deduplication shell
3. Managing VLAN interfaces from the deduplication shell
4. Managing the retention policy on a WORM storage server
5. Managing images with a retention lock on a WORM storage server
6. Auditing WORM retention changes
7. Protecting the NetBackup catalog from the deduplication shell
8. Managing certificates from the deduplication shell
9. Managing FIPS mode from the deduplication shell
10. Encrypting backups from the deduplication shell
11. Tuning the MSDP configuration from the deduplication shell
12. Setting the MSDP log level from the deduplication shell
13. Managing NetBackup services from the deduplication shell
14. Monitoring and troubleshooting NetBackup services from the deduplication shell
15. Managing S3 service from the deduplication shell
Troubleshooting
1. About unified logging
  1. About using the vxlogview command to view unified logs
  2. Examples of using vxlogview to view unified logs
2. About legacy logging
  1. Creating NetBackup log file directories for MSDP
3. NetBackup MSDP log files
4. Troubleshooting MSDP installation issues
  1. MSDP installation on SUSE Linux fails
5. Troubleshooting MSDP configuration issues
6. Troubleshooting MSDP operational issues
7. Viewing MSDP disk errors and events
8. MSDP event codes and messages
9. Unable to obtain the administrator password to use an AWS EC2 instance that has a Windows OS
10. Trouble shooting multi-domain issues
11. Troubleshooting the cloud compaction error messages
Appendix A. Migrating to MSDP storage
1. Migrating from another storage type to MSDP
Appendix B. Migrating from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering
1. About migration from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering
2. About Cloud Catalyst migration strategies
3. About direct migration from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering
4. About postmigration configuration and cleanup
5. About the Cloud Catalyst migration -dryrun option
6. About Cloud Catalyst migration cacontrol options
7. Reverting back to Cloud Catalyst from a successful migration
8. Reverting back to Cloud Catalyst from a failed migration
Appendix C. Encryption Crawler
1. About the Encryption Crawler
2. About the two modes of the Encryption Crawler
3. Managing the Encryption Crawler
4. Advanced options
5. Tuning options
6. Encrypting the data
7. Command usage example outputs
Index

About Cloud Catalyst migration strategies

Multiple strategies are available for migrating from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering. The best strategy for an installation depends on factors such as type of cloud storage (public versus private, standard versus cold storage class) and data retention requirements.

The following are four strategies for migrating from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering. Three of these strategies can be adopted with NetBackup 8.3 and later releases and the fourth, Direct Migration, is available in release 10.0 and later. All four strategies have advantages and disadvantages listed that you should review to help you make the best choice for your environment.

The four strategies for migrating from Cloud Catalyst to MSDP direct cloud tiering are as follows:

Natural expiration strategy - Available in NetBackup release 8.3 and later.
Image duplication strategy - Available in NetBackup release 8.3 and later.
Combination strategy - Available in NetBackup release 8.3 and later.
Direct migration strategy - Available in NetBackup release 10.0 and later.

Natural expiration strategy

This strategy works in any environment. To use this strategy, you must first configure a new NetBackup 8.3 or later MSDP direct cloud tier storage server. Or, add an MSDP direct cloud tier disk pool and storage unit to an existing NetBackup 8.3 or later MSDP storage server (verify server capacity). Next, modify the storage lifecycle policies and backup policies to use the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage. Once all new duplication or backup jobs write to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage, the images on the old Cloud Catalyst storage gradually expire. After all those images have expired, the Cloud Catalyst server can be retired or repurposed.

The advantages of the natural expiration strategy are as follows:

Available with NetBackup version 8.3 and later. This strategy gives you improved performance, reliability, usability, and flexibility available in MSDP direct cloud tier. Can be used without upgrading to NetBackup 10.0.
Can be implemented gradually using new MSDP Cloud storage servers while Cloud Catalyst storage servers continue to be used.
Can be used for all environments including public cloud cold storage (for example: AWS Glacier or AWS Glacier Deep Archive).
All new data is uploaded with the MSDP direct cloud tiering, which uses cloud storage more efficiently than Cloud Catalyst. The long-term total cloud storage usage and cost may be reduced.

The disadvantages of the natural expiration strategy are as follows:

Until all the old Cloud Catalyst images have been expired and deleted, there is some duplication of data in cloud storage. This duplication can occur between the old Cloud Catalyst images and new MSDP direct cloud tier images. Additional storage costs could be incurred if you use a public cloud environment.
Requires a separate server.
Cloud Catalyst servers must be maintained until all uploaded images from those servers have expired or are otherwise no longer needed.

Image duplication strategy

This strategy works in most environments except those using public cloud cold storage (for example: AWS Glacier or AWS Glacier Deep Archive). To use this strategy, you must first configure a new NetBackup 8.3 or later MSDP direct cloud tier storage server. Or, add an MSDP direct cloud tier disk pool and storage unit to an existing NetBackup 8.3 or later MSDP storage server (verify server capacity). Next, modify the storage lifecycle policies and backup policies to use the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage. Once all new duplication or backup jobs write to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage, existing images on the old Cloud Catalyst storage are moved. These images are moved to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage using a manually initiated bpduplicate command. After all existing images have been moved from the old Cloud Catalyst storage to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage, the Cloud Catalyst server can be retired or repurposed.

The advantages of the image duplication strategy are as follows:

Available with NetBackup version 8.3 and later. This strategy gives you improved performance, reliability, usability, and flexibility available in MSDP direct cloud tier. Can be used without upgrading to NetBackup 10.0.
Can be implemented gradually using new MSDP Cloud storage servers while Cloud Catalyst storage servers continue to be used.
All new and all old Cloud Catalyst data is uploaded with MSDP direct cloud tiering, which uses cloud storage more efficiently than Cloud Catalyst. The long-term total cloud storage usage and cost may be reduced.

The disadvantages of the image duplication strategy are as follows:

Public cloud cold storage environments (for example: AWS Glacier or AWS Glacier Deep Archive) support restore from the cloud but do not support duplication from the cloud, so this strategy cannot be used.
If public cloud storage is used, potentially significant data egress charges are incurred when old Cloud Catalyst images are read to duplicate them to the new MSDP Cloud storage.
Additional network traffic to and from the cloud occurs when the old Cloud Catalyst images are duplicated to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage.
Until all old Cloud Catalyst images have been moved to MSDP direct cloud tier storage, there is some duplication of data in cloud storage. This duplication can occur between the old Cloud Catalyst images and new MSDP direct cloud tier images. Additional costs could be incurred if you use a public cloud environment.
Requires a separate server.
Cloud Catalyst servers must be maintained until all uploaded images from those servers have been moved to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage or are otherwise no longer needed.

Combination strategy

This strategy works in most environments except those using public cloud cold storage (example: AWS Glacier or AWS Glacier Deep Archive). This strategy is a combination of the previous two strategies. To use this strategy, you must first configure a new NetBackup 8.3 or later MSDP direct cloud tier storage server. Or, add an MSDP direct cloud tier disk pool and storage unit to an existing NetBackup 8.3 or later MSDP storage server (verify server capacity). Next, modify the storage lifecycle policies and backup policies to use the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage. Once all the new duplication or backup jobs write to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage, the oldest images on the old Cloud Catalyst storage gradually expire. When the number of remaining unexpired images on the old Cloud Catalyst storage drops below a determined threshold, those remaining images are moved. These images are moved to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage using a manually initiated bpduplicate command. After all remaining images have been moved from the old Cloud Catalyst storage to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage, the Cloud Catalyst server can be retired or repurposed.

The advantages of the combination strategy are as follows:

Available with NetBackup version 8.3 and later. This strategy gives you improved performance, reliability, usability, and flexibility available in MSDP direct cloud tier. Can be used without upgrading to NetBackup 10.0.
Can be implemented gradually using new MSDP direct cloud tier storage servers while Cloud Catalyst storage servers continue to be used.
All new data and all old Cloud Catalyst data are uploaded with MSDP direct cloud tiering, which uses cloud storage more efficiently than Cloud Catalyst. The long-term total cloud storage usage and cost may be reduced.
Enables retiring of the old Cloud Catalyst servers before all images on those servers have expired.

The disadvantages of the combination strategy are as follows:

Public cloud cold storage environments (for example: AWS Glacier or AWS Glacier Deep Archive) support restore from the cloud but do not support duplication from the cloud, so this strategy cannot be used.
If public cloud storage is used, potentially significant data egress charges are incurred. This issue can happen when old Cloud Catalyst images are read to duplicate them to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage.
Additional network traffic to and from the cloud occurs when the old Cloud Catalyst images are duplicated to the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage.
Until all Cloud Catalyst images have expired or have been moved to MSDP direct cloud tier storage, there is some duplication of data in cloud storage. This duplication can occur between the old Cloud Catalyst images and new MSDP direct cloud tier images, so additional costs could be incurred if you use a public cloud environment.
Requires a separate server.
Cloud Catalyst servers must be maintained until all uploaded images from those servers have expired, have been moved to the new MSDP direct cloud tier, or are no longer needed.

Direct migration strategy

This strategy is available in NetBackup 10.0 and later releases and can work in any environment. To use this strategy, you must first configure a new MSDP direct cloud tier storage server using the latest release. Alternatively, the existing Cloud Catalyst server can be reimaged and reinstalled as a new MSDP direct cloud tier storage server using the latest release. If you use an existing server, that server must meet the minimum requirements to be used.

See About the media server deduplication (MSDP) node cloud tier.

See Planning your MSDP deployment.

Note that this operation would not be an upgrade. Instead, it would be a remove and reinstall operation. Once the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage server is available, the nbdecommission -migrate_cloudcatalyst utility is used to create a new MSDP direct cloud tier. This new storage can reference the data previously uploaded to cloud storage by Cloud Catalyst. When the migration process is complete and utility is run, the new MSDP direct cloud tier can be used for new backup and duplication operations. This new storage can be used for restore operations of older Cloud Catalyst images.

For more information about the nbdecommission command, see the NetBackup Commands Reference Guide.

The advantages of the direct migration strategy are as follows:

Can be used for all environments including public cloud cold storage (for example: AWS Glacier or AWS Glacier Deep Archive).
Does not require a separate server since the Cloud Catalyst server can be reimaged as an MSDP direct cloud tier server and used for migration.

The disadvantages of the direct migration strategy are as follows:

Cannot be implemented gradually using the new MSDP direct cloud tier storage servers while Cloud Catalyst storage servers continue to be used for new backup or duplication jobs. The old Cloud Catalyst storage server cannot be used for new backup or duplication jobs while the migration process is running.
Cloud Catalyst uses cloud storage less efficiently than MSDP direct cloud tier. This issue is especially true for NetBackup versions older than 8.2 Cloud Catalyst. This strategy continues to use existing Cloud Catalyst objects for new MSDP direct cloud tier images. Some of the cloud storage efficiency that is gained with MSDP direct cloud tier is not realized.
Requires a new MSDP server so an existing MSDP server cannot be used and consolidation of any Cloud Catalyst servers is not possible.

More Information

About beginning the direct migration