NetBackup™ Snapshot Manager Install and Upgrade Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (10.1)
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      About the deployment approach
    2.  
      Deciding where to run Snapshot Manager
    3.  
      About deploying Snapshot Manager in the cloud
  2. Section I. NetBackup Snapshot Manager installation and configuration
    1. Preparing for NetBackup Snapshot Manager installation
      1.  
        Meeting system requirements
      2.  
        Snapshot Manager host sizing recommendations
      3.  
        Snapshot Manager extension sizing recommendations
      4.  
        Creating an instance or preparing the host to install Snapshot Manager
      5.  
        Installing container platform (Docker, Podman)
      6.  
        Creating and mounting a volume to store Snapshot Manager data
      7.  
        Verifying that specific ports are open on the instance or physical host
      8.  
        Preparing Snapshot Manager for backup from snapshot jobs
    2. Deploying NetBackup Snapshot Manager using container images
      1.  
        Before you begin installing Snapshot Manager
      2.  
        Installing Snapshot Manager in the Docker/Podman environment
      3.  
        Verifying that Snapshot Manager is installed successfully
      4.  
        Restarting Snapshot Manager
    3. Deploying NetBackup Snapshot Manager extensions
      1.  
        Before you begin installing Snapshot Manager extensions
      2.  
        Downloading the Snapshot Manager extension
      3. Installing the Snapshot Manager extension on a VM
        1.  
          Prerequisites to install the extension on VM
        2.  
          Installing the extension on a VM
      4. Installing the Snapshot Manager extension on a managed Kubernetes cluster (AKS) in Azure
        1.  
          Prerequisites to install the extension on a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure
        2.  
          Installing the extension on Azure (AKS)
      5. Installing the Snapshot Manager extension on a managed Kubernetes cluster (EKS) in AWS
        1.  
          Prerequisites to install the extension on a managed Kubernetes cluster in AWS
        2. Installing the extension on AWS (EKS)
          1.  
            Install extension using the extension script
      6. Installing the Snapshot Manager extension on a managed Kubernetes cluster (GKE) in GCP
        1.  
          Prerequisites to install the extension on a managed Kubernetes cluster in GCP
        2.  
          Installing the extension on GCP (GKE)
      7.  
        Install extension using the Kustomize and CR YAMLs
      8.  
        Managing the extensions
    4. NetBackup Snapshot Manager cloud plug-ins
      1.  
        How to configure the Snapshot Manager cloud plug-ins?
      2. AWS plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Prerequisites for configuring the AWS plug-in
        2.  
          Configuring AWS permissions for Snapshot Manager
        3.  
          AWS permissions required by Snapshot Manager
        4.  
          Before you create a cross account configuration
      3. Google Cloud Platform plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Google Cloud Platform permissions required by Snapshot Manager
        2.  
          Configuring a GCP service account for Snapshot Manager
        3.  
          Preparing the GCP service account for plug-in configuration
      4. Microsoft Azure plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Configuring permissions on Microsoft Azure
        2.  
          About Azure snapshots
      5. Microsoft Azure Stack Hub plug-in configuration notes
        1.  
          Configuring permissions on Microsoft Azure Stack Hub
        2.  
          Configuring staging location for Azure Stack Hub VMs to restore from backup
    5. NetBackup Snapshot Manager application agents and plug-ins
      1.  
        About the installation and configuration process
      2. Installing and configuring Snapshot Manager agent
        1.  
          Downloading and installing the Snapshot Manager agent
        2. Linux-based agent
          1.  
            Preparing to install the Linux-based agent
          2.  
            Registering the Linux-based agent
        3. Windows-based agent
          1.  
            Preparing to install the Windows-based agent
          2.  
            Registering the Windows-based agent
      3. Configuring the Snapshot Manager application plug-in
        1.  
          Configuring an application plug-in
        2. Microsoft SQL plug-in
          1.  
            Microsoft SQL plug-in configuration requirements
          2.  
            Restore requirements and limitations for Microsoft SQL Server
          3.  
            Steps required before restoring SQL AG databases
          4.  
            Additional steps required after restoring SQL AG databases
          5. Additional steps required after a SQL Server instance snapshot restore
            1.  
              Steps required after a SQL Server host-level restore
            2.  
              Steps required after a SQL Server instance disk-level snapshot restore to new location
        3. Oracle plug-in
          1. Oracle plug-in configuration requirements
            1.  
              Optimizing your Oracle database data and metadata files
          2.  
            Restore requirements and limitations for Oracle
          3.  
            Additional steps required after an Oracle snapshot restore
      4. NetBackup protection plan
        1.  
          Creating a NetBackup protection plan for cloud assets
        2.  
          Subscribing cloud assets to a NetBackup protection plan
      5.  
        Configuring VSS to store shadow copies on the originating drive
      6.  
        Additional steps required after restoring an AWS RDS database instance
    6. Protecting assets with NetBackup Snapshot Manager's agentless feature
      1.  
        About the agentless feature
      2. Prerequisites for the agentless configuration
        1.  
          Configuring SMB for Windows (Optional)
        2.  
          Configuring WMI security for Windows (optional)
      3.  
        Configuring the agentless feature
      4.  
        Configuring the agentless feature after upgrading Snapshot Manager
    7. Volume Encryption in NetBackup Snapshot Manager
      1.  
        About volume encryption support in Snapshot Manager
      2.  
        Volume encryption for Azure
      3.  
        Volume encryption for GCP
      4.  
        Volume encryption for AWS
    8. NetBackup Snapshot Manager security
      1.  
        Configuring security for Azure Stack
      2.  
        Configuring the cloud connector for Azure Stack
      3.  
        CA configuration for Azure Stack
      4.  
        Securing the connection to Snapshot Manager
  3. Section II. NetBackup Snapshot Manager maintenance
    1. NetBackup Snapshot Manager logging
      1.  
        About Snapshot Manager logging mechanism
      2. How Fluentd-based Snapshot Manager logging works
        1.  
          About the Snapshot Manager fluentd configuration file
        2.  
          Modifying the fluentd configuration file
      3.  
        Snapshot Manager logs
      4.  
        Agentless logs
      5.  
        Troubleshooting Snapshot Manager logging
    2. Upgrading NetBackup Snapshot Manager
      1.  
        About Snapshot Manager upgrades
      2.  
        Supported upgrade path
      3.  
        Upgrade scenarios
      4.  
        Preparing to upgrade Snapshot Manager
      5.  
        Upgrading Snapshot Manager
      6.  
        Upgrading Snapshot Manager using patch or hotfix
      7. Migrating and upgrading Snapshot Manager
        1.  
          Before you begin migrating Snapshot Manager
        2.  
          Migrate and upgrade Snapshot Manager on RHEL 8.6 or 8.4
      8. Post-upgrade tasks
        1.  
          Upgrading Snapshot Manager extensions
      9.  
        Post-migration tasks
    3. Uninstalling NetBackup Snapshot Manager
      1.  
        Preparing to uninstall Snapshot Manager
      2.  
        Backing up Snapshot Manager
      3.  
        Unconfiguring Snapshot Manager plug-ins
      4.  
        Unconfiguring Snapshot Manager agents
      5.  
        Removing the Snapshot Manager agents
      6.  
        Removing Snapshot Manager from a standalone Docker host environment
      7.  
        Removing Snapshot Manager extensions - VM-based or managed Kubernetes cluster-based
      8.  
        Restoring Snapshot Manager
    4. Troubleshooting NetBackup Snapshot Manager
      1.  
        Troubleshooting Snapshot Manager
      2.  
        SQL snapshot or restore and granular restore operations fail if the Windows instance loses connectivity with the Snapshot Manager host
      3.  
        Disk-level snapshot restore fails if the original disk is detached from the instance
      4.  
        Discovery is not working even after assigning system managed identity to the control node pool
      5.  
        Performance issue with GCP backup from snapshot
      6.  
        Post migration on host agents fail with an error message
      7.  
        File restore job fails with an error message

Meeting system requirements

Snapshot Manager host requirements

The host on which you install Snapshot Manager must meet the following requirements.

See Snapshot Manager host sizing recommendations.

Table: Operating system, processor and package requirements for Snapshot Manager host

Category

Requirement

Operating system

  • Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 Server LTS

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.6, 8.4 and 7.x

    Note:

    Snapshot Manager deployment for RHEL 8.6 and 8.4 over IPV6 is not supported.

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 SP2

Processor architecture

x86_64 /64-bit processors

Packages on Snapshot Manager host

Following are the operating system specific respective required packages to be installed on Snapshot Manager host:

  • Ubuntu: lvm2, udev

  • SUSE: lvm2, udev

  • RHEL 7: lvm2, systemd

  • RHEL 8: podman-plugins, lvm2, systemd-udev

Table: System requirements for the Snapshot Manager host

Host on which Snapshot Manager is installed

Requirements

Amazon Web Services (AWS) instance

  • Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance type: t3.large

  • vCPUs: 2

  • RAM: 8 GB

  • Root disk: 64 GB with a solid-state drive (GP2)

  • Data volume: 50 GB Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume of type GP2 with encryption for the snapshot asset database; use this as a starting value and expand your storage as needed.

Microsoft Azure VM

  • Virtual machine type: D2s_V3 Standard

  • CPU cores: 2

  • RAM: 8 GB

  • Root disk: 64 GB SSD

  • Data volume: 50 GB Premium SSD for the snapshot asset database; storage account type Premium_LRS; set Host Caching to Read/Write.

Ensure that do the following before you deploy Snapshot Manager on an RHEL instance in the Azure cloud:

  • Register the RHEL instance with Red Hat using Red Hat Subscription Manager

  • Extend the default LVM partitions on the RHEL instance so that they fulfil the minimum disk space requirement

Microsoft Azure Stack Hub VM

  • Virtual machine types:

    • DS2_v2 Standard - CPU cores 2, RAM 7 GB

    • DS3_v2 Standard - CPU cores 4, RAM 14 GB

  • Root disk: 64 GB SSD

  • Data volume: 50 GB Premium SSD for the snapshot asset database; storage account type Premium_LRS; set Host Caching to Read/Write.

Ensure that do the following before you deploy Snapshot Manager on an RHEL instance in the Azure Stack Hub cloud:

  • Register the RHEL instance with Red Hat using Red Hat Subscription Manager

  • Extend the default LVM partitions on the RHEL instance so that they fulfil the minimum disk space requirement

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) VM

  • Virtual machine type: n2-standard-4

  • vCPUs: 2

  • RAM: 16 GB

  • Boot disk: 64 GB standard persistent disk

  • Data volume: 50 GB SSD persistent disk for the snapshot asset database with automatic encryption

    Note:

    To support LVM indexing, ensure that the Multipath service is disabled on Snapshot Manager host.

VMware VM

  • Virtual machine type: 64-bit with a Snapshot Manager supported operating system

  • vCPUs: 8

  • RAM: 16 GB or more

  • Root disk: 64 GB with a standard persistent disk

  • Data volume: 50 GB for the snapshot asset database

Physical host

(x86_64 / AMD64)

  • Operating system: A 64-bit Snapshot Manager supported operating system

  • CPUs: x86_64 (64-bit), single-socket, multi-core, with at least 8 CPU count

  • RAM: 16 GB or more

  • Boot disk: 64 GB

  • Data volume: 50 GB for the snapshot asset database

Note:

NetBackup Snapshot Manager is not fully FIPS compliant.

Disk space requirements

Snapshot Manager uses the following file systems on the host to store all the container images and files during installation:

  • / (root file system)

  • /var

The /var file system is further used for container runtimes. Ensure that the host on which you install or upgrade Snapshot Manager has sufficient space for the following components.

Table: Space considerations for Snapshot Manager components

Component

Space requirements

Snapshot Manager containers

30 GB free space

Snapshot Manager agents and plug-ins

350 MB free space, for every Snapshot Manager plug-in and agent configured

Additionally, Snapshot Manager also requires a separate volume for storing Snapshot Manager data. Ensure that you create and mount this volume to /cloudpoint on the Snapshot Manager host.

Table: Space consideration for Snapshot Manager data volume

Volume mount path

Size

/cloudpoint

50 GB or more

See Snapshot Manager host sizing recommendations.

Applications, operating systems, and cloud platforms supported by Snapshot Manager agents and plug-ins

Snapshot Manager supports the following applications, operating systems and cloud platforms.

These assets are supported irrespective of how you configure Snapshot Manager, whether using the Snapshot Manager cloud agents and plug-ins (earlier known as off-host plug-ins), or using the Snapshot Manager application configuration plug-ins (earlier known as on-host plug-ins), or using the Snapshot Manager agentless feature.

Table: Supported applications, operating systems, and cloud platforms

Category

Support

Applications

  • File systems

    • Linux native file systems: ext3, ext4, and XFS

    • Microsoft Windows: NTFS

  • Microsoft SQL 2014, SQL 2016, SQL 2017, SQL 2019

Operating systems on supported assets

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.6 and 8.4

  • Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 and 2022

Note:

Snapshot Manager agents are not supported on non-English operating systems.

Cloud platforms

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a t2.large or a higher specification AWS instance type. Snapshot Manager currently does not support applications that are running on t2.medium or a lower instance type.

    The t2 series instances are supported only if the device naming conventions recommended by AWS are followed.

    For more details, refer to the following links:

    For protecting Microsoft Windows-based applications, use t2.xlarge or t3.xlarge or a higher specification instance type.

    For more information on the required permissions for configuring AWS, refer to the following link:

    See AWS permissions required by Snapshot Manager.

  • Microsoft Azure

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a D2s_V3 Standard or a higher specification Azure virtual machine type.

    For protecting Microsoft Windows-based applications, use B4ms or D4s_V3 or a higher specification virtual machine.

    Note:

    The Snapshot Manager Azure plug-in supports disks of type Premium_LRS, Standard_LRS, and StandardSSD_LRS.

    All other disk types are defaulted to Standard_LRS during snapshot restore operations.

    For more information on the required permissions for configuring Azure, refer to the following link:

    See Configuring permissions on Microsoft Azure.

  • Microsoft Azure Stack Hub (2008 and later)

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a DS2_v2 Standard or a higher specification Azure Stack Hub virtual machine type. For more information, see VM sizes supported in Azure Stack Hub.

    Note:

    The Snapshot Manager Azure Stack Hub plug-in supports disks of type Premium_LRS, Standard_LRS, and StandardSSD_LRS.

    All other disk types are defaulted to Standard_LRS during snapshot restore operations.

    For more information on the required permissions for configuring Microsoft Azure Stack, refer to the following link:

    See Configuring permissions on Microsoft Azure Stack Hub.

  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

    If you wish to protect applications, the applications must be hosted on a n2-standard-4 or a higher specification GCP virtual machine type.

    For more information on the required permissions for configuring Google cloud platform, refer to the following link:

    See Google Cloud Platform permissions required by Snapshot Manager.

Snapshot Manager time zone

Ensure that the time zone settings on the host where you wish to deploy Snapshot Manager are as per your requirement and synchronized with a public NTP server.

By default, Snapshot Manager uses the time zone that is set on the host where you install Snapshot Manager. The timestamp for all the entries in the logs are as per the clock settings of the host machine.

Proxy server requirements

If the instance on which you are deploying Snapshot Manager is behind a proxy server, that is, if the Snapshot Manager instance connects to the internet using a proxy server, you must specify the proxy server details during the Snapshot Manager installation. The Snapshot Manager installer stores the proxy server information in a set of environment variables that are specific for the Snapshot Manager containers.

The following table displays the environment variables and the proxy server information that you must provide to the Snapshot Manager installer. Make sure you keep this information ready; you are required to provide these details during Snapshot Manager installation.

Table: Proxy server details required by Snapshot Manager

Environment variables created by Snapshot Manager installer

Description

VX_HTTP_PROXY

Contains the HTTP proxy value to be used for all connections. For example, "http://proxy.mycompany.com:8080/".

VX_HTTPS_PROXY

Contains the HTTP proxy value to be used for all connections. For example, "http://proxy.mycompany.com:8080/".

VX_NO_PROXY

Contains the hosts that are allowed to bypass the proxy server. For example, "localhost,mycompany.com,192.168.0.10:80".

Snapshot Manager services that need to communicate externally via a proxy server use these predefined environment variables that are set during the Snapshot Manager installation.