Slow performance when upgrading to NetBackup 8.1 or NetBackup Appliance 3.1 with MSDP storage

Problem

Veritas has noted a potential degradation in performance in some environments when upgrading to NetBackup 8.1/NetBackup Appliance 3.1 during the MSDP pool conversion from MD-5 to SHA-2 hashes.  The performance impact is due to the required changes in the fingerprint algorithm for MSDP in NetBackup 8.1.  The fingerprinting was changed to SHA-2 for improved protection against security vulnerabilities.  

The situation can impact any NetBackup 8.0 and older host attempting to access to the NetBackup 8.1 MSDP storage server pool undergoing fingerprint algorithm conversion.  The result is that there may be failed NetBackup jobs.    Additionally, if you use client direct, the client must be upgraded to 8.1 or you can experience client direct restore errors. These failures are because the 8.0 and older hosts cannot access the 8.1 MSDP storage server.

Error Message

Cause

Solution

Veritas recommends the following mandatory steps be followed if you have multiple media servers as part of an MSDP environment:

• Upgrade all MSDP media servers that share access rights to each other together. Also Upgrade all clients that use client direct to these MSDP disk pools.  
This option insures there are no interruptions in your environment.

• Upgrade MSDP media servers and clients using client direct as your environment allows and make no configuration changes.
If the selected common media server is not a NetBackup 8.1 server, the risk is restores, verifies, imports, and optimized duplication may fail. If client direct is used on older clients, you can experience client direct restore errors. This failure is because of the algorithm change.

• Upgrade MSDP media servers and clients using client direct as your environment allows. Modify your list of credentialed media servers for the upgraded storage servers to only include NetBackup 8.1 servers.

• This action effectively revokes access rights for the non-upgraded servers to the upgraded servers. The risk is previously configured operations may stop working because of the access change. If you choose this option, you should make detailed notes about the configuration changes so you can revert those changes once all media servers are upgraded.

If duplication jobs copy from an 8.1 MSDP to an 8.0 or older MSDP, then create a storage unit for the older MSDP. Restrict the Media Servers list on that new storage unit to the 8.1 host. You must change any storage lifecycle policy (SLP) controlled duplication jobs if they copy from an 8.0 or older MSDP host to an 8.1 MSDP host. Set the Alternate Read Server on the duplication stage to the 8.1 media server.