Veritas NetBackup™ in Highly Available Environments Administrator's Guide

Master server considerations

Veritas does not recommend operating a master server as a combined master and media server. If the storage devices available at the different sites are not compatible, it can lead to problems with storage unit definitions and backup failures.

Catalog replication is not a substitute for catalog backup and the catalog must be backed up on a regular basis.

Networking considerations

In a multi-site single domain configuration, the master server controls the media servers on both the sites. The metadata must pass between the sites. This metadata traffic is sent over a standard I/P link between the sites. The same link can be used as the heartbeat link for the global cluster control. Veritas recommends that a link of at least 10 Mb/sec and ideally 100 Mb/sec must be provided between the sites to handle this traffic.

If host-based replication is used, additional I/P bandwidth is required for the replication layer. The additional bandwidth must also be factored in.

DNS considerations

If the master server nodes at the secondary site are on a different subnet from the master server nodes at the primary site, a DNS change is required as part of the failover process. You can initiate the DNS change automatically by using the cluster failover process. You can also initiate the process manually. The backup system does not function correctly until the change is fully propagated, which can affect the recovery time in a site failover.

Primary and secondary master servers considerations

In order to perform a failover when using catalog replication the primary and secondary master servers must use the same topology.

The primary and secondary site master server nodes must both be either clustered or non-clustered.

For additional details refer http://www.veritas.com/docs/000090837.