Enterprise Vault File System Archiving (FSA) support for CIFS compliant NAS devices

Problem

Initially, when File System Archiving (FSA) was first developed, the intention was to provide an archiving solution that is able to support any CIFS compliant devices.  Due to market demand, only platforms for which certification has been requested were fully tested and certified against EV functional code.

Currently, Windows file servers, Network Appliance Data ONTAP Filers / VServers and Dell EMC Celerra / VNX NAS Devices are fully supported as CIFS servers when Placeholder Shortcuts are required. These devices require specific API calls, which allow EV to identify the device and process the requests to create Placeholders for the respective archived items.

Other CIFS compliant NAS devices are supported but, where shortcuts are required, only Internet Shortcuts can be created on these additional platforms.

Different CIFS complaint platform targets can be added as File Server Targets within the Vault Administration Console, however, some environments may cause Enterprise Vault to incorrectly identify the device as a Windows server, or fail to identify the platform type, which results in subsequent errors when attempting to add the File Server target or a Volume for archiving (Figure 1).


Figure 1
 
 

Product code adjustments have been made over previous versions to add platform specific validation routines. 

The Enterprise Vault PowerShell Cmdlets can also be used to add a File Server Target where the parameter -Type may be used to specify the FileServerType.

The Enterprise Vault PowerShell Cmdlets documentation provides the descriptive values for each supported File Server type, however, when adding a NAS CIFS Server as a target it is necessary to use the parameter  -Type OtherCIFSFileServer.

Error Message

Failed to save or update details for volume %1%.
Could not add the volume to the list of managed resources.
Not enough storage is available to process this command.

Solution

Currently, it is possible to add targets for File Server Archiving using CIFS compliant file server platforms other than NetApp Filer and Dell EMC Celerra / VNX by following the steps described below. It is important to note that only Internet Shortcuts are supported for these additional CIFS compliant file server platforms, therefore Placeholders cannot be created on such devices. 

Please contact Veritas Technical Support for assistance when making changes to the Enterprise Vault database references.

Note:  It is recommended to backup the EnterpriseVaultDirectory database and have the EV Services in a stopped state prior to making the modifications in SQL

1. Add the CIFS compliant File Server in the EV Vault Administration Console (VAC)
2. Open SQL Server Management Studio where the EnterpriseVaultDirectory database is located
3. In SQL Server Management Studio locate the FileServerEntry table [SQL server-->Databases-->EnterpriseVaultDirectory-->Tables-->dbo.FileServerEntry]
4. Right-click the dbo.FileServerEntry table, select 'Edit Top 200 Rows', find the entry for the File Server added in step 1 and look for the column FileSeverType
5. Change the Value of the FileSeverType to 5 in the table for the corresponding CIFS File Server added in Step 1.
6. From the EV VAC add the Volume target and any required Folder targets creating the necessary Archive Point.

If it is not possible to add the CIFS target via the VAC, use the Enterprise Vault Management Shell to execute the required PowerShell Cmdlets. The -Type parameter needs to be included with the value 'OtherCIFSFileServer'.

When adding the target CIFS server using the parameter 'OtherCIFSFileServer', please follow the steps listed above to modify the FileServerType setting it with a value of '5'.

Note: Veritas is unable to explicitly test all CIFS NAS devices. Not all CIFS devices are CIFS compliant. In the event of any unexpected issues the NAS vendor should be contacted to ensure they offer a fully CIFS compliant device.