Veritas NetBackup™ Virtual Appliance Documentation

Requirement to change all factory default passwords

Starting with this release, you are required to change the default passwords for the primary appliance user accounts. For new version 4.0 appliances, the initial deployment and configuration process prompts you to change the following passwords:

For upgrades to version 4.0, the upgrade RPM preflight check and the Appliance Upgrade Readiness Analyzer both check for existing default passwords for these user accounts and recommend that you to change them.

vSphere 6.0 no longer supported

VMware vSphere version 6.0 is no longer supported.

Cloud Catalyst no longer supported

The NetBackup Virtual Appliance Cloud Catalyst is no longer supported because it has been replaced by MSDP cloud. For more information about MSDP cloud, refer to the NetBackup Deduplication Guide.

Virtual machine hardware upgraded

The virtual machine hardware has been upgraded to version 13.

Smart Meter name replaced with Veritas Usage Insights

Starting with this release (and NetBackup 9.0), the Smart Meter name has been changed to Veritas Usage Insights. All requirements regarding registration keys remain the same, and there is no impact to appliances with an existing Smart Meter key. You can access Veritas Usage Insights from the Veritas NetInsights Console, a SaaS-based unified platform with Veritas products and features. For more information, connect to the Veritas NetInsights Console at https://netInsights.veritas.com.

New NDMP Log partition

You can now create an NDMP Log partition to hold the logs that are generated when NDMP is enabled during the backup operation. The NDMP logs are saved to the system disk by default and have limited storage space. If you need additional space, you can create the NDMP log partition and move the current NDMP log data to that partition.

See Creating an NDMP log partition.

Resize or move NetBackup VxUpdate repository partition

Starting with this release, you can resize the NetBackup VxUpdate repository partition upward from its minimum size of 10 GB. The maximum size of the partition is dependent on the amount of all unallocated storage. You can resize this partition using the NetBackup Virtual Appliance Shell Menu. You can also move the NetBackup VxUpdate repository partition to any other disk volumes using the shell menu.

See Resizing a partition.

See Moving a partition.

New data encryption option for MSDP partition

Starting with this release, you can select to enable or disable encryption for the data that is stored on the MSDP partition with the following command:

Main > Settings > Deduplication > Tune MSDP_ENCRYPTION

See Settings > Deduplication.

Universal Shares support

This release introduces support of Universal Shares. The Universal Share feature provides data ingest into NetBackup Virtual Appliance using an NFS or a CIFS (SMB) share. Space efficiency is achieved by storing this data directly into an existing NetBackup-based deduplication pool. You can configure and manage the Universal Share from NetBackup.

See About Universal Shares.

New shell menu location for PasswordExpiry command

Starting with this release, the PasswordExpiry command option has been moved from the Main > Manage > NetBackupCLI menu to the Main > Settings > Security > Authentication > LocalUser menu. This change provides for one location to configure the PasswordExpiry for all local users, including NetBackupCLI users.

See Settings > Security > Authentication > LocalUser.

New DataCollect commands

Starting with this release, the DataCollect command set has been expanded to gather more information and to help you manage all of the collected logs. The new commands include options that let you do the following:

See Support > DataCollect.

NFSv4 support

Starting with this release, NetBackup Virtual Appliance supports NFSv4 from the appliance server side. All shares exported by the appliance can be mounted using NFSv4, including system shares and backup shares such as Universal shares and Copilot shares.

New command to manage access to general CIFS shares

NetBackup Virtual Appliance uses general CIFS shares for some of its internal operations such as storing patches and installation files, uploading logs to support, forwarding logs to an external server, and uploading OST plug-ins.

Starting with this release, you must manage access to the general CIFS shares for all local users and Active Directory users and user groups (except the admin user). Use the Settings > Security > Authentication > CIFSShare command to manage access to the general CIFS shares.

See Main > Settings > Security > Authentication > CIFSShare.

Guest and local user access to Universal Shares

Starting with this release, after the upgrade has completed, Guest users and existing local users cannot access a Universal Share or CIFS shares. After the upgrade, you can grant access to these shares as follows:

New commands for setting appliance security level

Starting with this release, you can set the security level on NetBackup Virtual Appliance to restrict user access to the appliance operating system (VxOS). When the security level is set to High, the following restrictions are enforced in the appliance shell menu:

See Main > Settings > Security > SecurityLevel.

New command to download upgrade analyzer tool

Starting with this release, you can use the following command in the appliance shell menu to download the Appliance Upgrade Readiness Analyzer:

Main > Manage > Software > DownloadAnalyzer

See Manage > Software > DownloadAnalyzer.

SNMP V3 support

Starting with this release, NetBackup Virtual Appliance supports SNMP V3, which provides the ability to enable authentication and encryption security features for SNMP users.

See Setting up SNMP notifications for a NetBackup Virtual Appliance.

Restriction for retaining data when performing a factory reset

If you upgrade to version 4.0 from versions 3.1 through 3.3.0.1, you cannot perform a factory reset (Main > Support > FactoryReset) and retain the backup data. The backup data cannot be retained because the data format was updated during a previous upgrade. The new data format cannot be reverted and the older software versions cannot recognize the new data format. Therefore, the software version still reverts back to an older version, but all of the data will be removed.

New command to view certificate used on appliance

Starting with this release, you can use the following command to view the Certificate Authority (CA) that is currently in use on an appliance:

Main > Settings > NetBackup > CertificateUsage Show

See Settings > NetBackup.

Command option name change for STIG

Starting with this release, the Show option for the Main > Settings > Security > STIG command has been changed to Status (Main > Settings > Security > STIG Status).

See Main > Settings > Security > STIG.

New commands for Instant Access

Starting with the 3.3.0.1 release, you can decrease or restore the operational level of Instant Access and check its current status. You should decrease the operational level only if necessary to help reduce the amount of time to upgrade appliance software. The commands are located in the Main > Support > InstantAccess view.

See Support > InstantAccess.